What are you reading?

[Lucian]

Let me know if you get past that first half, and how if you do. I tried three times and could never manage it

I skip to nerdy 'peace' parts

I think for me it was the shift in focus to different characters after good chunks of text which then led to me losing interest in the characters that I would end up having to switch back to. Not a bad tactic there - Do a "Tolstoy - War" session, and then a "Tolstoy - Peace" session and see if it works