Don Quixote

Tilting at windmills has become a metaphor for a reason. This book is foundational.

The second part is actually better than the first - more self-aware and emotionally complex.

Reading it in the original Spanish was a revelation. So much wit gets lost in translation.

Sancho Panza steals every scene. His evolution from simple sidekick to wise companion is beautiful.

I appreciate its historical importance but struggled with the episodic structure. The digressions tested my patience.

A love letter to reading and imagination. Quixote's madness is really just an excess of idealism.

The windmill scene is iconic but the real beauty is in the quieter moments of friendship and delusion.

Parts of it are hilarious, other parts are a slog. Worth the effort overall.

Long and sometimes meandering, but the central relationship between Quixote and Sancho is pure magic.

The first modern novel and still one of the greatest. Cervantes invented an entire literary tradition.