The Dusty Bookshelf discussion

So I've just started this. Is anybody else currently reading it? I'd love some moral support as even though I've read Crime and Punishment, this book still terrifies me.

Yeesh, good luck to you, I still have to face down Crime & Punishment!

Come on people, there must be someone here who wants to buddy read with the lovely Fatin :D

I'll offer my tea making skills...a nd this may encourage me to start C&P :S

It's on my Someday list, but I won't be reading it soon. Too far behind on my other challenges. Sorry!

I would, but I have just started Moby Dick (another whale of a book), and I don't think I can juggle both...

It's all right :)
My Russian group has chosen this for the March/April months so I'm good to go.
Thank you all. The book's going great, pick it up some time. :)

I really enjoyed it when I read it for school a few years back, have fun!

I'm glad you found some people to read it with Fatin :) Enjoy!

I just read it for a different group, so I don't mind discussing it with you. I'll warn you, though...it was rough going and I never intend to pick it up again! Glad I have it checked off, but my life isn't much impacted for having read it.

Kat, Catherine, and Hayley, I'd like to discuss this with Alana, so be warned about spoilers. Maybe you should unfollow this thread until you've read the book?

Alana, really? I'm halfway through it and I have to say, it has a lot of interesting views on things, particularly religion. I don't really like the Christianity part, because I feel a little left out, but the image of God in Islam and Christianity is pretty similar so when they start towards God, I can relate to that, and I find Ivan's opinions quite interesting.
I did not enjoy reading about the elder at all. He annoyed me.
I've just started book 8, Mitya.

Different people in the classics group felt very differently about it. Some really enjoyed it, others, like me, not so much. The actual storyline was great, I loved the mystery aspects, etc. But some of the theology and philosophy got very bogged down after awhile, at least in my opinion. Different people have different styles, though, so don't assume just because I didn't like it that you won't.

No, of course, I'm not assuming that. It's just interesting because not a lot of people would say they didn't LOVE BK haha. I'm only half way through the book, but I already find it extraordinary.
Although, I've heard the book is very famous for the Grand Inquisitor chapter, and I found the ones preceding it to be so much better.
And I love the characters! I'm not one for the sweet, innocent, lovable ones, but I adore Alyosha! And I have this huge crush on Ivan :p
I'm a little angry though because I opened sparknotes to review the chapters on the elder, only to find out that Smerdyakov kills Fyodor. Like wth man. I'm so pissed about it. I was only reading the summary ugh.
Have you read anything else by Dostoevsky?
I've read Crime and Punishment, and I feel there's a lot of difference in the tone of the two books. This one is a lot happier, that one was all srs and sad.

Sorry if this is all a little incoherent!

Yes, I like sparknotes a lot, but they are all written by different people, and many don't seem to understand the concept of a "spoiler" which is quite frustrating, esp in a novel like this one where you're not supposed to know who killed him until the end.

I haven't read anything else by him, but I have heard that many of the people that didn't like BK really enjoyed Crime and Punishment, etc, so I may like it a lot. I'm not up for a mountain of a read like that just yet, though, have read too many of them recently.