I have read Oliver Twist!

Hi This is Moring.
I have read Oliver Twist.

It was long way.
I had started to read Oliver Twist at the mid January because the movie that based on this novel had been planed to load from the end of January. But this novel was very difficult to understand for me.
A conversation that was joined children was understandable, but conversation among grownups was difficult to understand sometime. And narratives, or explanations of situation, status, circumstances or air was most difficult part of this writing.
My reading speed also was getting slow, it might be 50 words per minutes.

Finally the end of load period of the movie had turned around the corner, and I still had been reading the books and the end of the story did not seem to come soon. It was the time I had to decide whether I should go to movie theater or not. And I didn't go.

Just after this, I was asked what book I was reading from American, who is a wife of my favorite podcast family. Then I answered I was reading Oliver Twist. And she said, "Charles Dickens is hard to read even when you speak English as your native language! They were good books, but were long and difficult to get through".
At that time I didn't know how many words does this book have. Then I searched it by Scholastic Counts and found this book had over 160 thousands words. I had come only half way. Then I really thought I had to quit. But I couldn't.

Why this book is difficult? He doesn't use many difficult words. But his sentences are very long. And he didn't explain things directly. For example, he use 100 words for explaining "she is beautiful". This kind of expression may become only one sentence in retold version. But if I could get idea of "she is beautiful" from these 100 words, this is almost same as reading retold version. Then I decided I would keep reading it.

Any way I have come the end of this book. I could read last ten thousands words very well. I even could understand conversations among grownups, which was hard to understand for me when I had begun to read this book. Some narratives were still hard to understand though. Then I enjoyed climax of the story.

But I decided I will read YL4 books mainly while one year from now. After that I may read Dickens again.

Thank you very much if you have read this till end.
Happy Reading & Writing!
See you.

Well done, Moring san!

I do recommend listening and reading of another Dickens' novel
soon. Read a couple of easy childrens' books next and then go
back to Dickens again. I'm sure you'll get used to his
nineteenth century style by and by, and start to enjoy his
writing enormously.

Happy reading Dickens!

Hi Sakai-Sensei. This is Moring.
Thank you for your rapid reply.

〉Well done, Moring san!
Thank you, again!

〉I do recommend listening and reading of another Dickens' novel
〉soon. Read a couple of easy childrens' books next and then go
〉back to Dickens again. I'm sure you'll get used to his
〉nineteenth century style by and by, and start to enjoy his
〉writing enormously.
Oh, Yha? My affirmation was wrong? Your information is strong!
OK. I'll try shorter one of his writing.
But I don't have any audio material of his, but James Joyce's.
I just have rejoined Book Club last Saturday. The Book Club might have some audio material of Dickens, I hope.

Any way thank you for your strong and useful advice.

〉Happy reading Dickens!
Yes. Happy Reading& Writing!