"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes, 1605)

2005 being the 400th anniversary of this famous book, I thought it was time to read it. So I did.

Basic plot is well known - the protagonist reads too many novels about chivalry and pretty much goes out of his mind; then pursues various adventures with Sancho Panza. Dulcinea, windmills, practical jokes, etc.

I pretty much achieved nothing other than reading the stories and enjoying them (Part 2 more than Part 1, though to be honest there were plenty of slow parts). When you read about the book, there is all sort of commentary explaining why it was ground-breaking. But this is hard for me to discern while reading.

The Nobel Institute supposedly voted for this as "The Greatest Book of All Time." Wow?

Cervantes fought at Lepanto, which is pretty neat.
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