Comment answered

To answer Raymond's comment, Genji is an absolutely wonderful book, and it's very enjoyable to read -- particularily for someone, like Raymond, interested in Japanese culture, ancient or modern. If you are going to begin reading over the Christmas break, let me recommend that you take it slowly. Read the introduction, and then read a chapter and reflect on it for a day or so.
During the course, we'll read the book easily and for appreciation-- that is, as a Japanese would: in the spirit of the one Western literary genius who, with his sister Dorothy, perhaps shares Shikibu's sensibility:

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.