War and Peace and Lent

I started reading War and Peace, partly because I've really wanted to read it since I went to see the War and Peace movie marathon at the Russian Embassy and partly because now I have real motivation in the form of Annie-the-amazing. (It is also her birthday for another half-hour, so С Днем Рождения! or should I say joyeux anniversaire?) Anyway, She suggested we read it together and commit to posting about it as we go, we decided on Lent which gives us 40 days (and is only very mildly sacrilegious.)
I'm really excited, reading is one of those things like strawberries that I seem to forget I actually love -- I can go for months at a time until I pick up a good book or taste a really ripe strawberry and wonder how I survived without serious withdraw. When I was at Thomas More I read a ton. (And I also watched nearly no TV, where did that go?) By read a ton I mean we read Crime and Punishment in barely over a week. And that's a big Russian novel, notable not as big as War and Peace, but still a serious amount of people with really long names and significantly unpleasant lives. So 40 days for War and Peace is totally doable - plus that might even include Sundays off. Tolstoy's novel includes more than 1,100 pages, hundreds of characters, and 365 chapters. You could read it a chapter everyday for a year as the world's weirdest page-a-day-tear-away-calender.

Why yes, you are correct -- my Russian novel does appear to be speaking French.

The opening line to the effect of "Hey how about those Bonapartes?" has got nothing on Anna K's unhappy families, or Rebecca's dream of Manerley, or Rachel's Four Turnings, but it gets the book going nonetheless. And so we begin!

Got any Russian novel reading advice for us?