I’ve been a huge fan of Les Misérables, the musical, ever since I was a kid. In high school, while I was deep in my Les Mis obsession (I identified with Eponine, naturally), I checked out Victor Hugo’s novel from the school library and eagerly cracked it open, ready to devour it.
I never made it past the first forty pages. Upon discovering that the story begins with excruciatingly detailed backstory about the Bishop Myriel, a character who while significant in the story occupies maybe two minutes of the musical, tops, I decided that maybe the musical was the best way to enjoy the story. Plus the book was really heavy, and between all my AP classes and art classes and playing two instruments and a half-dozen extracurriculars, I really couldn’t afford to lug that extra brick of a book around. (Meanwhile, I had no problem tearing through Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, so who knows why Hugo gave me so much trouble.)
Fast forward to 2025: I’ve just seen the musical in London for the second time, I post a bunch about Victor Hugo on Bluesky, and before I know it, I’ve talked myself into trying the book again. According to Wikipedia there are 365 chapters in Hugo’s novel—when you think about it, if you read one chapter a day, you could read all of Les Misérables in a year, which is actually pretty damn reasonable.
So I’ve decided to go for it. My goal is to read at least one chapter a day, and to blog about each chapter as I go.
(This is all in addition to my regular reading of anything between 45-100 books per year, which I track over at my reading blog, which is all on top of maintaining an unwieldy career as a classical pianist and semi-professional writer with a regular newsletter who travels a fair amount and is also currently training as an amateur equestrian. In other words, I don’t know how I’m supposed to have time to do this and here’s no benefit to me doing so—I’m truly reading and blogging for the love of the game.)