Skipped Hamlet? Never read the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Tell us about the books you haven't read, and whether you ever plan to remedy that.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Answers

Dude: The Illiad. Go figure. Looking back on the classes I've taken, I don't get how this one got missed. So, I'm all over it like white on rice. I went out and got the Fagles translation after all, because the Lattimore lacks enough white space to provide comfortable reading. I'm reading the introduction by Bernard Knox (famous Classicist and really smart guy) and I'm hooked. It's going to take forever because I have major problems reading epic poetry - namely the attention span of a gnat. I am so dependent on sentences and paragraphs for long stories - put this stuff on short lines, break up the flow of a sentence and my mind decides to go for a little walk and pick dandelions. Monkey mind. I still recall, vividly, trying to read Paradise Lost for Intro to Lit in college and being miserable the whole time. I never finished, I simply gave up.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Last year, I made a vow to pick up at least one Great Work of Literature on my weekly sojourns to the library.

It began and died with "The Great Gatsby". I just couldn't get into it at all. I love F. Scott the person; he and Zelda were fascinating people, but I can't can't can't get into his writing no matter how hard I try. Same can be said for Papa. Hemingway - amazingly interesting man, abysmally dull writer.

I'm not like some illiterate freak. I've been reading Shakespeare since I could read, I love the Bronte's, Dickens, a *bunch* of the classic stuff. There are just some that I can't get into no matter how I try.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Gabby: have you tried using a plain bookmark or index card to block off all of the text except the part you're reading? I find that to be a necessity for epic poetry.

And I'm a giant geek. I loved Paradise Lost, and I (shamefully) love Hemingway. But I just can't like those Victorians.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Beth, how do you keep track of what you're reading?

I can read maybe three different books during a period of time, but aren't you close to reading fourteen? How do you not get mixed up?

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

No, I'm only reading four right now. The ones under "since March 1" are the ones I've finished.

I keep my main reading list on my Handspring, and I check them off as I go. I broke it down by month to keep myself to a schedule. The others are on the bookshelf, in alphabetical order.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Oh, did you mean how do I not get the books confused? I don't know. I just don't.

They're all pretty different.

I need multiple books because sometimes the one I'm reading is too big to carry with me, or in hardback so I don't want to read it in the bathtub, or too likely to provoke a conversation in a coffee house (see: Pussy, King of the Pirates).

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Ah. Gotcha.

There's a whole mess of Heinlein books here that my boyfriend would love for me to read. I tried one (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, I think), and didn't do well. I'm easily turned off by anything in the science-fiction genre, but there are so many people out there that love his work, I figure I should just pick a different one off the shelf and see if I might like that one better. It's difficult to force myself to read something that I'm sure I'll hate.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Keli, if only there weren't so very many letters between A and H in the alphabet, I'd be right there with you. Heinlein is on my list, too. (Thanks to Jeremy.)

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

I think this is an amazing idea, this reading project. I definitely need to read more, especially when the alternative is watching television. I started reading "Fall on Your Knees" by Ann-Marie MacDonald yesterday, and the main character has an idea that if he reads a particular set of books (the "classics") he'll basically know everything. (He's got the Encyclopedia Britannica too.) I haven't finished the book, so I'm not sure where the idea's going, but I like it.

Anyway, I haven't read Tolkien. At all. I can't get into it. I have a children's picture book called "Mr Bliss" by Tolkien. I haven't finished it. It's too slow. I'll try again, though, someday.

Reading all the books in the house is a good idea, except for technical references. I don't have to read "Programming in C", do I?

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

No way, because then I'd have to read it, too, plus Technical Calculus and Analytic Geometry, and a whole bunch of outdated HTML manuals.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

I never read Asimov, Steinbeck, Hemingway, or Faulkner (beyond a short story or two). I tried, honest. I just either hated them within a few pages or lost interest (and Faulkner got on my nerves).

I may try again with Steinbeck and Hemingway someday, although I have many other things I want to read before then, but have little interest in Asimov (I am not big on SF even though I did read a lot of Heinlein in high school) or Faulkner.

