Yesterday was a milestone in my life because that was the day I finished reading Catch-22.
It took me 3 years..yeah 3 long years to finally actually read this book. My first attempt was I think in 2017 when I saw this in a list as one of the the best books ever written. I started reading it. I hardly went till the first 2 chapters I guess. Moreover I was reading the ebook version which made it worse. I just couldn’t get any connection with the book which cannot be formed just by reading 2 chapters but I also didn’t feel the urge to read any further.
Second ‘major’ attempt was in February 2019 again after finding the name of this book in various places as a must read. This time I was more determined. Again I started from the beginning because I didn’t remember the name of any character. This time also I struggled a lot trying to remember the names of the surge of characters coming in. But this time I could see that the book has something really promising in it. I googled several times whether it is that difficult to read Catch-22? Is it really worth reading it? Everywhere people had mentioned they also struggled but we need to get past at least the first 150 pages in order to get into the flow. To actually enjoy the craziness. I struggled and finally reached some 100 pages but again lost patience and quit reading it.
I finished reading 5 other books after that. This book always pending in the currently reading section of my Goodreads account. Then came 2020 and I decided to take reading seriously this year. So I joined an online book library in March and the first book I ordered was Catch-22. Don’t ask me why, I just believed in that book so much. I wanted to try reading it again but this time not the ebook the actual book. I can tell you that actually made a difference and also the fact that I had struggled to reach almost 150 pages by then and that itself inspired me.
Then came the pandemic and the lockdown and work from home and all these together with that fact that I had only Catch-22 in my hand to read! Yeah I finished reading it and not just that, I enjoyed it and realized that this book is really one of the best books ever written! Everything in that book was not craziness but that was the biggest truth ever told. When I was reading the final chapters I couldn’t just keep the book down, rushing to read it as soon as I finished work, reading as much as I can before I had to go to bed.
I need to tell all those people who are struggling to read this book, this book is a marvel and it was worth all the struggle! I do believe I might read it again.
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