How I did it: For the first 250 pages during the first month, it was hard to keep focused.  I have a stack of unread books that I was reading while I was trying to read Anna Karenina.  But then I got serious in the second month and bunkered down in my room with no other books or forms of entertainment.  Then I had to set goals within the goal for myself.  My copy is 850 pages long, so I made myself read at least 50 pages a day, and it didn't work out as well as it should have.  But at the end of the month was when I was going to go on a vacation so I eventually upped the pages I had to read per day and spent all day reading it.  When I was finally done, I rejoiced.  The story is very complex and very good, but it was all the unnecessary ramblings about government affairs and everything that made me distracted.  I might read it again, a long time from now. 

Lessons & tips: Force yourself.  It pays off.

Resources: To keep track of the characters, I used the bookmark from the Oprah's Bookclub website, which has the characters' full names, a lot of their nicknames, and their relationships with other characters.  It helped immensely.

Aug 19, 2009, 03:50PM PDT | 0 comments