Reading Is What's Important

I do not like this book at all. I found myself forcing my mind to concentrate on the lines on the page. Due to my attitude towards the book, I decided to look up information on Italo Calvino so that maybe I would understand his style of writing. I came upon biographical information that basically told me what I figured out from reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveler: Calvino is an experimental writer with a big imagination. Someone known for experimenting with his writing is expected to catch the reader by surprise; and Calvino certainly did that with me. Not only does he create two different "realities," but he also overlaps events/characters/ideas/facts within the realities/worlds (which confuses the reader even more). And as that wasn't enough, things that happen within the book itself happens to the reader (like never finishing a story). Because I didn't like this book I feel like I'm not a fit analyzer. But, I think that what Calvino wanted us to do with the book is experiment with reading. With the way he introduces the story already shows the reader that this book will require different reading skills from what we are used to (i.e. having a clear plot, having clear characters, having motives/goals, having a climax, etc.). And if that was Calvino's goal then I applaud him. It takes a brave person to take a risk and introduce the public to a totally different form of story-telling and expecting them to have an open-mind and be vulnerable to foreign things.