What do you aspire to read?

[Pollopicu]

I aspire to someday read Ulysses, and understand it. I would like to know what all the big fuss is about, but I have a ways to get there.

I also aspire to read all the classics. At least one work of each great writer.

[DanielBenoit]

Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
All of Shakespeare's works

I'll have to think of some more.

[kinkajou]

All of In Search of Lost Time. Got Swann's Way under my belt but then stalled. Hope to re-read SW and then plow on ahead.

[Desolation]

I aspire to read many of the Western classics...Even though I'm not interested in a great deal of them. I would also like to have a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of Nietzsche, Voltaire, Dostoevsky, and a few other writers and philosophers.

Of the books I own, many of which I have not yet read, Ulysses is my biggest mountain to climb.

[Zeniyama]

I'm making my way slowly through Ulysses right now, and I hope to finish it. Though, sometimes, when my concentration is dipping, it seems hopeless to get through all seven hundred and whatever pages; especially with the way it's written.

I hope someday to have enough literary experience under my belt to read Finnegans Wake and come out still alive. Right now, though, my nose starts to bleed past the second paragraph.

Other books I'd like to read:

Also Sprach Zarathustra
The Idiot
Atlas Shrugged
The other two parts of The Divine Comedy

[Barbarous]

Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
All of Shakespeare's works

I'll have to think of some more.

Finnegans Wake, my friend! I have read it twice already and plan on reading it (and Ulysses for that matter) 50 more times! It's my goal to read at least one of Joyce's best works once a year, so far I have read both and I'm about to finish up Portrait next month, all rereads. I'm a die-hard Joycean, heh.

But yes, Proust's A La Recherche du temps perdu is on my list to complete. I have read two volumes already and plan to reread them. It's also my goal to read and understand a myriad of philosophers, Kant, Derrida, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc.

I consider it one of the utmost joys of reading knowing that I won't be done with a book simply because I put it down. Rereads and reflections are what enjoying a book is all about. I love the security that I'll probably never have anything not to read!

[mal4mac]

I aspire to someday read Ulysses, and understand it. I would like to know what all the big fuss is about, but I have a ways to get there.

Me to. In partial preparation I'm reading "Ulysses and Us" by Declan Kiberd which, seems to me, to give a good indication of what all the fuss is about. It's a great (and fairly easy) read and has certainly inspired me to read Ulysses.

I've set myself the target of reading the classics from 'the best down'. At the moment I'm reading:

RSC Complete Shakespeare - going very well at about an act a day.
Canterbury Tales - cheating a bit here, reading Peter Ackroyd's new Penguin translation. This a very easy read, a nice wind down from Shakespeare!
Montaigne's essays - also going well with Screech's excellent translation. Getting through more than one essay a day! Again, complements Shakespeare nicely.

I've recently read all Tolstoy's major short novels - these are not only top notch but an easy read (in the Maude translation). Same goes for Dickens - I've read most of his novels.

In the near future I'm aiming to read Dante & Goethe's master works. Like Joyce, they look tough..

[Rogers_68]

I am through about 950 pages of Les Miserables. It's good but at around 800 I had to take a break. I'm back at it again and plan to stick with it until I finish it.

I also need to finish Against The Day by Thomas Pynchon. It's easy to put it down because it skips all around so much. I don't feel it's one big story but more like random glimpses of characters. I plan to finish it by the end of the year.

[waterfallin]

I've got War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Les Miserables all burning holes on my bookshelf waiting to be read...not to mention about 20 other books I can find time to buy, but not to read.Eventually there may come a day when i have nothing to do and nothing to distract me and I'll sit down and read them...eventually...

[Pollopicu]

Another I aspire(d) to read was Dante's Divine Comedy. However, today I bought the leather bound version at Barnes & Nobles. It was wrapped in plastic. When I got into the car, I unwrapped it and realized it wasn't a story. It was in poetry setting. I'm already have my hands full from reading Walt Whitman, so I walked right back into the book store and exchanged it for a copy of Crime and Punishment. I'm not yet ready for Dante. I aspire to be, someday.

[grotto]

I have Ovid’s Metamorphoses and War and Peace on my shelf, I however think Ovid will win first, I’m not a big Tolstoy fan but for some reason I figure I should try it. At some point, not now though, I need to first get it out of my head that its work.

[Scheherazade]

I would like to be able to read these in French one day:

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8131/martinec.png (http://img27.imageshack.us/i/martinec.png/)

[MTA]

I'm reading Ulysses right now, and while it is definitely tough, it is in no way impossible. The hyperbolic language used by most people to describe the novel is uncalled for.

Really, as long as you are accustomed to the stream-of-consciousness writing style, the book is pretty simple to understand. Now, the allusions/puns/metaphors are what get tricky.

But really, anybody aspiring to read Ulysses that has a pretty decent grasp on the writing style will be fine. We are all human beings. Our thoughts are fragmented images and ideas. That sums up Ulysses.

[rimbaud]

there are a lot of books I want to read
I finish one book and there are at least 4 new ones that I want to read next
the more I read the more books I discover
thanks to all the great writers my thirst will never stop :)

[sixsmith]

In search of lost time is my white whale.

