For years I've been saying I should read Don Quixote. It's on so many classics lists, on so many list of must reads.
I finally started it a few weeks back.
131 pages of densely-packed small type in, I gave up - for now.
When I read a book of that length - this particular edition is 891 pages long - I need either a character or characters in whom I am really interested, or a really gripping plot.
I have not warmed up to either Don Quixote or Sancho. I just don't care what happens to them at this point.
As for the plot, this book just rambles, sort of like Don Quixote himself.
Oh, I understand it's a significant book because it's one of the first (if not the first) novel. And I understand Cervantes is making all sort of comic digs at courtly romance literature and Spanish society.
But I'm not a fan of courtly romances, and I'm not Spanish. Having to constantly check footnotes because of his allusions to Spanish history and individuals, tropes of courtly romances, and citations of "famous" titles and epics of his time does not help.
So I'm putting it back on the bookshelf for now. I will likely tilt at its windmills again at some point, but I've turned to other works already. For example, I just reread Out of the Silent.Planet by C.S. Lewis, a book I read 40 plus years ago, and I completely enjoyed it. And finished it.
Pax et bonum
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