Book 2: Crime and Punishment and Russian Names.

Well, you voted and after 21 votes Crime and Punishment won as the next book I am reading.

*sigh*

I was hoping that something else would win because my one previous experience with Crime and Punishment didn’t go so well. When I was a senior in high school I was in A.P. English. Every month we had to read a book off of the A.P. English list and Crime and Punishment was my choice one month. After finally getting a copy I sat down to read it. When I finished about 30 pages, I set it aside and I had no idea what I had read. Literarily, I couldn’t recall a thing I had read and was on the verge of tears.

I gave up and told my teacher I needed to read something else. I read The Awakening instead.

Now I have to read it again. Ugh.

But I did start it and surprise, its not as bad as I remembered. Actually, I kind of like it, although it is slow and rather detailed. I am also struggling with the names. I have no Russian background so I am attempting to pronounce these names in my head.

Usually when I am reading fantasy, I come across names that are unfamiliar, so I simply make up something in my head that sounds like the letters I am seeing on the page. But these Russian names…..they’re hurting my head. My brain can’t seem to process these names and I stumble over them every time I see one.

So, to fix all this, I am renaming the main characters as I come across them in hopes that it will make it a little easier to get through the story without getting tripped up on names.

The main character has been referred to as either the young man or Raskolnikov. I have decided to call him Rascal. And the man name Marmeladov I am just calling Ma.

Perhaps Fyodor Dostoevsky won’t approve but I do need to keep my sanity.