Dull reading

I am currently working on reading two classical books, Don Quixote (Wordsworth Classics) and Rob Roy (Wordsworth Classics). (To be fair, I have 3 other books that I might start reading at any moment as well, but sticking to the point for now...)

I started Don Quixote back in 2003, and until about 2 weeks ago was still on the first 10 pages. But I did vow to finish that book, and I think I might even be about 6% of the way through it. It is, after all, a big damn book. (One of my favorite quotes from Wagons East!) It really started out dull, but has improved a bit as it has gone along. Rob Roy, on the other hand, well, damn its dull. Twenty-nine pages into it (almost 10%) and all that has really happened was Frank, the main character (yeah, Rob Roy isn't the main character, and hasn't even been mentioned yet either.) has bitched about not wanting to take up the family business and is traveling north to get a cousin as his replacement in the family biz.

How either of these are classics happens to be a mystery to me. Ironically, everything I knew of the Don story happens to be within the first 20 or so pages. But the rambling I saw therein is nothing to that of Rob Roy. I would dare say the rantings of Frank would disgust even the most hardened EMO today. The edition is unabridged, but damn, I can summarize  the first 29 pages as quickly as this:

Frank goes home, and his dad is pissed that he will not follow in the family business . He might be able to get over it, but then he finds out Frank want to be a poet. Frank is disowned, and sent to retrieve his cousin. Along the way there he starts traveling with a guy that is paranoid that Frank might actually be a thief, not that it stops him from traveling with Frank.

Seriously, take each of those 4 sentences, and make each one take about 7 pages each, and you have the first 29 pages of Rob Roy.


On the bright side, I do have a few other books I will probably start (and finish) before  I get much farther through either of the above books. Yu-Gi-Oh! Vol. 6: Duelist (Yu-Gi-Oh! (Graphic Novels)) , The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) , and The Drakov Memoranda

I can probably read YuGiOh (and vol 7) in the space of a few hours. (45 min each I would expect) and Drakov would probably be a 2 day long read. No idea about Golden Compass though, it is a bit bigger, and I hear a fair bit more complex.

All told, I don't think I'll pick up another 'Classic" book anytime soon.