Despite being a perpetual listmaker, I've posted nary a to-do list on this blog. In an effort to remedy that (and in honor of being oh-so-close-to-done with Jane Eyre):
10 Books I Did Not Finish the First Time, 2 Books I Did Not Finish the Second Time and 1 Book I've read so many times I lost count/am embarrassed to admit:*
1. The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald (first assigned in the 9th grade.)
2. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man- James Joyce (12th grade, I've since read it twice despite not particularly liking it.)
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
4. Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte (summer reading list, 4th grade. Still reading.)
5. Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen (I tried reading this so many, many times.)
6. Heart of Darkness- Joesph Conrad (12th grade. Junior year. It was only 70 pages, why didn't I read it back then?)
7. Cat's Cradle- Kurt Vonnegut (not his best work. Comparatively, I read Slaugterhouse-Five in a single sitting. I only got two hours of sleep the night before 9th grade started.
8. Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood (I think I took this out of the library three times before actually finishing it.)
9. Atonement- Ian McEwen (Cheated. Got it at audible.com. Started on a cartrip back to Radford. Finished it by taking Bagel on hour-long walks for the rest of the week in 30 degree weather. She did not complain.)
10. King Lear- Shakespeare (My 12th teacher kept referring to King Lear's classic hubris as "a problematic first example of Modern Man's tempestuous struggle with the rest of the world." There are many things wrong with that sentence--namely, it's bullshit. Lear's tempest was of his own making, he's no more an example of modernism than Oedipus or Jason. Asshole.)
11. Ulysses-James Joyce. (Giant, fuckin' accomplishment the first time. Mini accomplishment in the next go round)
12. Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger. (First time I read this, it changed my life. Second time, I threw it against the wall. You have to be in a very particular place to read this book. I call it the 1oth grade.)
13. Bridget Jones's Diary- Helen Fielding (I read it when I don't feel like thinking and nothing is on television. Has not stopped being funny.)
*in that order
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1 comment:
Wow, reading this list made me feel not-so-alone, mostly re: Pride and Prejudice (love all the film versions, though) but especially King Lear. I wrote a paper on this once that was so scathing on ol' KL that The Sap questioned me, to my face, if I had a problem with forgiveness/a soul. Lear might be Shakespeare's biggest asswipe.
:)
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