2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Victor Hugo's book, Les Misérables.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants:
Theresa, Kelsi, Abigail

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're going. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

If you want the reading of this book to be extended by a month or two just let me know and I'll do that for you. It is a very big book so I can fully understand if you want to read it for a longer time.

Month 1
Week 1: 103 pages
Week 2: 103 pages
Week 3: 103 pages
Week 4: 103 pages

Month 2
Week 5: 103 pages
Week 6: 103 pages
Week 7: 103 pages
Week 8: 103 pages

Month 3
Week 9: 103 pages
Week 10: 103 pages
Week 11: 103 pages
Week 12: 103 pages

Excited to start! The musical is one of my favorites. Has anyone else seen it?

Ooooh, love it. I'll join in for this one. I'm itching to read it again.
I have seen the musical, but it has nothing on the book. You have to push through some bits (Waterloo, for instance; you'll see what I mean), but it can still suck you in. I liked the movie they made out of it with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. The one with Liam Neeson was so bad that I couldn't watch the whole thing.

Ooo this is living on my tablet and I haven't read it yet. Perhaps I'll get to it this year :)

I'll join as this is the book I'm reading at the moment.
I haven't seen the musical or the movie, so I started reading the book not knowing much about it. I'm really liking it, although as Alissa said, the Battle of Waterloo was a struggle to read. What was the point of writing that Victor Hugo? lol.
I started reading this book as part of a challenge in March, to read the thickest book on my TBR list. It definitely is long! I didn't finish my challenge because of this book. But I'm glad that I am reading it, it's a book book-lovers should read at least once in their life I think.

how is it going guys?
I have seen the musical and it was pretty nice and even if i always wanted to read the book i think it is my slowest read ever. its not that i am not enjoying it but i dont know...i just finished the first 100 pages.

I am finally going to start this one, but have questions for the group:

1) What translation are you reading?
2) If you're listening to an audiobook, which narrator?

I have the Hapgood translation on my Kindle. In audiobooks have the Julie Rose translation read by George Guidall and the Hapgood translation read by Bill Homewood. I know I'll use an audiobook to take advantage of my work commute time.

I'm in Book Second of Volume 1, and I'm really enjoying this audiobook. After much consideration, I did choose the Hapgood translation read by Bill Homewood. Since it was just released on April 29, 2015, there are only a couple of reviews for this on Audible, all three quite favorable, but only stars.

I read several chapters of both this and the Julie Rose translation, read by George Guidall before deciding. In the end, I felt most comfortable with Bill Homewood's narration, and I look forward to spending 68 hours listing to him read.

I started listening to the public domain audiobook by Librivox a few months ago it's okay but I might want to try some of the others as well.

Tonight I finished Volume 1, and I'm still glad that I chose to listen to the new reading by Bill Homewood. I'm hoping to have this book finished by the end of June, but if not, definitely 4th of July weekend.

Tonight I'm in Volume 3 of 5 in the book. My audiobook is in 7 sections, and I've just finished the 3rd section. If anyone else has Amazon Echo, I started the day by having Alexa read the book from my Audible Library. It picked up where I'd synched on my iPod, and the sound is better than earbuds. Now to bed to resume reading in the morning.

Just started on the audiobook based on the rose translation. It's very long at 60 hours probably will take 6-8 weeks.

I'm working on this as well. I'm a third of the way through Volume 2 of the original Dutch translations I found on Gutenberg. The writing is really beautiful, but because it's oldish dutch, it's not an easy read.

As a teenager I read an (severely) abridged version (less than 300 pages), and I just loved the story. And even though I'm only just in Volume 2, I already know that I've missed out on a lot when reading the abridged book.

I read it in high school but I don't think I actually finished or if I was even reading an unabridged version. Still remember some of the scenes.

Scott and Angelique, I'm glad you're both reading this book. The audiobook I'm listening to is just under 68 hours, divided in 7 parts. I've finished 4 1/2 of the 7 and really like it.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Scott and Angelique, I'm glad you're both reading this book. The audiobook I'm listening to is just under 68 hours, divided in 7 parts. I've finished 4 1/2 of the 7 and really like it."

I liked it too when I read it earlier this year. At times, such as The Battle of Waterloo, it dragged on a bit but the overall story is really good.

Joanne, I do agree that some parts drag, but it's also interesting from a historical standpoint to hear Hugo tell about them.

I'm now listening to the 5th and final volume of the book. My 67 hr 52 min audiobook now has just over 14 hrs to go. If I stay home and totally ignore my husband, I could finish it today. More likely I'll finish tomorrow morning.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Joanne, I do agree that some parts drag, but it's also interesting from a historical standpoint to hear Hugo tell about them.

I'm now listening to the 5th and final volume of the book. My 67 hr 5..."

It's always good when you finish a book you've been reading for a long time. :) Congratulations on getting through it :)

Do you ever play audiobooks at faster speeds? I've found some narrators talk too slow for me and if I speed up the book by 15-20% it's both more enjoyable and finishes quicker.

I managed to finish Les Misérables today, July 3rd. When I posted I had 14 hrs to go, I later realized I'd counted the time in the 2 audio sections, but hadn't deducted for 2 hrs already read from that.

I did love the story, but only gave it 4 stars due the inclusion of the extensive historical monologues mentioned by Joanne. The narration by Bill Homewood was wonderful, even though it was the longest audio version available.

