I think I learned the naming stuff while reading Metro 2033, or maybe it inspired me to look it up. Much easier read than Tolstoy.

It's actually not bad at all, especially if you're into military history like I am. It's basically just standard soap opera stuff interspersed with treatises on what war is really like. The worst part is that interminably long section about the fucking freemasons, thrown in for no apparent reason.

Read Anna Karenina you won't regret it. I would argue it's the best love story ever written.