Confessions of a Well-Read Citizen. . . .

[The Comedian]

Alright, I'll fess-up. I haven't read some books that I should have (ages ago). I haven't read a lot of books that most people in my profession (English teacher types) should have read; these are book that most people assume I've read. . .and that I, admittedly, have let them go along with their innocent assumptions.

Okay, here's my confession: (Care to share yours)?

I have not read (my top 5):

1. 1984
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. ANY complete novel by Charles Dickens
4. Paradise Lost
5. Jane Eyre

It's shameful. It's embarrassing. But man. . . it feels good to get off my chest. Thanks for listenin'.

[mtpspur]

True confession--read Jane Eyre by way of Classic Illustrated. Paradise Lost defeated with two stanzas. Pride and Prejudice was read becuase Marvel took the time to adapt it plus I LOVE the Jane Austen mystery series by Stephanie Barron. 1984 was read on my own in high school and I want my hours back. I have to confess I skipped the essay--you'll know the part when you get to it. As to Dickens--Great Expectations and david Copperfield and Christmas Carol and an attempt Edwin Drood which failed by way of boredom. But I'll give it to you Moby Dick--have never got thru that either. Sigh. Did get thru the Leatherstocking saga by Cooper and glad for the effort.

[Alexander III]

Number 1 is utterly overrated, I probably would not even put it in the top 50 novels of the 20th century. You can do without reading it.

Number 2 is a good novel, but a light novel, elegant yet not beautiful, not overrated but also definitely not underrated, you can do without reading this one as well.

Number 3 is a problem. Dickens is arguably the greatest english novelist, You should at least read one of his major works like oliver twist or David Coperfield. Oddly enough I find dickens very easy to read he has a light style which is highly humorous, he may be a bit wordy but that's a minor problem compared to decoding most poetry.

I have not read Paradise lost or Jane Eyre so I cannot comment on the final two.

[Transmodernism]

For me it's:

1. Anything by Brontes.
2. Anything by Austin.
3. James joyce's Ulysses.
4. The Scarlet Letter.

In addition, there are several important books that I began but then stumbled over and failed to complete. These include

1. Nineteen Eighty-four.
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
3. Brave New World.

So I got the Cliffnotes version. But I know that at least in the case of 1984 that was a mistake.

On the other hand, I suppose it doesn't matter because I'm a student, not a teacher. And I'm not even an English student. And my friends think I'm a literature nerd anyway and am too full of esoteric knowledge.

[OrphanPip]

Jane Eyre is the only one on that list I'm missing.

For my own sake, I think I should get around to reading something by Joyce eventually.

Edit: I think knowledge of the plot of 1984 is so pervasive, and Orwell's prose so sparse and uninteresting, that it can be difficult to get into it. I got around to reading it last year, but wasn't very impressed.

[Silas Thorne]

these are book that most people assume I've read. . .and that I, admittedly, have let them go along with their innocent assumptions.



Maybe sometimes it's a good idea to stay silent and pretend, particularly if you've read around the works you haven't read, though not if you require other people to read books you haven't read though... But I guess these aren't books you require your students to read. ;)

I've only read one book by Jane Austen, 'Pride and Prejudice'.

I haven't read any Woolf, or the whole of Paradise Lost either...

I haven't read an awful lot of recent poetry (in the last 20 years or so) up till now, but I am working on it.

I've only read the Old Testament once (and a lot of Apocrypha tales), and the New Testament a few times.

I read 1984 and Animal Farm when I was a wee one, but I should read 1984 again now.

[callipygias]

I bought In Search of Lost Time over three years ago. I used to tell myself I was waiting for the perfect mood, but after all this time I haven't even tried to start the series.

[dfloyd]

I've read all on the list except Paradise Lost. I bought a very nice copy for about $100, hoping that seeing it on my library shelf I would finally attack it. That was three years ago.

After he was dead,
This of him was said.
All his sins were scarlet,
But all his books were read.

[OrphanPip]

Ya, I'm not like Gatsby, almost all the books on my shelves have been read, there's a copy of the Divine Comedy I never got around to, I bought it was it was only 50 cents. I haven't built up all too large a collection though, maybe around 300. It's sad how much time I spent reading in high school, my collection grows much more slowly these days.

