literary musings

I just finished War and Peace. I must say, I loved it. And I'm really glad that I read it now, and not for school, because I think that I would have hated it if I had read it for school, having to really understand the significance of every sentence (and there are a lot of sentences in 1440 pages!). I enjoyed it it in large part because I was able to look at it holistic-ly (not sure if that's a word) and appreciate it as a whole, in context. Which makes me wonder if I would have enjoyed some of the books I read in high school English that I hated at the time, had I read them for pleasure. For example, A Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick were two of the worst experiences reading-wise that I've ever had. Yet these are books that people really love. I wonder if I would hate them less if I re-read them now just for the pleasure of reading, without the pressure to understand and attach significance to every passage. I think I'll wait a little bit longer, let my hatred die down (or further repress all memories of the books) but ultimately I do want to re-read them.