50 books to read before you die discussion

Our group read for January 2017 from our list of 50 is Don Quixote

I read Don Quixote last year. It was my penultimate book to complete the reading of our list.

It's a very long novel in two parts, likely originally two volumes. The famous bit with the windmills is brief and happens very early. Part one is better than part two, which has long boring parts. I tried three different translations - the translation matters.

Don Quixote is completely insane, most of the time, anyhow. Sancho Panza, his sidekick, plays along with him and tries to keep him out of trouble, but usually doesn't. He gets caught up in these crazy adventures too. They both get beat up a lot.

Don Quixote is considered the peak of spanish literature and past year was the 400 aniversary of the writing of part 2. It's funny that Cervantes felt impelled to write part two because due to the success of book one, some other author, named Avellaneda, wrote a sequel of it at its time. Cervantes even makes some references to the Avellaneda's Quixote in part two.
You, non spanish readers, are lucky to read a translation (of course translation matters, as Buck says), because precisely most of the spanish readers I know who has tried the book says they couldn't get into the book because of the 16th century language. Although I suppose the translators to english have tried to imitate to a degree that language, probably it has been watered down and its easier to read a translation. A couple of years ago Andrés Trapiello, a contemporary author I read and admire wrote a "translation" of Quixote to contemporary spanish. It could have been critiziced but someone explained that theory of the easyness of the translation to other languages which I exposed above.

The importance of Quixote is that it was historically the first "novel" as we know the item today and a cornerstone in spanish literature.
All we book addicts feel great simpathy for the character, because In case you don't know the plot, it's about a man, a reader so obsessed with cavalry literature that decides to wear an armour and run adventures and save damsels.