[Seasider]

This thread reminds me of a hilarious episode in a book by David Lodge. I think it was Changing Places which is the story of an English academic doing an exchange placement for a year with an American academic. I believe David Lodge had done an exchange from Birmingham University to Berkeley and the book was based on his experiences, Well, there is a party and, as academics will, they play academic party games. The game is to confess which major work you haven't read and the most shocking revelation will win. The guy who wins, an English Lit professor as they all are, confesses to not having read Hamlet and he wins the game. Unfortunately for him, the faculty head is at the party, and he loses his job as a result. It's a very funny book.

[Patrick_Bateman]

Number 1 is utterly overrated, I probably would not even put it in the top 50 novels of the 20th century. You can do without reading it.

Number 2 is a good novel, but a light novel, elegant yet not beautiful, not overrated but also definitely not underrated, you can do without reading this one as well.



2 statements that will discredit anyone

[kiki1982]

I haven't read 1984 either... Once had to read Brave New World in secondary school (the book was short, I think that's what pulled the teacher over the line, because she was sh*te) and got turned off distopia forever. I am not intending to read it in the future either. Just does not interest me.

My confession:

I haven't read much of Shakespeare. :redface: And if I read it, I just can't for the life of me remember what characters and what happened, only vaguely. I have to see a play in order to remember. That's why I know of Much Ado about Nothing and King Lear (admittedly a HORRIBLE DVD).

[kelby_lake]

My confession: I have never read Jane Eyre, despite seeing one film adaptation and two TV ones. Never read Paradise Lost either.

[Seasider]

My confession
1 I've never read Wuthering Heights though I saw the film with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. Actually never read a word of Emily Bronte.
2 I don't like William Blake at all. Not writing and especially not painting. I won't give reasons..don't want to get hate mail from Blake fans.
3 Still haven't read War and Peace though I have downloaded it to my Kindle and it's on my To Do list.
4 I find Proust soporific.
5 Have made up my mind not to read Ulysses.

[Drkshadow03]

Alright, I'll fess-up. I haven't read some books that I should have (ages ago). I haven't read a lot of books that most people in my profession (English teacher types) should have read; these are book that most people assume I've read. . .and that I, admittedly, have let them go along with their innocent assumptions.

Okay, here's my confession: (Care to share yours)?


I think you would be surprised how many literature professors are in the same boat as you. I had an American literature professor who basically admitted that outside of Shakespeare and transatlantic figures (Henry James for example), she hadn't read a ton of major British novelists and poets.

The book blogosphere did exactly this sort of confession about a year ago.

Here is a Victorian lit professor (http://maitzenreads.blogspot.com/2009/01/glaring-omissions.html) admitting the holes in her reading.

Here is a regular common reader type and his confessions (http://wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2009/02/im-so-humiliated.html).

Even with an English BA and MA, I know there are huge holes in my reading. I've gone through various Top 100 Lists of Best Novels, Books you Should've Read, etc., and on average I've read about 30 of 100 books. So it's hard to list titles because there are so many holes I'm slowly attempting to plug.

[Alexander III]

2 statements that will discredit anyone

They will only discredit one in the eyes of one who does not agree with the opinion and thus is already discredited in the eyes of the former and since both are discredited I must confess I am distracted by distraction from distraction.

[Transmodernism]

Paradise Lost is a tricky one. Although it's extremely important, highly quoted (and quotable), and rather magnificent, it is also dry. On the one hand, I appreciate it and marvel at the beauty of its poetry. On the other hand, it is dense and slow going.

Because we know that the garden of Eden story is short and only takes three brief chapters in the OT, it's easy to get ants in your pants; Milton tells this brief story in super slow-motion, in bullet time.

[Greta Kin]

I haven't read
1. Any Dickens novel
2. War and Peace
3. Ulysses

I don't plan to remedy 1 or 3.

[kelby_lake]

Definitely remedy 1

[Greta Kin]

Which would you prescribe?

[Lokasenna]

Part of the problem of seriously studying literature is that the amount of stuff you want to read expands dramatically while your focus objectively diminishes. I've read vast quantities of obscure, obtuse and low-quality sagas, but on the other hand I feel like I've never gotten round to really major stuff. Here are a few I haven't read:

1. Anything by a major Russian author. I will remedy this, I hope.

2. Similarly, my knowledge of the Classics is severely limited - I've read Aristotle's Poetics and Ovid's Metamorphoses, but that's about it. That will be remedied at some point.

