Animal Farm - George Orwell

First, I would like to encourage everyone reading this to visit my friend Ayushi's book blog, The Book Worm. I don't often (in fact, I'm not sure I ever do) link to other people's blogs on here, but I am Ayushi's only current follower, and I think that's a shame. I really enjoy reading her blog and I would love to see others enjoying it, too. But, on to Orwell--

I have been in a terrible reading rut for the past ten days or so - I have five books to read for AP English Literature, and one of them is Animal Farm. I've read Animal Farm before and I didn't like it at all. I felt like I should read it soon for class instead of reading something I might enjoy more, but I just didn't want to read it. This, unfortunately, resulted in me not reading much of anything for quite some time, which is quite unusual. This afternoon, I finally sat down and took about an hour to re-read Animal Farm...and I didn't like it this time either.

I feel like I should clarify that I don't dispute Animal Farm's literary greatness or worth, and I don't think it's a terrible book. I think it is a masterful piece of satire that everyone should read at some point in their life. "Some animals are more equal than others" is a perfect example of some modern viewpoints, and the transformation of Animal Farm from a community of willing, hardworking equals to a dictatorship is done in exemplary style. Despite all this, I just don't like reading it. I read enough of this material in the actual news, and parts of the book are just too painful because they remind me of actual stories about actual people in the actual, real-life world. I don't particularly mind nonfiction being exclusively painful, but I want to enjoy at least some small part of fiction, and I can't find any enjoyment in Animal Farm. I'm not quite sure why I have this problem with Animal Farm and not with 1985, Anna Karenina, The Book Thief, and other books which I count among my all-time favorites. Perhaps because in the latter books, the storytelling captures me, the characters charm and captivate me, there are some moments of hope, or even all of the above. Whatever the reason, I just can't bring myself to enjoy Animal Farm.

In any case, Animal Farm is quite evidently just not my cup of tea. I am very sure that I'll enjoy analyzing it and writing about it in AP English Literature this coming school year, but I'm also very sure that I will probably never enjoy reading it.

Have you read Animal Farm? If so, what did you think about it?