Focault's Pendulum

I loved the Name of the Rose.  Such a great movie and a really interesting book.  Based on that I decided I had to read Focault's Pendulum.  I tried about 17 years ago and gave up.  The book just would not engage me.

I finally picked it up again and decided to read the bloody thing.  The book is about all things exciting, Templars, Illuminati, Secrets, Hitler.  I don't know how Eco can make it so boring.  About half way through the book I got really kind of upset that three men could stand around in an office all day talking about bullshit and get paid for it.

Oh well, off to something better.

Anna Karenina - Spoilers Ahead

So the second to last book I read was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.  The book was actually a bit of a struggle to read and took me quite a while.  I chalk this up to the fact that it is quite long and written in a bit of a dry style.

I won't go into the book a huge amount but a couple of things struck me.  I read that the book contrasted the unfaithfulness of Anna with the unwavering devotion of Levin.  Truthfully, I just didn't see that.  Levin was devoted to Kitty, to be sure, and he did not give in to the favors of Anna like Vronsky did, however, I saw Levin as more of an intellectual who prized and learned to respect his wife, and Anna as a creature of romance and passion.

I was also quite amazed at Tolstoy's ability to craft the realism that he did at the end.  Anna's increasing fits and lunacy started to really have an effect on me.