3. Actually, thinking about it, the list goes horribly on: Forster, Hardy, Proust, Arnold... Gawd, that's depressing.

[kiki1982]

Oh, yes, two other confessions:

I am not intending to try Dickens anymore as I absolutely loathe him and find him incredibly boring. I like to watch his films, but give me no books. I concede to liking A Christmas Carol, but that's probably because I couldn't understand half the stuff that he wrote because my English wasn't good enough... So, I probably missed out the unimportant and boring bits. I got exhasperated reading Little Dorrit. He could have made it half the size and it would still have been so-so.

And I was severely under-impressed with Joyce. I read a shortstory and was not amused. That put him down on my to do list.

[JCamilo]

Part of the problem of seriously studying literature is that the amount of stuff you want to read expands dramatically while your focus objectively diminishes. I've read vast quantities of obscure, obtuse and low-quality sagas, but on the other hand I feel like I've never gotten round to really major stuff. Here are a few I haven't read:

1. Anything by a major Russian author. I will remedy this, I hope.

.


Anything? This can be quite fast, Chekhov short stories are a matter of minutes :D

[prendrelemick]

I haven't read 1984, but feel I know it intimately, so that's alright then.

As a farmer I'm not obliged to be able to read, never mind to have read certain books.

[Alexander III]

Which would you prescribe?

I think David Coperfield and Oliver Twist are his best novels, but the great thing about Dickens is that, unlike many writers, all his works are of a very high quality and he doesn't have any novels which are bad. He only has great novels and genius novels, of the later the two I mentioned at the beginning are the best in my opinion.

[OrphanPip]

I don't generally think of Oliver Twist as all that special a Dickens novel. The important ones I think are Hard Times, Great Expectations, and David Copperfield.

Edit: Oliver Twist is good for first time Dickens readers because of its length though.

[MystyrMystyry]

I don't generally think of Oliver Twist as all that special a Dickens novel. The important ones I think are Hard Times, Great Expectations, and David Copperfield.

Edit: Oliver Twist is good for first time Dickens readers because of its length though.

Why does everyone happily ignore The Pickwick Papers? Because it's the funniest novel in the English language - by any author?

It's the first I was recommended and far and away the best thing Dickens ever did, the only novel worth re-reading for a regular pick-me-up (I've had it on my bedside for thirty years and it's still laugh out loud hilarious!)

"Sam grinned like the happy father who suddenly realised the cure for his son's blinking was to cut off his head"


Barnaby Rudge was pretty funny too...

I read 1984 when I was twelve and in an intense sci fi phase. I wasn't impressed. There's much better literary sci fi out there, even junk sci fi with more literary merit. Orwell's invention and commentary on modern language Newspeak is really for polititicians and journalists, and is directed at the rise of rubbish tabloids


P and P was extremely witty, but just sooo girly

If you read any Bronte make sure it's Wuthering Heights

I finished Moby Dick with the aid of a bookmark over many moons and have never been more aware that the sign of a true masterpiece is the awareness that you'll be re-reading it one day. I have no intention of re-reading it

[Buddha Frog]

I would have made 1984 one of my confessions although this thread is doing its best to convince me I haven't really missed out. I really enjoyed Animal Farm so thought 1984 would be good too.

I have not read P&P or Wuthering Heights.

Dickens-wise, I completed A Tale of Two Cities but did not complete Copperfield or Twist. Not sure how that worked out.

I also confess to having a weird prejudice against Tolstoy which I attribute to a misplaced allegiance to Dostoyevsky. I have read Kreutzer Sonata, mainly due to its brevity, but will have to pick up War and Peace at some point.

Anyone who has read both, would you say War and Peace is a similar reading experience to Moby Dick?

[k.brignell]

I haven't read any Faulkner. This keeps me up at night.

[Lulim]

(...) Anyone who has read both, would you say War and Peace is a similar reading experience to Moby Dick?

Absolutely no. They're not comparable at all.

My confession would include many of the "musts" of our own literature: Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Thomas Mann, Bertold Brecht.

[YesNo]

I have not read (my top 5):

1. 1984
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. ANY complete novel by Charles Dickens
4. Paradise Lost
5. Jane Eyre

Since I studied Math rather than English, no one I work with expects me to even know the titles of the above books -- and I pretty much fulfill that expectation. If I were to make a confession it would be to admit having read any of the above.

So here it is:

I recall being forced to read 1984 in high school although I only remember an old movie version with a girl crying out ecstatically at the end for "Big Brother".

Also I remember reading out loud the first 100 pages of Pride and Prejudice to my daughter who said she couldn't understand the English in the book because it was so "old". I was afraid she might be right, but we worked through it together until she was able to finish it herself. It was a lot better than I expected and some of the descriptions of the characters where quite funny. She said she finished reading the book on her own, but I never did.

