New Word Wednesday

Bivouac

 [biv-oo-ak, biv-wak]

–noun
1. a military encampment made with tents or improvised shelters, usually without shelter or protection from enemy fire.

2. the place used for such an encampment.


–verb (used without object)

3. to rest or assemble in such an area; encamp.

from dictionary.com

I came across this word several times as I was reading War and Peace. I got the basic meaning down but wasn't quite sure of the pronunciation until I heard Seth use it the other day. He was talking about a time he was on a scout bivouac. He pronounced it "biv-wack", as in the 2nd pronunciation suggestion above. I'd been saying it "biv-oo-wack," which apparently isn't wrong (according to the 1st pronunciation shown above), but I figure "biv-wack" is probably a more common pronunciation if that's how Seth says it. Plus I want to be just like Seth. Anyway, I figure this word is kind of an alternative to "camp" or "camping." As in, "I'm going to head up to the Uintas this weekend for some bivouacing." Say this to your buddies at work and they'll think you're really adventureous. And insanely smart.

I Read Books... Sometimes

So I was over on my brother-in-law Scott's blog yesterday and he was talking about all the books he'd read over 2009. He'd "only" hit 44 (which he said was low in comparison to George W. Bush and I thought was incredibly high). I began to wonder how many books I'd read and knew it was no where near 44. Seth said I'd probably be surprised and that I'd be up around 20. No way. I said I'd be lucky if I could find 10. Sadly, I was right. Sort of. I was able to name 9 books I'd read all the way through. If you count the 450 pages I read of War and Peace, you can round that out to 10 books. Here's the list in no particular order: (Um, Scott, I'm going to rip off your rating system *Ok **Good ***Great)

***Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

***Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders by John Gierach

**Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

*A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity by Kathleen Gilles Seidel

**The Call of the Wild by Jack London

**The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

**White Fang by Jack London

***The River Why by David James Duncan

**Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler

:-P (That's the sign for BORING) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Now, to be fair, during the time I was reading War and Peace, it was the only book I read. I could not get into it and found it incredibly boring. For the most part, instead of supplementing my reading with something else, I slowly chugged through it... usually at less than 1 chapter a day. So those several months were unusually low in books. 450 pages of War and Peace is easily equal to like 2000+ pages of a normal book. So there... I'm not illiterate.

Although, Scott did light a fire in my belly so to say. I really could read a lot more than I did last year. So, I'm going to set a GOAL. That's right... Me, the hater of goals, is making one right now. By this time next year I want to have read at least 30 books. I know, this number may be low for some, but that's at least a couple of books a month. That's quite a bit for me and I think it'll be pretty challenging.

Re-examining My Life Goals

About six months ago I started a journey. A grueling journey filled with hate, boredom, sleepiness and disdain. I started this task voluntarily, but, I wonder now if I really had a clear vision of what exactly I was getting into. So many people had done this before me. So many people will continue to do this in years to come. Now I wonder, do I want to finish? Do I want to put myself through this kind of torture while gaining no joy whatsoever besides the sporadic muted interest from society's intellectuals? I'm not so sure it's worth the price any more.

When I first started reading War and Peace I was excited. I'd read many reviews on Amazon about how it was the greatest book of all time. My copy of War and Peace has about 1400 pages. I've read between 400-500 of those pages. I can't exactly remember because I haven't picked the thing up for over a month, but I digress. I guess my point is, this book is like a succubus. It drains all my energy just thinking about sitting down to read. There was one chapter out of all those 400+ pages that I enjoyed. Most of the time I have no idea what is going on and as soon as I figure it out, the book jumps to a completely different character and story and I have to start all over again trying to remember what happened to this person in previous chapters.

This morning as I was rushing around getting ready for work, I began to think about this book. And several other books I've recently read. I've flown through a handful of books these last couple months. Because I enjoyed them. For those books I lost several hours of sleep. For those books I turned off the tv. War and Peace has never prompted me to lose sleep, or turn off the tv or even smile for that matter. It brings feelings of dread. And so it sits on my nightstand, waiting for the day I need help falling asleep.

