Little Women

I've had this book on my shelves since about 2001, and I've tried to start reading it, only to be interrupted or something would come up. I left it alone for years. Now I know why--because I LET myself get interrupted.

Frankly--and I was very surprised to discover this--I was bored.

Little Women feels disjointed, a bit preachy, and like a "day in the life" story that doesn't want to end. I couldn't even get to part 2 (about pg 241) because the story didn't seem to want to go anywhere. It felt like yes, there were some things ladies of the time needed to know or understand to get an idea as to the things they'll have to deal with growing up. But it's like the story as a whole was stuck. Each chapter made sure to end with a witticism or "moral of the story" moment. I suppose this made it easier to digest for serial form. But it felt like torture trying to go through it in a few days.

I will say the characters were the only thing that made me want to keep going, and let me go for nearly 150 pages. But what happened was we were stuck and nobody seemed to be going anywhere.

I have to say, though, with the characters (and my understanding of where the story goes from here), it is definitely ripe for movies--no wonder so many versions were made. I've only seen snippets of the films, so I don't know everything that happens, but what I could see of the movies is they streamlined the pace.

That's what made this book hard for me to read. I was prepared to enjoy it, and was disappointed how bored i was instead. Maybe another day I'll get an abridged version (which I normally avoid like the plague), just to streamline it and if someone wanted me to read it to them...but that's it. Wish I could've enjoyed it.

What an enjoyable book! It's really refreshing to read about characters who are so free from flaws and do their best and with bad people that aren't so terrible. The only "bad" thing was the religious propoganda and uhh war propoganda.