Not much of a confession.

But I do enjoy reading things that I hear people recommend on groups like this. Sometimes I even get more than 10 pages into the book before taking it back to the library such as that huge one by Proust where I got to page 50. I can't remember the name of that book, but in my profession I'm fortunately not expected to.

[OrphanPip]

Since I studied Math rather than English, no one I work with expects me to even know the titles of the above books -- and I pretty much fulfill that expectation. If I were to make a confession it would be to admit having read any of the above.


I get that, when I did my B. Sci. I was pretty sure I was the only person in the department who had picked up a novel in the last year that wasn't a new york times best selling sci-fi paperback.

[kelby_lake]

Which would you prescribe?

I'd start out with A Christmas Carol because it's short and quite festive- great for this time of year :) Then A Tale of Two Cities.



Anyone who has read both, would you say War and Peace is a similar reading experience to Moby Dick?

Hmm, what are you implying here?...

I'm reading Anna Karenina at the moment and I'd highly recommend that.

[OrphanPip]

I'd start out with A Christmas Carol because it's short and quite festive- great for this time of year :) Then A Tale of Two Cities.

A Tale of Two Cities is a good one, while I'm a fan of Dickens (evident from my user name), I have a hard time stomaching his earlier novels.

Edit: I also recommend Anna Karenina, I may be an oddity but I far prefer it to War and Peace.

[Greta Kin]

Thanks - I think I have narrowed it down to two Dickens, if I venture to read him next year.
I already have Anna Karenina, which is on the shortlist of books I'll read next. War and Peace will have to wait.

Forgot: I haven't read and don't intend to read Moby Dick.

[kelby_lake]

Thanks - I think I have narrowed it down to two Dickens, if I venture to read him next year.
I already have Anna Karenina, which is on the shortlist of books I'll read next. War and Peace will have to wait.

Forgot: I haven't read and don't intend to read Moby Dick.

I couldn't finish it. It's very...whaley.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Wow. What's with the hate for 1984?

Anyways, my confessions would be . . .

The Scarlet Letter
Anything by Dickens
Paradise Lost
Wuthering Heights
Pride and Prejudice
War and Peace (tried and failed)
Ulysses (tried and failed)
Many more I can't think of . . .

[JuniperWoolf]

Wow Comedian, those are some big names. What's been keeping you?

Mine:

1. The Destructors by Graham Greene (you know, that short story that pretty much everyone who has ever attended high school has read at one point in their lives). I was in school the day that they read it, but I skipped out halfway through the class.

2. Anything by any Russian great. I tried to read Crime and Punishment once, and I didn't like it. I found him mopey.

3. The Feminine Mystique, but boy did I try. I was like "that doesn't apply to me... nope, that doesn't apply to me either... that concept is dated... that one's obvious... she's already said that..." then I put it down and never picked it up again.

4. I read up to the very last chapter of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I didn't finish because I already knew what was going to happen, and I've been living with this feeling of an incompleted task ever since.

5. I don't read kid's stories by myself, my boyfriend reads them to me when we're in the car or before I go to bed (yeah, we're odd ducks). For that reason, I've started Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and A Christmas Carrol about a million times, but have never finished. We read A Christmas Carrol in the winter and Alice in the spring, and by the time we get half way through the seasons have changed. We start over again from the beginning the next year.

[Tallon]

Animal Farm is my main one, mainly because i have read 7 of his others and most more than once. I'm kind of saving Animal Farm till last, but it's embarrassing because i consider him one of my favourite authors and AF is one of the two everyone knows (1984 isn't overrated in my opinion by the way, just to add a little more balance to the thread).

War and Peace is another, i got a couple of hundred pages in but then got distracted by something else. Anna Karenina is definitely in my top ten but W&P has even more families and names to remember so it's a little more confusing, and there was no Levin type character which i could relate to as much.

Never read any Austen, seems a little too girly, but i'm sure i'm wrong about that.

I've never really tackled any of the French giants either.

[hellsapoppin]

Good books that I haven't read. Well, I started these but didn't finish:

Two Years Before the Mast

Anthony Adverse

The Mahabharata

The Talmud



there are a few more ...

[kelby_lake]

2. Anything by any Russian great. I tried to read Crime and Punishment once, and I didn't like it. I found him mopey.

The Master and Margarita is a non-mopey Russian book. Not all Russian literature is mopey ;)

[prendrelemick]

Why does everyone happily ignore The Pickwick Papers? Because it's the funniest novel in the English language - by any author?

