I was going to use today to update you on my progress knitting (my newest hobby). But I have to take pictures, then work with those pictures and blah blah blah...feel too lazy for that. So come back tomorrow to see my work-in-progress scarf and the baby blanket that was already given away. So instead...book quest update.
I should probably explain the book quest since there are tons of new people stopping by this blog (Welcome NaBloPoMo randomizers! Other readers, for a fun time/to find new and exciting blogs go randomize). Basically Time Magazine put out a list of the 100 best English language novels since 1923. I am going to read all of them (along with A and M, my partners in craziness). Add to this list the 30 books you should read before you die (chosen by librarians) and you get a list of 122 books (there is some overlap and we decided not to include the Bible. It just wasn't going to happen). So far I've read 42 (exactly 80 left).
Since we last discussed the book quest I have read 4 books (i think...). Right now I don't think I'll review all 4 but...maybe when I run out of things to say in late November I'll be revisiting those books...
Last night I finished Mrs. Dalloway. I also read To the Lighthouse some time ago for the quest, so I feel familiar with Virginia Woolf. I've decided that her writing is just not for me. She writes beautifully and sometimes I did find myself appreciating a sentence for its artistry. But in all, I found myself bored with the book. I got lost in some of the sentences and had to read them over. I got lost in the imagery and had to go back and figure out who was saying what. This could be attributed to my speed reading. But even when reading slow I found myself/my brain somewhere else. I just wasn't involved - and for me, I judge a book by my involvement with the characters. So eh, not a winner.
Next up: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I am about 30 pages in already and am enjoying it.
SUCH stress to put on oneself! I sometimes wonder if the lists are such good ideas. As an English teacher, I try very hard to recognize that not every book works for all students, and to force someone through a book (as I was forced through The Grapes of Wrath *shudder*) serves only to alienate the reader from the reading. Still, if it's working for you, I say RUN WITH IT.
ReplyDeleteI'm off to check out the links; I've posted commentaries about "the canon" before, and I'm interested to see what other people think belongs on the MUST READ lists.
I, too, have set some similar tasks for myself. I've been working on reading all of the recipients of the big prizes -- The Booker, the Pulitzer, and, of course, the Nobel. I've had to put the project on pause, or at least not make it my main focus, because it was starting to obsess me too completely. I've seen that Time list before, and will probably tackle it sometime, but a lot of those books are on my Books to Find list anyway, so I haven't consciously committed myself to the project. It's an interesting pursuit, though, and I like doing it.
ReplyDeleteI find it really interesting that Time chose 1923 as the year to begin the list. It seems like they did it deliberately to exclude Ulysses, which was published in 1922! Not having Joyce on the list will make your project quite a bit easier. If you don't like Woolf you'd probably hate Joyce. I like Woolf and I kind of hate Joyce.
This is going to make me sound like a complete literary snob (which, um, I am), but I think the Guardian librarian's list is shit. I liked The Curious Incident and The Life of Pi, but I would never dream of putting them on a list like this. And I could have gone my entire life without having read The Time Traveler's Wife or The Poisonwood Bible. In fact, I wish someone had told me not to read The Lovely Bones because I really despise it -- I would put it on a list of "Your Life will be Enriched if you DON'T Read These Books." Ugh.
With some notable exceptions, I agree with the Time list on almost every single one of the books that I've read. I would have picked Pnin over Pale Fire for a second Nabokov, but I love that he's listed twice at all.
May I humbly suggest you seek out Caron McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter next, or at least soon? I read it this past spring and it is on my list of top favourite books in the world ever. Almost everything she's written is divine.