I FINALLY Did It

I did it, I did it, I finally did it!!! Finish reading Les Miserables, that is. All 987 pages of it.

I absolutely LOVE the story. I've been to the traveling Broadway production about four times. I've seen the movie several times. I own the soundtrack. I walk around singing the songs frequently. Even my kids sing them. So, about a year ago, I decided to actually read the whole book since the musical and the movie are quite abridged. Well, it took me a year to do it, but I made it all the way through. I almost gave up during the forty page history lesson on the Battle of Waterloo (which, by the way, came in handy when we were learning about Napoleon a few weeks ago) and the ten pages on the sewer system under Paris was interesting (in a not so interesting sort of way). The story is SUPERB and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a lot of time to wade through it!

Here is my favorite quote from the last few pages, spoken by Jean Valjean on his deathbed - 'It is nothing to die; it is frightful not to live.'

And to that I say, "Amen!"