So here's where I'm stuck. I can tell this book is not going to be finished by the end of the year. I don't have enough fire in my belly to plow through this sucker that fast. Even if I did, it's a very rare occasion that I can make it through two whole chapters without falling asleep. It's physically impossible for me to spend an even remotely large amount of time in one sitting reading this book. So do I continue reading this book just to show that I can do it? Do I continue reading it even though I'm constantly bored to tears? Or do I move on with my life and throw this goal by the wayside? Should I spend my time only reading books I love or is it good for me to tackle things like this? I'm a bit torn. What would you do?

War and Peace: An Update

Well, it's been 3 months since I started War and Peace so I thought I'd give you an update. By my original calculations, I should have been to about page 630 by now, but alas, I've just reached page 400. My goal was to finish it by my birthday (July 23rd) but it looks like I'm headed towards New Year's 2010. Sigh. Oh well, at least I'm still at it, right?

War and Peace hasn't been an easy book to get into. It seems like we're just barely getting past the intro, which makes sense. It usually takes 1/3 of the book or so to really get into the meat and get to know the characters and such. I think I'm just beginning to get all the characters straightened out. Which in itself is tough. There are like 50 different characters who each have 5 different names that all end in "-ov."

But, I'm actually starting to like it I think. I don't fall asleep as easily as I used to and I tend to get sucked into reading "just one more chapter" on a somewhat regular basis. There's more twists and turns and drama going on to keep things lively. Can you believe Rostov lost 43,000 roubles in a poker game? Yeah me neither. He never knows when to say "when." Ok, I have no idea how much 43,000 roubles is. That's part of the problem with this book. I don't know what half of the things are that these people talk about. Even if I did know how much 43,000 roubles was, it doesn't mean anything compared to today's equivalent. And they use all these words that aren't even in the dictionary. I know because I look up words all the time. About 50% of the time they aren't in it. Granted I use a small general purpose dictionary, but still. There's a unit of distance measurement they use all the time called a "verst." It's used in the way we use "miles." No idea how far a "verst" is. I'm sure I could find answers to all these questions using my friend the Internets, but if I stop to look up every single thing, it's going to take me til New Years 2020 to finish this thing.

So, it's slow going. I'm not sure I understand everything I should, but I'm giving it my best shot. It's like reading the King James Version of the Bible. It's English, but it's not. My wonderful friend Heidi was nice enough to give me her made-up version of "Cliff's Notes" for War and Peace. They were very helpful.

Heidi's Cliff's Notes for War and Peace

(slightly edited for sensitive audiences)

"There was this War and then afterwards there was this Peace. And Tolstoy said Blahbiddy blah blah blah. Some hot air. THE END. In Russian."

Tolstoy? Why Yes, I've Heard of Him...

About a year ago I was wandering around in Barnes and Noble looking for something to read. I came to the classics section where I was drawn to the ever famous monstrosity, "War and Peace". I've always thought it would be cool to say I'd read "War and Peace"....it's kind of the nerd equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. At just over 1400 pages, it's three pounds of pure intimidation. Needless to say, I had to have my very own copy.


Now I've read book reviews for "War and Peace" and all of them rave what a delightful, amazing book it is. So far I've read about 130 pages (I started two weeks ago) and not much has happened. I was really hoping it would be the kind of book I couldn't put down. I set a goal to get through at least one chapter a day. If I can stay awake long enough, sometimes I'll read two. I'm going to read this whole book even if it kills me.


I plan to follow up later on this enormous goal of mine. I'm hoping I won't embarass myself by quitting or finally finishing it when my as yet non-existent children graduate from college. Although, if I keep up with the current rate I'm at, you should hear back from me around my birthday (which is July 23rd in case you wanted to get me anything).