I’ve completed another challenge. Hosted by Sharon at ExLibris, The Russian Reading Challenge caught my attention as soon as it was announced way back in August or September. For this one, we had to read 4 books but the rules were quite flexible.
Both fiction and non-fiction are acceptable here, as well as short stories and poetry. Authors read should either be authors who wrote (write) in Russian or authors who wrote (write) about Russia and Russians.
I read these 4 books:
Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak because it’s a classic that I’d never read (nor have I seen any movie version). I thoroughly enjoyed it. A great wintertime read.
Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie because it’s been on my shelf for years unread. It’s a huge book, but he was a huge man (both literally and figuratively). A fascinating story not only of Peter, but also of the world at the time he ruled
The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin because I wanted to read a contemporary Russian author. It was different, but yet had a definite classic Russian writing feel to it. I might read more by this author
The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky because I wanted to read some short stories for the challenge. This was a novella and 4 short stories. Worth the effort it took to read, even though short stories are not my favorite genre.
They were all quite different and so it’s really hard to say what I liked best. They all had their merits and I’m glad I read all of them.
Big thanks to Sharon for giving me a reason to read a couple that have been on my bookshelf or TBR shelf for years (Peter the Great and Dr. Zhivago) and to also expand my horizons a bit with Akunin and Dostoevsky’s short works.
Both fiction and non-fiction are acceptable here, as well as short stories and poetry. Authors read should either be authors who wrote (write) in Russian or authors who wrote (write) about Russia and Russians.
I read these 4 books:
Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak because it’s a classic that I’d never read (nor have I seen any movie version). I thoroughly enjoyed it. A great wintertime read.
Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie because it’s been on my shelf for years unread. It’s a huge book, but he was a huge man (both literally and figuratively). A fascinating story not only of Peter, but also of the world at the time he ruled
The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin because I wanted to read a contemporary Russian author. It was different, but yet had a definite classic Russian writing feel to it. I might read more by this author
The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky because I wanted to read some short stories for the challenge. This was a novella and 4 short stories. Worth the effort it took to read, even though short stories are not my favorite genre.
They were all quite different and so it’s really hard to say what I liked best. They all had their merits and I’m glad I read all of them.
Big thanks to Sharon for giving me a reason to read a couple that have been on my bookshelf or TBR shelf for years (Peter the Great and Dr. Zhivago) and to also expand my horizons a bit with Akunin and Dostoevsky’s short works.
