“Once upon a time in the dead of winter in the Dakota Territory, Theodore Roosevelt took off in a makeshift boat down the Little Missouri River in pursuit of a couple of thieves who had stolen his prized rowboat. After several days on the river, he caught up and got the draw on them with his trusty Winchester, at which point they surrendered. Then Roosevelt set off in a borrowed wagon to haul the thieves cross-country to justice. They headed across the snow-covered wastes of the Badlands to the railhead at Dickinson, and Roosevelt walked the whole way, the entire 40 miles. It was an astonishing feat, what might be called a defining moment in Roosevelt’s eventful life. But what makes it especially memorable is that during that time, he managed to read all of Anna Karenina. I often think of that when I hear people say they haven’t time to read.”*
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*David McCullough, “No Time to Read,” quoted in Connect: College Reading, 2nd edition, by Ivan G. Dole and Leslie Taggart. (Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2012), 474.
Theodore Roosevelt writes about his pursuit of the boat thieves in his 1888 book Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. The library owns a copy!
The library also has several copies and various translations of Anna Karenina.
And if you absolutely don’t have time to read Anna Karenina, the library does own a copy of the 2012 film, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law.
What a great post!