I read this book in three weeks. It's the kind of book that you can easily read two hundred pages at a time, and I did. At first, I wouldn't say I liked it. My expectations were through the roof because Anna Karenina was my all-time favorite book, and I read it at a time when love felt hopeless. But War & Peace. These ideas of listlessness I didn't find any personal connection with.

I found the 'War' sections to be the most compelling. A few weeks later, I had a chance to walk around the portrait galleries in Versailles and see Napoleon's face and body 20ft tall. Interesting stuff and heartbreaking. And these ideas of fruitless ambition. Hubris.