I thought I would read Japan's first recognized novel The Tale of Genji (#1,354) by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. Funnily enough, it popped up in Kate Quinn's recent best seller The Astral Library as the literature of choice for a reader to permanently escape to. Sorry to say, but it would never be mine. My Kindle version (I was traveling to Japan while reading it.) stretched to more than 1500 pages. I made it through almost 300 pages before I lost interest in The Shining One and moved onto something much more interesting.
Genji turns out to be the illegitimate son of the emperor by the concubine he could never forget. In consequence, Genji was supernaturally beautiful, and each and every trial and tribulation in his relatively calm life rendered him even more so, and irresistible to men, women and children. Genji was happy to seduce one and all. It was all just a game to him. He took his poetry more seriously than his sex life. For me the endless seductions grew exceedingly tedious. Although The Tale of Genji is stored on my Kindle, I doubt I will ever finish it. Maybe you will have better luck.
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