Reading About Reading
So I just finished So Many Books, So Little Time?" by Sara Nelson and it was a very familiar read. I'm an obsessive reader, from a family of obsessive readers, and I too judge new friends based on what they read, and what they recommend to me. In fact, I've been friends with a girl I work with for over 6 months and have just now recommended a book to her (A Long Way Down by Nick Hornsby) because I wasn't sure how much her and my taste coincide. Luckily she loves the book...crisis averted.
The other fantastic thing about this book, is her willingness to admit to never reading many of the >Classics. So, in the spirit of that I'm going to admit to a couple never read/never finished myself:
A Confederacy of Dunces - Read half of it, couldn't appreciate the humor and never finished it
Any J. R. R. Tolken - Couldn't get past the language
Moby Dick - Was supposed to read it in 11th Grade English, couldn't stand it
All Dickens beside Great Expectations... no excuses for this
There are many more on this list that I should have read, but these are the ones that cause me the most guilt. I invite everyone else who reads this blog to list some of their unread classics and get that reading guilt off their chests.
The other fantastic thing about this book, is her willingness to admit to never reading many of the >Classics. So, in the spirit of that I'm going to admit to a couple never read/never finished myself:
A Confederacy of Dunces - Read half of it, couldn't appreciate the humor and never finished it
Any J. R. R. Tolken - Couldn't get past the language
Moby Dick - Was supposed to read it in 11th Grade English, couldn't stand it
All Dickens beside Great Expectations... no excuses for this
There are many more on this list that I should have read, but these are the ones that cause me the most guilt. I invite everyone else who reads this blog to list some of their unread classics and get that reading guilt off their chests.
posted by K8inNYC at
7:35 PM
5 Comments:
You're an AVID liar!!! I can't believe you didn't finish Confederacy, they first book I ever recommended to you!?! All you said was how much you hated it...
You break my heart.
But by all means keep reading the masterworks of Jasper Fforde, I'm sure he's one opus away from a Pulitzer.
And since you say "I'm not a reader" why have I read everything you listed except that indulgent J.R.R. Tolken crap?
"It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times," eh K8inNYC?
By
YankeeLunatic, at 9:19 PM
I think I always feel guilty about the many many books I haven't read because it must mean that I am somehow lazy or I would have read them already. On the other hand, it took me years to stop reading a book that I just couldn't connect to. And that's a good thing. You give it a try. You're open. You plod on and still nothing? A legitimate reason to quit. My confessions: I have begun Anna Karenina several times. As well as War and Peace. (My sister blanches and moans.)
By
susan grimm, at 7:00 PM
Unread classics--I love it! I'm going to do my own post. But here's a quick list:
Proust (I keep trying though)
Bleak House (it's pretty bleak)
Clarissa (even though it's apparently epistolary, which I love)
And, yes, The Confederacy of Dunces!
By
mary grimm, at 11:55 AM
No moaning, brontesis,just a look of outrage: Anna Karenina is a must. I'm going to start hounding you. Or maybe I'll send it to you, paragraph by paragraph in emails. It should last us well into our 90s.
By
mary grimm, at 11:57 AM
My list of unread classics is way to long to list in a post. Some "classic" authors I can't are John Steinbeck, Eudora Welty, Charles Dickens, and I must confess even though I love the world, I have never read Toliken, there was just too much to slog through.
By
VFox, at 3:01 PM
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