My Second DNF Of The Year

Last year I had a lot of DNFs (books that I did-not-finish), but I don’t know exactly how many because I didn’t keep track. This year I’m keeping track on Goodreads, and here on the blog. Last month was my first one for this year: IQ by Joe Ide. This month comes my second one: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Edith Grossman.

I read an abridged version of the book, translated by Walter Starkie, when I was in high school or in college and remember enjoying it, although I don’t remember anything specific about it other than I enjoyed it. So when this new translation came up as a Kindle deal at the end of last year, I picked up this one. Then two weeks ago on Facebook, when I saw that Nancy of the blog Bookfoolery and Ryan of the blog Wordsmithonia were going to read it together. I mentioned to Nancy on Facebook that I might be interested, and then thought I’d probably consider it and not do it. But then when I got an invitation from her to join the Facebook group, called “Tilting at Windmills,” I went ahead and joined. After all, I figured why did I purchase a copy of the book if I wasn’t planning to read it.

A part of me knew I wasn’t going to make it through this, especially after two sentences that were within one paragraph that went on forever. I even said reading the book was going to be a long haul here on the blog and in the group. Instead of giving up then, I continued on, because I was finding the interplay between Don Quixote and his companion, Sancho Panza, entertaining enough. Then the story turned to other stories, about other characters that seemed to have nothing to do with the story at hand, of Don Quixote and Sancho on their adventures. Again, instead of giving up, I decided to continue on, in hopes that Cervantes would get back to Don Quixote and Sancho, which he did, but then he diverted again. After skimming ahead to see that he was going to do it yet at least once, probably a hundred times for all I know, and the overuse of unending sentences, connected by semicolons, I decided it was time to let this book go.

I have tried at least one other readalong, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, and failed. Do I feel bad for failing at two readalongs? Nope. Sometimes books don’t work for me, for one reason or another, or for several reasons, and I’m okay with that. I still have plenty of books from which to choose to read. For now, I’m going back to my reread of The Lord of the Rings, where I’m nearing the end of The Two Towers. I do feel bad for having joined a readalong when I knew I probably shouldn’t, or might not make it through. For that, I apologize to Nancy and Ryan, but for not finishing the book, I make no apologies, not to myself or Miguel. After all, the book was an immediate success when first published and has gone on to be the second most published and translated book in the world. My not reading it is not going to affect that.

Don Quixote Speaks To Me

To this the innkeeper replied that he was deceived, for if this was not written in the histories, it was because it had not seemed necessary to the authors to write down something as obvious and necessary as carrying money and clean shirts, and if they had not, this was no reason to think the knights did not carry them; it therefore should be taken as true and beyond dispute that all the knights errant who fill so many books to overflowing carried well-provisioned purses for whatever might befall them; by the same token, they carried shirts and a small chest stocked with unguents to cure the wounds they received, for in the fields and clearings where they engaged in combat and were wounded there was not always someone who could heal them, unless they had for a friend some wise enchanter who instantly came to their aid, bringing through the air, on a cloud, a damsel or a dwarf bearing a flask of water of such great power that, by swallowing a single drop, the knights were so completely healed of their injuries and wounds that it was as if no harm had befallen them. But in the event such was not the case, the knights of yore deemed it proper for their squires to be provisioned with money and other necessities, such as linen bandages and unguents to heal their wounds; and if it happened that these knights had no squire—which was a rare and uncommon thing—they themselves carried everything in saddlebags so finely made they could barely be seen on the haunches of their horse, as if they were something of greater significance, because, except in cases like these, carrying saddlebags was not well-favored by knights errant; for this reason he advised, for he could still give Don Quixote orders as if he were his godson, since that is what he soon would be, that from now on he not ride forth without money and the provisions he had described, and then he would see how useful and necessary they would be when he least expected it.

Only 31 pages into Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, as translated by Edith Grossman, the above two sentences spoke to me earlier this week, and here is what they told me:

This readalong of the 17th century epic you have agreed to do with a few other bloggers is going to be a long haul.

Have passages in a book ever spoken to you? What did they tell you?

Tilting at Windmills

20147233 I have added one more book to my reading since my last post when I said the only book on which I would be focusing this month was The Lord of the Rings, which I am doing a reread of. That additional book is the one pictured at left, Don Quixote (Don Quijote de la Mancha #1-2) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra as translated by Edith Grossman. I read an abridged version of the book, translated by Walter Starkie, when I was in high school or in college and remember enjoying it, although I don’t remember anything specific about it other than I enjoyed it. So when this new translation came up as a Kindle deal at the end of last year, I picked up this one.

Then two weeks ago on Facebook, I saw that Nancy of the blog Bookfoolery and Ryan of the blog Wordsmithonia were going to read it together. I mentioned to Nancy on Facebook that I might be interested, and then thought I’d probably consider it and not do it. But then when I got an invitation from her to join the Facebook group, called “Tilting at Windmills,” earlier this week, I went ahead and joined. After all, I figured why did I purchase a copy of the book if I wasn’t planning to read it.

On her blog, Nancy explains that she has attempted to read the book three times and failed. I’ll be honest that I looked last year at a copy of this translation at our library while shelf-reading and thought, “Nyuh.” So why am I saying “yes” now and to a readalong of all things, which I am notorious for trying in the past and failing? Mainly, since, as I said above, I did purchase a copy of the ebook, I’m thinking that I might as well read it. It’s not just there to sit on my virtual shelf. Plus I guess I figure that split out over several weeks makes the task seem less daunting, that this might be a windmill I indeed can conquer. We shall see.

The reading schedule is as follows:

February 10 – Chapter XXV (p. 204)
February 17 – Chapter XLII (p. 373)
February 24 – Chapter XIV (p. 547)
March 10 – Chapter XL (p. 717)
March 17 – FINISH.

Have you ever read Don Quixote? If not, have you ever had a book that you kept trying to read but just couldn’t get through? For me, it was, and is, The Brothers Karamazov. I really liked Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, but for some reason, I have been unable to conquer his final tome. Maybe someday.