Earlier this year as my husband and I were watching one of our shows, a preview for the TV adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow popped up. “Oh, that’s one of my favorite books!” Hoff shared. I’ll have to read it before we watch the show, I thought to myself.

A couple weeks later at book club, one of the members said, “I can’t wait to watch A Gentleman in Moscow when it come out. I love the author Amor Towles.” A second endorsement.

Some months later at a regular gathering of some teacher friends, I shared that I still hadn’t read nor seen A Gentleman in Moscow. One of the friends gushed, “That’s one of my favorite books!” She brought it for me the next week.

Soon after receiving the book, a somewhat long-distance friend that often texts about books and shows, sent a message with the suggestion to watch the show when I finished reading.

I couldn’t not read the book after all of these endorsements. I picked up the book with great anticipation. Hmmm…it was kind of hard to get into at first. I really didn’t want to keep reading. But all these people loved the book. I had to keep going. I read on. I appreciated Towles’ way with words, no doubt, but I still wasn’t as engaged with the storyline as I thought I should be. I continued on, committed to finishing.

I finally finished the book last night after taking way too long (and reading another book in between). Yeah, it was a good one. While am I okay with abandoning books that I don’t like, I’m glad I didn’t let this one go.