Book 9: Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Start Date: February 2, 2012
End Date: October 23, 2012

I take it back that Wuthering Heights was the hardest book I've ever read. This takes the cake by 10. It took almost 9 months. I did take breaks in between to read other books, but oh em gee I'm so happy I'm done with this book. I'm very happy I stuck with it and finished it.

I read this book on my Kindle, and thank goodness because otherwise I probably would have carpel tunnel  by now. Apparently this book is around 1488 pages completely unabridged, and I read the kindle abridged version which was about 1000 pages. I'm not a history buff, as a matter a fact I hated history, so when he would go off on tangents about the battle of Waterloo or the politics of France at that time, I hated it, I would fall asleep, and I learned to skip over. (Apparently the version I read cut out an even lengthier version of the waterloo.) It made reading go by a LOT quicker. And to those people who says "don't skip those parts!" must have a lot of time on their hands and/or love french history. Those parts had nothing to do with the story itself. Maybe Hugo should've written 2 books. One regarding the actual story, and one regarding his political agenda.

Anyway, this story was very depressing and happy at the same time. The era in which it was written I can in no way relate to.  I'm ecstatic Cosette and Marius end up together rich and happy with all their families blessings. Sad Jean Valjean dies, but happy he got to see Marius and Cossette one last time and that Marius ended up learning the whole truth. Annoyed the whole barricade revolution scene took as long as it did. I hate that Thenardier got to go off to America and not die some horrible tragic death for the horrible person that he was. I was sad that Javert killed himself after he let Valjean go. Overall great book, and I can't wait to watch the movies/plays that incorporate so many of the great songs I would listen to at times to keep me motivated to continue on reading. I'll definitely be taking a long break before starting my next book, and even then the next book with be a light easy fun one.