Haven’t written in a while. Mostly because I was trying to finish this monster. 52 hours on audible, 117 chapters. Pro tip, if you want to read a book a week for a year, choose shorter books! Joking aside, I’m trying to make sure that all my reading isn’t relegated to the realm of ministry only. A couple of classics sprinkled in with some fiction and maybe even something specific to my interests is probably a good thing. I’m terribly lacking in the are of literary classics and I chose Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo due to my love for the recent film directed by Kevin Reynolds.

I know this will be blasphemous to some but quite frankly, I preferred the movie. While I’m neither a professional critic for film nor literature, I couldn’t help but appreciate some of the choices Reynolds made in adapting the story to film. The “Hollywooding” of Dumas’ story actually created some cleaner lines to follow in Edmond Dantès’ character arc. Dumas painted beautiful pictures with his words but at times gave a superfluous amount of detail in regards to what everyone wore and the decor of every room. Not my cup of tea.

While I’m thrilled to add this classic work to my stack of read books, I doubt I will be revisiting it in the foreseeable future.

Next time I will review Francis Chan’s Letters to the Church.