A Reflection on Life

Strangely enough, I had trouble falling asleep this night. I couldn’t resolve my “thoughts for the day” during my hour or so walk. I kept reflecting on my general cynicism, on existentialism (particularly absurdism), and several of Tolstoy’s works (in decreasing order of amount of thought given: The Death of Ivan Ilych, A Confession, War and Peace). The idea of a happier life became more realistic to me than it has in the past few years. Mind, it is only a change of opinion, but I consider this fairly significant. After all, it was time for sleep, I was fairly tired, and yet I tossed around in bed for a good 2 hours before being able to sleep.

I post this because on the same day on a certain forum, a user experienced a related change of mind.

Nearing the end of War and Peace

It does feel somewhat like a work accomplished, although I’ve really done nothing but read. 1240 pages in, 130 or so pages to go — pages that are easily 2 times as dense as the typical text that I read. I’m welcoming the more frequent philosophical asides, which seem to be concentrated mainly at the beginning and at the end of the boook. They originally made for a bit of a slow start to the book, but I’m enjoying the change of pace (events are coming to a “close”).

For those wondering, it took me about 3 months to get this far into the book, with various interruptions (college, other reading such as The Death of Ivan Ilych and A Confession, both by Tolstoy). This didn’t feel like a book that I could power my way through (unlike a book such as Complications) — some parts were a bit dense and I felt like I needed to take a bit of a break from reading. The chapters were partitioned in a way that it’s very easy to take a break — many chapters are 1-2 pages in length. I am quite pleased with the book.