[mal4mac]

I've got War and Peace... burning holes on my bookshelf waiting to be read...

Why not just challenge yourself to read the first chapter, then perhaps a chapter a day. Then try and stop reading more than one chapter a day :D I found W&P a wonderfully easy read (compared to most 'supposedly great literature') and easily the best part of my day. It was in no way a chore, everything else seemed like a chore compared to it.


Another I aspire(d) to read was Dante's Divine Comedy. However, today I bought the leather bound version at Barnes & Nobles. It was wrapped in plastic. When I got into the car, I unwrapped it and realized it wasn't a story...

It is a story. They used to tell stories using poetry in those days. You need to do some research and not get attracted by leather bindings :D

There are several dozen translations of Dante available, ranging from the incomprehensible to the easy read. Some are translations into prose, if you want to skip the poetry,

I've been researching which versions of "difficult to read" classics to get for months - looking at forums, Amazon Look Inside, Google books and translation guides. I'm haunting bookshops & libraries - comparing whatever Dante's they have until the staff start to give me hard looks. It's time well spent, and fun (for a geek like me!)

Mandelbaum's translation of the Divine Comedy is my current favourite - though I need to do more research (or do I?!)


In search of lost time is my white whale.

It's one of mine. I made it about half way through last time I attempted it. I just got tired of the complicated, vacuous, people Proust kept throwing at me. I started losing interest, slowed down, and gave up. And I usually like 'big novels' - I've finsihed all the major novels of Tolstoy, Dickens, and Cervantes, with no loss of interest, and only wishing they were longer.

I also gave up on Ulysses, but (through reading "Ulysses and us" by Kiberd) I may now have enough knowledge and motivation to get through it. Are there similar motivators for Proust?

[Pollopicu]

I didn't buy it because it was leather bound. I bought it because I wanted to read it.

It was only $20.00 and doubt it was even leather. More like cheap plastic. I personally would have preferred the Modern library edition, but it wasn't in stock.
I have wanted to read The Divine Comedy for years, ever since I read a biography on Modigliani and learned it was his favorite book, and he would constantly go around quoting it to anyone who would listen.

Please do not assume I walk into a book store and I'm attracted to the big red shiny balls.

[The Comedian]

I really need to read Jane Eyre. I keep putting it off, and off, and off. . . .because I'm worried that I'll start it and not finish, which would greatly upset me. And I suppose I should read Pride and Prejudice too, which is by some English author whom I've heard reference to from time to time.

I don't have a lot of patience with "the course of true love never did run smooth" novels, but I need to find a way to enjoy them more than I currently do.

[Rogers_68]

Eventually there may come a day when i have nothing to do and nothing to distract me and I'll sit down and read them...eventually...

Nothing to distract you, as in internet discussion forums...? :)


I'm reading Ulysses right now, and while it is definitely tough, it is in no way impossible. The hyperbolic language used by most people to describe the novel is uncalled for.

Really, as long as you are accustomed to the stream-of-consciousness writing style, the book is pretty simple to understand. Now, the allusions/puns/metaphors are what get tricky.

But really, anybody aspiring to read Ulysses that has a pretty decent grasp on the writing style will be fine. We are all human beings. Our thoughts are fragmented images and ideas. That sums up Ulysses.

That's a good way to put it. I've only read it once (this year) and I don't understand why it is such a problem to read. I can say that I didn't understand every tiny detail but I think that's okay. It was fun to read and I want to do it again some time.

Off topic, nice write up on Inherent Vice. I haven't made it to reading it yet but I plan to.

[MTA]

Thanks! Inherent Vice was an absolute blast. You will love it.

[Scheherazade]

I really need to read Jane Eyre. I keep putting it off, and off, and off. . . .because I'm worried that I'll start it and not finish, which would greatly upset me. Hey, let's have a group reading for that... I have been meaning to re-read it for such a long time and with the group readings, one finds reading easier to carry on.

Maybe during next school break?

[DanielBenoit]

Finnegans Wake, my friend! I have read it twice already and plan on reading it (and Ulysses for that matter) 50 more times! It's my goal to read at least one of Joyce's best works once a year, so far I have read both and I'm about to finish up Portrait next month, all rereads. I'm a die-hard Joycean, heh.

Yeah so am I, heh.



It's also my goal to read and understand a myriad of philosophers, Kant, Derrida, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc.


Unless you've had some experience in Western philosophy, be prepared to be confused :D

But it's worth the experience, for me at least. It makes me feel so special that I can get through one of Derrida's essays and come out alive :lol:

[waterfallin]

Nothing to distract you, as in internet discussion forums.
haha, exactly. I spend way too much time on this site :)

Why not just challenge yourself to read the first chapter, then perhaps a chapter a day. Then try and stop reading more than one chapter a day I found W&P a wonderfully easy read (compared to most 'supposedly great literature') and easily the best part of my day. It was in no way a chore, everything else seemed like a chore compared to it.

I've already started reading some of it, but the version I have has print that's barely ledgible, let alone readable. I forgot to check before I bought it, so until I find a new copy it's on the backburner for now. I found it quite enjoyable while reading the bit that I did, except for the seemingly endless cast of characters with remarkably interesting names :)