It's the first I was recommended and far and away the best thing Dickens ever did, the only novel worth re-reading for a regular pick-me-up (I've had it on my bedside for thirty years and it's still laugh out loud hilarious!)

"Sam grinned like the happy father who suddenly realised the cure for his son's blinking was to cut off his head"


Barnaby Rudge was pretty funny too...

I read 1984 when I was twelve and in an intense sci fi phase. I wasn't impressed. There's much better literary sci fi out there, even junk sci fi with more literary merit. Orwell's invention and commentary on modern language Newspeak is really for polititicians and journalists, and is directed at the rise of rubbish tabloids


P and P was extremely witty, but just sooo girly

If you read any Bronte make sure it's Wuthering Heights

I finished Moby Dick with the aid of a bookmark over many moons and have never been more aware that the sign of a true masterpiece is the awareness that you'll be re-reading it one day. I have no intention of re-reading it


Yep, Pickwick papers is what you say it is. The shooting party scene makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

[Buddha Frog]

Hmm, what are you implying here?

I am glad I have now read Moby Dick, but sometimes instead of not being able to put it down, it was actually only picked up through perserverance, and an unwillingness to quit.

It was highly worth the effort, but I was just wondering if people who have read War and Peace would say that is a similar experience.

[Scheherazade]

Why does everyone happily ignore The Pickwick Papers? Because it's the funniest novel in the English language - by any author?

It's the first I was recommended and far and away the best thing Dickens ever did, the only novel worth re-reading for a regular pick-me-up (I've had it on my bedside for thirty years and it's still laugh out loud hilarious!)Hear, hear! The Pickwick Papers is the funniest Dickens novel I have read as well (and I did read a few of them).

I am one of those who keep ignoring Moby Dick as well. Truth be told, since joining the Forum and the Book Club, I have been reading the books I would not have read otherwise on my own so some of my negligence has been remedied. I have even overcome my dislike for Faulkner, thanks to these discussions.

- I haven't read anything by Somerset Maugham.

- I have no desire to read the Russian classics (though have read Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazv).

- I enjoy studying poetry but I don't like reading it on my own as a pastime; much rather read prose fiction.

[Wilde woman]

Oh, too many to list....but the gaping holes for me are:

1. Dickens: I've tried many times to get through Oliver Twist, but it simply hasn't happened.

2. Tolstoy: have not read anything by him. Or Chekov.

3. European Romantic novels. I really like the American Romantics, but I haven't really been able to dabble in much European stuff, besides some poetry - Wordsworth and Keats, mostly. I'd like to get into Goethe, Schiller, Rousseau, and Byron.

4. Shaw. I've heard quite a few compliments for him, but haven't gotten around to reading his plays.

5. St. Augustine. Quite frankly, I'm not a big fan of philosophical literature, but as a practicing medievalist, I'm ashamed not to have read this.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

There are quite a few, but nothing makes me feel more ashamed than not having read:

The Adeventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
(I may have read portions of an abridged version for a grade school assignment)

To Kill a Mockingbird

Nothing by Austen

The Canterbury Tales in its entirety.

Gave up about half way through the Gulag Archipelago

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio - De architectura in its entirety

...

[Jeremydav]

It isn't really necessary to read Jane Austen, in my opinion :P

[Drkshadow03]

It isn't really necessary to read Jane Austen, in my opinion :P

Why do you feel that way?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

- I enjoy studying poetry but I don't like reading it on my own as a pastime; much rather read prose fiction.

My sentiments exactly.

[JuniperWoolf]

To Kill a Mockingbird


Really?!? I have no idea how you managed to dodge that one in high school, English teachers are crazy for To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Jeremydav]

Why do you feel that way?

More of a little joke than anything. I just don't like her.

[kelby_lake]

Really?!? I have no idea how you managed to dodge that one in high school, English teachers are crazy for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Tell me about it :mad5:

[kiki1982]

More of a little joke than anything. I just don't like her.

Her books aren't for everyone. It's either love at first sight or instant dislike, in my opinion. And if you're a man, then maybe more of the latter... I am one of the ones that do love her, but I can imagine that the more realistic and down-to-earth-people would like to chuck her stories against the wall. :hat:

[Lokasenna]

Her books aren't for everyone. It's either love at first sight or instant dislike, in my opinion. And if you're a man, then maybe more of the latter... I am one of the ones that do love her, but I can imagine that the more realistic and down-to-earth-people would like to chuck her stories against the wall. :hat:

I went to Austen with the prejudiced preconception that it would be a pile of slushy romance. What I wasn't prepared for was the most masterful use of sarcasm that I have yet discovered - more than any romantic quality, I enjoy Austen for the voice of the woman herself. Such a delightfully sour-tongued, misanthropic old biddy.

