War and Peace: Acquired

[osprey_archer]

Copy of War and Peace: acquired. I ended up buying the Ann Dunnigan translation, both because that's the one my Russian professor recommended and because I liked its translation of the first paragraph best when I compared it to the two others in the store.

Plus, no footnotes. Ever since a footnote gave away the ending of Jane Eyre halfway through the book, I have looked askance on footnoted classics. (Who does that? I had already read Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, so I already knew it, but still. Who does that!)

***

In other news, a girl spent most of the afternoon in a corner of our Starbucks sculpting a boa constrictor out of Saran wrap. For what purpose? And why in Starbucks? Did she get chased out of the Saran Wrap Sculptors Guild? We may never know.

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

1. YAY :D

2a. I share your dismay at the footnote that GAVE AWAY THE ENDING??!? I mean, maybe it was a scholarly edition or something so they assumed that anyone buying it would have read it already? But still! Have some thought for the first-time reader!

I always skip the introductions to books in case they give away the ending.

2b. Some people (my mom, for example) find explanatory footnotes really helpful, so I don't begrudge them, but I prefer no footnotes 99.9% of the time (books where the footnotes are part of the author's text are an obvious exception). I don't like to have someone elbowing me at every turn, like the fairy in Ocarina of Time, to tell me that a barouche is a vehicle or whatever else they think I don't know/can't figure out from context/have no possible way of looking up in this benighted Dark Age of information access.

3. It's as good a place to work as any!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Like the fairy in Ocarina of Time

OMG--I've never played that game, but my kids adored it, and ever since they played it, I've found myself externalizing my advice-to-self voice as an exasperated blue sprite who says, "Hey! Hey, pay attention!"

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I skip introductions too. Even if they don't give away the ending, I feel like they tend to skew your reading of the book so it's in line with the introduction, even if that's not the only or best (or even a good) reading. Much better to read the introduction after when I have the information to judge.

I used to like explanatory footnotes, but as I get older, the more they seem to interrupt the pace of the story for me. Even if I don't flip to the back to read them, the footnote number is still there, nudging me.