The Blogging of a Book Addict

I started reading this book because I was assigned specific chapters of it for my leadership class, and since it was somewhere deep within my to-read list anyway, I decided that I might as well read the entire thing. That said, it took be about eight months to get through this book in its entirety, not because it is inordinately long (although at nearly 600 pages it is certainly not short), but because I kept pausing in my reading for ridiculously long periods of time. Sometimes the pauses were because I was busy. Usually, they were because I wanted to read something else.

Now, I'm not saying that Living History was boring, because to call someone's life story boring would be infinitely rude, and in this case it would be an unfair and untrue assessment. HRC's life is unique and fascinating from the beginning, and my problems with this book came less from the stories and anecdotes contained within and more from the writing style. It was dry and overly formal in parts, keeping me from ever truly connecting with HRC's story, and, consequently, from truly enjoying this book. Additionally, I felt that the book was overly political in many parts, and while that may sound like a ridiculous statement considering the subject, I still believe that the story of a political figure can be told without clips that sound like they were cut straight from a stump speech. That said, I would never presume to tell anyone how they should express their life story, and so I will refrain from criticizing the writing in any way other than to say it did not fit my personal tastes.

All of the above said, this book did give me a clearer view of the story and perspectives of an important American figure, and, if you are interested in the subject, I would recommend giving this a read. Even if it does take eight months.