So different things in a writer's style can appeal to different people - anyone who's put off Austen on the grounds that they dislike romance should give her a try anyway.

[kiki1982]

In that, you're right, Lokasenna, but still it is about finding a hubby and probably that concept alone can repell people... I mean, the world she describes is so sheltered. There is harldy anyting interesting that happens.

But yeah, masterful sarcasm :smilielol5:, she writes about human nature as much as she displays her own :D It is suprising how similar people were to us, despite them being raised in such a different way...

[stlukesguild]

I went to Austen with the prejudiced preconception that it would be a pile of slushy romance. What I wasn't prepared for was the most masterful use of sarcasm that I have yet discovered - more than any romantic quality, I enjoy Austen for the voice of the woman herself. Such a delightfully sour-tongued, misanthropic old biddy.

I remember approaching Dickinson with similar trepidation as I began to explore poetry more deeply on my own. My high-school teachers had convinced me that she was an effete New England Puritan spinster, while my college professors painted her as the patron saint of feminist lesbians... neither image likely to endear her to me. I was quite shocked by the muscularity and strength of her densely-wrought little poems.

[Drkshadow03]

I went to Austen with the prejudiced preconception that it would be a pile of slushy romance. What I wasn't prepared for was the most masterful use of sarcasm that I have yet discovered - more than any romantic quality, I enjoy Austen for the voice of the woman herself. Such a delightfully sour-tongued, misanthropic old biddy.

I remember approaching Dickinson with similar trepidation as I began to explore poetry more deeply on my own. My high-school teachers had convinced me that she was an effete New England Puritan spinster, while my college professors painted her as the patron saint of feminist lesbians... neither image likely to endear her to me. I was quite shocked by the muscularity and strength of her densely-wrought little poems.

I still want to hear your confession of books you haven't read, but feel you should've by now, St. Luke. :wink5:

[oshima]

I've never finished a Dostoevsky novel, the furthest I got was 60% into The Idiot. The Brothers has set on my shelf for almost a year now but I haven't touched it because I know I won't finish it unless I give it my sole attention for a month. Also never finished Ulysses, but since I'm reading The Portrait of the Artist right now and I'm sure I'll finish it I don't feel so bad about that. Besides, Finnegan's Wake intrigues me more the Ulysses anyway. Oh yeah, and zero Faulkner so far. Ahhh, that felt great...

[MystyrMystyry]

I'm neither proud, ashamed nor embarassed of the books I've avoided or abandoned.

Usually I find something more enjoyable to do with my time than wade through a swirling ocean of words that belong to someone else and don't really take me on the promised journey.

If someone recommends a book, I'm usually more dubious about their taste than eager to feed - I'll make a mental or physical note and perhaps pick it up from a library or booksale when their specific enthusiasm has faded from memory.

Reading something that is more a chore because it's 'required' doesn't cut it for me anymore. Perhaps this is the fault of wisdom, perhaps a world with too many distractions.

I tried Fyodor, and all I could think of was 'what a horrible place and people. I'd rather be learning how to scuba-dive on the Great Barrier Reef. I'd rather be white-water rafting. I'd rather be soaring through the skies, riding the thermals in a hang-glider. Actually I'd rather be doing anything else.'

Life isn't long enough for some things that insist on devouring your time like a ravenous Kraken

Someone somewhere sometime suggested Nabakov's Ada. I read it, enjoyed it, and read a few of his other 'lesser' works (mostly fun), but once I tired of his style, I'd tired and that was it for me - what next?

For me a good book charges my imagination - fills me up with ideas, revitalises me. Far too many recommendations just haven't worked.

So is the recommender a depressive, a loony, too enthusiastic, too twittery?

And then there are blurbs: The funniest book you'll ever read. This book will change your life. The writer speaks in a voice that could cut diamonds with its edge.

Yeah, sure. Why not just say 'the author and publisher really want your money and are so desperate for it they're prepared to sell their own grandmothers and children for spare parts'?

(Actually, I'd probably be tempted to read that book...)

One of the few things in my favour is that I'm not really a quitter, and books abandoned are often just on hiatus, waiting for me to be in the mood.

