Anna Karenina

So, I saw the movie Anna Karenina when it first came out in theaters last year. I really liked it, and the film inspired me to read the book. I had owned the heavy thing for years and never actually read it, and I thought the journey would be easier now that I could picture the characters and I already knew the plot. I started reading around Christmastime, and I only just finished it. It's not like I read parts of it every day, but the thing is bigger than your average Harry Potter book, so it was very intimidating. Plus, while the story may have been revolutionary in the time of Leo Tolstoy, the plot of a woman cheating on her husband is bland for this day-and-age. The book goes on and on, while the movie easily sums up the tale. Of course the movie may be more surface-level than the deep religious pondering of some of the book's characters, but sometimes I don't want to be deep; I just want to enjoy a good book. And this one is just so lengthy, so wordy, so too much, it was hard to have fun reading it. Am I glad I read it? Yes: It's a classic, and now I know the story and can say I've read it. Would I recommend the book to anyone? No.