Book in Review: War and Peace
I began reading War and Peace as a challenge to myself. I wanted to see if I could do it. Leo Tolstoy's classic novel is famous for many things and brevity is not one of them. But what began as a personal challenge transformed into something that was both rewarding and refreshing, far beyond what I had anticipated. We live in the age of the instant and the immediate. If a story does not capture us within the opening pages, we toss it out. If a television show does not pay out sufficient enjoyment by the first episode, we change the channel. So our entertainment has catered to our appetites. Stories exchange necessary character development for fast paced action sequences. Detailed and nuanced dialogue is traded for the flamboyant and the crude. In our entertainment, just like our fast food, we sacrifice quality (depth, insight, meaning) for time. And also like fast food, we miss out. Because there is something special about a really long, well told story. There is somethin...