Siddartha by Herman Hesse

To start off, I will let you all know that I absolutely HATE philosophy. I hated reading The Apology, The Cave or anything else from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Absolutely abhor it. I don't feel the need to answer a question with a question and never get an answer. I am straight forward as it gets. That being said, we can now determine that I wasn't a fan of this book.
I picked up Siddartha at Barnes & Noble since it was part of their classics series where the books are between $3.95-$9.95 and I really like classic novels and want copies if I can. I saw it a few months ago now and bought it. I finally picked it up in August and thought it was going to be a quick read. Was I wrong.
I started reading the first chapter and fell asleep. I went back to the book a few days later and made myself read the first two chapters. I literally did everything in my power to NOT fall asleep and to finish the book. It was painful, especially the first part of the novel. However, I finished it, and I am finally writing a review on it.
The book is only about 160 pages long but if you're like me and hate philosophy, good luck. The novel is about Siddartha who is born into wealth and is a nobleman. He decides to leave his family and name behind and search for enlightenment, which of course makes his father sad. He shuns all personal belongings and becomes a beggar, depending on the kindness of people to survive. He even runs into Buddha, where he realizes that true peace cannot be taught but must be experienced. So this throws Siddartha for a loop. The first part of the novel is Siddartha trying to attain true peace and then in the second part of the novel, he goes back into the human world. He takes up with a consort, attains great wealth and then for whatever reason, he attains some sort of peace and decides to shed all of his worldly possessions and decides to live with the ferryman. The novel comes full circle in the end but I really was bored by it. I enjoyed the second part of the novel because there was more story to it, but the first part really killed it for me.
I have been reading lots of books lately so I will definitely have another review up. The next book I read was Wise Children by Angela Carter and The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.

Until Next Time,
Happy Reading