Blake Snow

writer-for-hire, content guy, bestselling author

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Tagged Count of Monte Cristo

Why I quit reading Anna Karenina, one the most beautiful books ever written

Courtesy Focus Features

I did it again. I came oh-so-close to finishing a really long and critically-acclaimed literary classic before quitting it after three quarters completion.

I first did this 10 years ago with the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo, a book by the masterful Alexander Dumas that features some of the most beautiful, if not poetic, prose I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

I did it again this spring with Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina—an even more powerful book—which is widely regarded as the greatest novel ever written. So why did I abandon it after 640 pages out of 864 total?  Continue reading…