[cardanome]

That is interesting because I found War and Peace the easiest to go through.

Though it might be because I actually found his materialistic approach to history very interesting and his views an leadership extremely valuable. So I am one of the few that actually enjoyed all the rambling about how much Napoleon sucked.

It is one of the few books that made a lasting impression on my worldview. I wish more management type people would read it. It just so exhausting to work with people that see leadership as some ego trip. A good leader's job is to simply enable the people to do their job.

Funny enough I don't remember much about the actual characters. Really need to read it again some other time. AK was a bit more difficult for me as it is more story-driven and a bit more subtle with it themes.

[rodgerd]

War and Peace is only as long as Lord of the Rings, after all. It's odd to me that people will read something like ASOIF and then punt on that.

> It just so exhausting to work with people that see leadership as some ego trip.

I think that my biggest surprised on reading a book by a Russian count was that he was a strong opponent of the Great Man theory of history.

[TMWNN]

>War and Peace is only as long as Lord of the Rings, after all. It's odd to me that people will read something like ASOIF and then punt on that.

I read the first four ASOIAF books in two weeks (before the TV show). I read the fifth one in two days straight after buying the ebook at midnight on release day.

I have repeatedly failed to read more than a few dozen pages of LotR.

[nextaccountic]

The beginning of LotR is rather slow, and specially the Old Forest section is a slog. Almost made me give up on the book.

After they reach Bree, the entire thing was a breeze for me

[huevosabio]

Yes, exactly this!

I enjoyed much more the "essay-like" parts than the actual novel, and they stuck with me unlike the rest of the details of War and Peace.