The Kickoff Book: Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

I’m starting my reading challenge with Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale. The hefty tome has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while; my friend Jeremy recommended it to me a few years ago. He has great taste in literature, so I bought it right away. But it was big, and I had other things to read, and so it waited. And waited. (I buy non-e-books somewhat randomly, and almost never in the spirit of “I want to start reading this today.”)

I have a few good reasons to start this one now:

1. It’s winter. Duh. 
2. The book is a New York classic, and I’ll be writing about the city a lot on this blog.
3. Jeremy is moving from NYC to California this week. (Sorry I missed your goodbye party, Jeremy!)
4. I just saw that the movie version (starring Will Smith, Russell Crowe, and Colin Farrell) is set to release this year. I hate reading the book after the movie.

It’s a bold choice, I’ll admit. Looking at the 745 pages I’m slightly intimidated, but I’m jumping in feet first (or is it head first? I can never remember). Have you read this book? What did you think? Leave your review in the comments!