But there are still those that are clearly a waste of trees

I almost feel like starting a thread 'Books I recommend you avoid'

[papayahed]

I get that, when I did my B. Sci. I was pretty sure I was the only person in the department who had picked up a novel in the last year that wasn't a new york times best selling sci-fi paperback.

me three. But saying that I've never read (which I don't know how they slipped pasted me) To Kill a Mockingbird or Moby Dick.

[MystyrMystyry]

me three. But saying that I've never read (which I don't know how they slipped pasted me) To Kill a Mockingbird or Moby Dick.

Nothing to do with 14, 299 posts made since 2004? ;P

[Varenne Rodin]

I have all of the Isaac Asimov books I could find, and I love listening to the man speak, but I haven't read a single one. I think I'm afraid he'll have said everything I ever wanted to say and I will be forced to give up writing, but he can't really force me. He's not my dad.

[L.M. The Third]

This thread is both comforting and depressing to me, since there isn't that much that I have read.

For example, I haven't read:
Any of the Russians
Orwell
Chaucer
Most anything pre-renaissance.



Such a delightfully sour-tongued, misanthropic old biddy.

Haha. I love that description! The people trying out Austen might be quite a different group, were she always described thus.

[papayahed]

me three. But saying that I've never read (which I don't know how they slipped pasted me) To Kill a Mockingbird or Moby Dick.

:sosp: Yeah, I said "pasted". :blush:


Nothing to do with 14, 299 posts made since 2004? ;P

Welll, being witty and urbane takes a lot of one's time.:smilielol5:

[DanielBenoit]

I feel quite comforted and ashamed as well:

I've never read:

A word of Dante, Chaucer or Cervantes
A complete Tolstoy novel (novellas don't count)
The prophetic books of the Old Testament (Ezekiel, Isiah, etc.)
I've read only a few classical Greek plays
I am terribly ignorant of German poetry (with the exception of the obvious, like Goethe, Schiller, Hesse)

[Seasider]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna
Such a delightfully sour-tongued, misanthropic old biddy
Heavens she was only 42 when she died!
.

[Lokasenna]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna
Such a delightfully sour-tongued, misanthropic old biddy
Heavens she was only 42 when she died!
.

Have you read The History of England? She was already a sour-tongued, misanthropic old biddy by the age of 15. Actual physical age, in my opinion, is no barrier to being an old biddy.

[prendrelemick]

I have all of the Isaac Asimov books I could find, and I love listening to the man speak, but I haven't read a single one. I think I'm afraid he'll have said everything I ever wanted to say and I will be forced to give up writing, but he can't really force me. He's not my dad.


I understand that, I have owned books but not read them for years.
Though usually through fear of disappointment.

[Varenne Rodin]

I understand that, I have owned books but not read them for years.
Though usually through fear of disappointment.

Yes! I do that too! One of my favorite authors wrote several books that I loved. Then he wrote one that was terrible. It seemed written by another person. Since then I purchased the rest of his books, but I don't want a repeat of the terrible one, they are all still sitting on shelves. :)

Let's face our fears, prendrelemick! I will if you will.

[Cazzasaurus]

1. I was unable to bring myself to finish Ulysses.
2. Although I have a beautiful copy of the Devine comedy, I have never read it.
3. The scarlet letter
4. I was (until recently) far to scared to read the Shining.

[MystyrMystyry]

I managed Ulysses - but not chronographically as it was (perhaps not) intended. A chapter here and there, sometimes five in sequence, re-read a few, skipping every second one reversedly for ten, all over the place, until one day it occurred to me that I could find no new chapters that I hadn't read. Maybe one day I'll do the right thing and read it through.

Finnegan's wake seemed a triumph of crazy self-indulgence, but them a Faber book of 'Anthony Burgess' Introduction to F.W.' came my way. Very interesting, but insufficiently to make me want to try again.

But then I thought: the idea of a dream novel, with dream logic and dream imagery, but which could be read by anyone - so I gave it ago and even finished it. No publisher though. Perhaps I'll ebook it.


Then there are works that didn't get finished and mysteriously disappeared. One called The Island, where the American author (who???) tried to capture Scots vernacular - failed miserably - but I'd still love to know how it ended.

[Dodo25]

I was gonna answer this, but after looking at 'litnet's top 100 authors', it looks too depressing to even bother haha. At least I read some of the works of the top 2..

[lowradiation]

Off the top of my head:

A word of Dante, Dickens.