Scott, I do sometimes play my audiobooks at faster speeds, but generally for books I'm losing interest in. I did not speed up this one. Since I started on June 21st, I managed to listen to 67 hrs 52 min in just 12 days.

I've never listened to an audio book before. I'm a better reader then I am a listener lol

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "I managed to finish Les Misérables today, July 3rd. When I posted I had 14 hrs to go, I later realized I'd counted the time in the 2 audio sections, but hadn't deducted for 2 hrs alre..."

Congratulations Theresa on this mammoth achievement. You deserve a stiff drink after such a feat.

Joanne sometimes audiobooks can be better but it really depends on the book and the reader(s). Audiobooks are also great for driving and working out. Amazon also sells ebook and audiobooks together and you can switch between the two. I usually listen to 3 audiobooks at a time and switch every 2-4 hours so it takes awhile to finish really long ones.

Theresa that's amazing 67 hours in only 12 days.

Thanks, Zara. I was really in the mood for a good, long classic!

Joanne, I agree with Scott on audiobooks. I had never listened to them until my sister raved about them a while back, pointing out the advantage of listening while driving and doing other things. I work full time, and audiobooks let me take advantage of my commute time to listen. When I'm home I can knit or cross stitch while listening. At most times, I have both an audiobook and a dtb or Kindle e-book going.

I like the new thing on Goodreads where it lets you listen to a little of the book. I listened to a few and I was thinking I could get used to listening to the Game of Thrones series. I love the voice of the guy I listened to. Unfortunately, I'm almost finished the series :(

I love the song of ice and fire books read by Roy dotrice.

Scott wrote: "I love the song of ice and fire books read by Roy dotrice."

Scott, have you listened to all 5? I did like listening to Roy Dotrice until the 5th one. His reading of the characters was quite different and disappointing. His voice for Daenerys was good in the earlier volumes, but in #5 he read as if she were an old hag! I've read a lot of reviews that agree with me on this. I do know he's 92 years old now and in his late 80s when the last was recorded, so perhaps it's getting difficult on his vocal cords to do such long books.

I've read all five and didn't notice a difference. I thought his voice for Dany was bad for all five

Moving along slow but steady about 7.5 hours so far. Probably about 2/3 through volume 1. Really enjoying the narration except when the translation used modern english idioms, which is really annoying. But I love the french pronunciation the narrator uses. This is actually my third read but it's been 20 years since the last and I've forgotten a lot.

Scott, the use of modern English idioms in that translation was what made me finally decide to listen to the version read by Bill Homewood. I do have Don Quixote read by George Guidall and will probably listen to that this year.

It's annoying but I'll continue with it. Almost 10 hours so far. I really do like Guidall's narration. The idioms are annoying but pretty easy to understand.

Finished Volume I
Currently on Volume II book 3.

I really enjoyed the waterloo chapters. Brought it to life.

Finished volume 2

Finished volume 3

Scott, are you still enjoying the book? I'm going to join the Don Quixote Buddy Read next month. The audiobook I have is read by George Guidall, and I know you're listening to him read Les Mis.

Definitely still enjoying it. Same impression. The translation is a bit annoying but the reading is great.

I really loved the scene at the end of volume 3 that brought all the main characters together

So did I but then volume four started wil "A little bit of history". It made me turn to other books again. I'm getting more and more the feeling I should have stuck with the abridged version.

I'm sorry, but I'm really struggling to get this finished.

A love the history sections. To me it adds to the imagery of the story. I can really the battle of Waterloo and how Hugo tied it into the story.

One funny thing with the translation is the word wheaties was used in a passage about food and the rights from the French Revolution. As far As I can find wheaties is just a food product that was introduced in the 1920s so it's funny to heaR it used in a book written 50 years before.

"The truth is food the same as Wheaties"

I'm confused in Volume 4 with the Gavroche character. I think I missed his backstory or something.

Gavroche - The Thénardiers’ oldest son. Gavroche is kicked out of the house at an early age and becomes a Parisian street urchin. He is a happy-go-lucky child who enjoys the small pleasures of life and demonstrates unusual generosity toward those even less fortunate than he is.

I'm at work so it was easier to pull from Sparknotes. He's the neglected son of the couple who raised Cozette.

Okay. Somewhere I got off track with the character. I was seeing him as an old man in volume 4. I might have to go back and reread/listen to a few chapters now.

Finished volume 4 I had to backtrack and listen to most of it twice since I was confused over some characters. The one thing I still missed is how did javert get captured by the rebels? Story is greAt ready to finish it off.

Scott, (view spoiler)[Javert had gone undercover to gather info on the revolutionaries, but was outed by Gavroche. (hide spoiler)] I'm glad you're liking this book. Once I got into it, I was listening to/from work and after I got home until bedtime until it was done.

By the way, I'd changed my rating to 5 stars. Initially I'd knocked it down for too much history, but in hindsight I realized that had actually added to the book, rather than detracting from it. I think I'd been too much in a hurry to read the story part.

Scott, I see that you're planning on Don Quixote for the September Buddy Read. Are you using an audiobook for that one, too? I have the Edith Grossman translation read by George Guidall and am looking forward to that.

Yes I'm planning on doing that one in September

Finished!! Amazing book the narration was excellent. Maybe I'll watch the musical or the new movie based off it which I haven't.

Congrats for sticking with it, Scott. It was a great book! I need to make time to watch the movie, too.