2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

This is a challenging but rewarding read. It takes place in 1327 in a Benedictine monastery, where Brother William and his assistant, Adso arrive to host a meeting between church factions, and find themselves solving a murder mystery centered on the library. Ponderous and dense, thought provoking, overwhelming and delighting with details, trying to get into a medieval monk's superstitious mind while providing the voice of reason by Brother William. This is not a book that can be explained - it is an experience.

Hi Kirin! I have not seen the movie, but I want to see it. I don't know what is in the movie. My guess is that it concentrates on the mystery part - which the book does not. There are lots of philosophical arguments, descriptions, musings about the meanings of things like heresy, god and devil, love, passion, gems, and mostly, books of antiquity and medieval times. I don't think you can put those into a movie well. As far as the size - it is about 500 pages, but it is dense, sometimes difficult to read and often like a stream of consciousness. Reading it is a commitment.

I liked this book, too! I read it for the place you want to visit week. I haven't seen the movie yet, either.

I tried to read this years ago. My memory of it is that there were long passages of Latin which of course I can't understand and I think I remember a description of a carved door that literally went on for three pages. But with the positive remarks here, I've added it to my TBR list. Time to give it another shot?

Jean, those things are in the book and you kind of have to get used to them. I almost quit because of it, too! I struggled and was only committed around page 200 - at that point I realized that if you accept that you don't understand everything, you kind of get what the book is trying to say... and I just rolled with it and started to like it. Also, the pace switches - slow, then fast, slow again, and the end is rather action packed.

Marta wrote: "Jean, those things are in the book and you kind of have to get used to them. I almost quit because of it, too! I struggled and was only committed around page 200 - at that point I realized that if ..."
Thanks, Marta! I will give it another shot. It's one of those books that's on a lot of "must read" lists and it's always bothered me that I never finished it.