Wuthering Heights, Middlemarch, Dr Jekyll...

Can't think of too many, I'm a sucker for trying random genres and authors, and reading the odd one novel from them. I've read half of Crime and Punishment for example, but nothing else Russian.

Doing an English and History degree I usually get bogged down in my reading lists. I also have a large interest in post-war US Lit, I feel guilty for not having read Pynchon or Foster-Wallace yet. And only The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

[hanzklein]

I managed Ulysses - but not chronographically as it was (perhaps not) intended. A chapter here and there, sometimes five in sequence, re-read a few, skipping every second one reversedly for ten, all over the place, until one day it occurred to me that I could find no new chapters that I hadn't read. Maybe one day I'll do the right thing and read it through.

Finnegan's wake seemed a triumph of crazy self-indulgence, but them a Faber book of 'Anthony Burgess' Introduction to F.W.' came my way. Very interesting, but insufficiently to make me want to try again.

But then I thought: the idea of a dream novel, with dream logic and dream imagery, but which could be read by anyone - so I gave it ago and even finished it. No publisher though. Perhaps I'll ebook it.


Then there are works that didn't get finished and mysteriously disappeared. One called The Island, where the American author (who???) tried to capture Scots vernacular - failed miserably - but I'd still love to know how it ended.Ulysses should be read front to back, you really might have ruined the book for yourself by reading it out of chronological order. The text that Ulysses most references is itself, so you probably were very confused in some paragraphs, and made the book unnecessarily harder, as well as squandered the immense enjoyment one gets out of Ulysses as they begin to figure out the book's message and connect to its characters.

[qimissung]

As an English teacher I have to confess to never having read anything by:

Dickens except for A Tale of Two Cities which I loved. His written work in general just doesn't appeal to me, but I hope someday to read at least a few. In the meantime, there's the miniseries for Bleak House which I've heard is good.

Dostoevsky; a-a-a-r-r-r-gh! Someday I'll read Crime and Punishment. I guess I've been too busy. :D

Dante. I read parts of The Divine Comedy in college. Does that count?

And others to numerous to count.

I have read 1984. Personally I find it brilliant. I also love Austen, but she really might be to girly for some. Yes, her characters inhabit a world that is severely proscribed, but for me that is the joy. Their very survival hinges on the outcome of these small, seemingly unimportant events. Yes, the women want to marry. Who they marry will determine the very quality of their lives, as witness the sisters in Mansfield Park. Maybe that's the one you should start with, Comedian, although I personally find Pride and Prejudice to be sheer joy.

[MystyrMystyry]

Ulysses should be read front to back, you really might have ruined the book for yourself by reading it out of chronological order. The text that Ulysses most references is itself, so you probably were very confused in some paragraphs, and made the book unnecessarily harder, as well as squandered the immense enjoyment one gets out of Ulysses as they begin to figure out the book's message and connect to its characters.

You are probably right (of course you are!), but the way my conventional attacks on it repeatedly failed to get me anywhere, at least my new method got me to the finish line. Not a habit I'd recommend anyone get into, but in this case, however dyslexic my first time, I won't be afraid to tackle it (as if it would be a chore!) again...

[Hyacinthine]

I haven't read anything at all by Faulkner, Bellow, Updike, Waugh, Cather... nothing by the Bronte sisters except Agnes Grey, which seems odd. Though I have read certain things by the authors of the following novels, I haven't read:

War and Peace
The Idiot
Paradise Lost

[arrytus]

Fiction I've yet to read [which I intend to, owning most of them- off the top of my head]:

A Tale of Genji- Lady Murasaki
Carpenter's Gothic- William Gaddis
Nostromo- Joseph Conrad
Child of God- Cormac McCarthy
Bleak House-Dickens
Barnaby Rudge- Dickens
Coriolanus- Shakespeare
Broom of the System-DF Wallace
The Joseph Quartert- Thomas Mann
Jerusalem Delivered- Tasso
The Town- Faulkner
The Mansion- Faulkner
Adventures of Augie March- Saul Bellow
Against the Day- Thomas Pynchon
The Unnameable- Beckett
Love in the time of Cholera- GG Marquez
Outer Dark- Cormac McCarthy
The Satanic Verses- Rushdie
About 50 novellas by Balzac

Pretty much everything by Lope De Vega, John Barth [save Giles Goat Boy], and V.S. Naipual

And those which I've learned of since joining this forum:
Lu Xun
Lucanus
Statius