I feel kind of bad but figure I have read enough other things to make up for it. Problem is, I don't always remember what I have read very well, which makes me feel worse than not having read it at all! But I don't know, I feel I have read enough to make up for it in general. There are a lot of worthy books out there that you don't often hear about, just because they are not Hemingway or Ovid or whatever.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Tolkien gets on my damn nerves, and so I've never gotten past the first Lord of the Rings book. This breaks my heart, because so many people I love and like (my brother, especially) adore the man and his books, and I feel like I'm totally missing something.

I've missed lots of classic-classics - most of Hawthorne's oeuvre, and everything Dickens ever put to paper. I have no desire to ever crack any of those spines.

But I miss not having read much in the way of Henry James, or Edith Wharton, and I feel like a dope for only having read a handful of Shakespeare's sonnets, only a piece of Beowulf, only parts of the Canterbury tales, and a smidge of Emily Dickenson. I think the last bit was because I spent my entire time fitting all her poems to the Gilligan's Island theme, and couldn't concentrate.

Heinlein people - be wary. The man began to go slowly nuts as he aged, and his feelings on women and equality didn't age so well either. Check out Stranger in a Strange Land for an excellent introduction to him.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

I haven't read any 19th century Am & Brit lit since freshman year of college. If it wasn't in the Norton anthology, I didn't read it and so I am barely familiar with Henry James, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Byron Keats Shelley Wordsworth Tennyson. I am also not a big reader of early 20th c. fiction except for Hemingway and P.G. Wodehouse.

Similarly, I have not read much philosophy from the rise of Neoplatonism through the end of the Enlightenment. So, we're talking, like, most of the last two millenia.

I do not plan to remedy these gaps in my knowledge. I left those gaps on purpose because I did not enjoy what I sampled in those areas.

I do, however, regret not having a more multicultural education. I know nothing about the history, cultures, religions and literature of Asia. I hope to learn the histories of China, India, Japan, and Persia someday. I would also really like to learn something about the Buddhist worldview -- not self-help Buddhism, but the original article. I mean to read the Bhagavad-Gita. I would like to understand Confucianism.

Except for the history, these subjects are so alien to me that I don't feel qualified to tackle them without an instructor. If I ever have the time for adult education classes, I intend to sign up for intro classes on Asian religions and lit.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Beth, I'm so impressed by this project.

I have a really hard time reading for anything but pleasure. If something isn't immediately gratifying, I can't stand to continue with it. I find things like the ones on your reading list rather tough sledding. The language, the pace of the story telling, everything makes it feel like work instead of pleasure. I sought out modern lit classes in college, except for a Shakespear class that I took because I felt like I should use the opportunity. I'm slightly sorry I didn't take advantage of others to read other difficult things, but not very.

I like Jane Austen, but I definitely feel like reading her books takes an effort.

I remember reading Candide in college and being amazed that it was funny and fun to read. That was the first time I'd ever enjoyed something old.

I read the Lord of the Rings in Jr High and recall little about it. I don't plan to re-read it. Jr. high seems like the right time for it. Lately people have been urging me to read Moby-Dick. I really have no interest in it, but even my dad used to say it was a "great yarn".

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

>I think the last bit was because I spent my entire time fitting all >her poems to the Gilligan's Island theme, and couldn't concentrate.

Jen, i know that feeling! I was trying to read "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in a poetry class once. I was doing okay until someone piped out "Hey! You can sing this poem to the tune of Gilligan's Island!"

That was it. I could not read that damn thing without hearing that music in the background. It was awful.

I haven't read any Hemingway. Fitzgerald. Never got past the first little bit of "Lord of the Rings". Very little Shakespeare.

In truth there is a LOT that i think i should have read and never did.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

I haven't read Madame Bovary. Or War and Peace. Or The Brothers Karamazov. And there are still five Shakespeare plays I haven't read. It's kind of driving me crazy.

Don't mind me, I'm just an obsessive-compulsive reader (if there is such a thing. If there's not, then I'll be the first documented case). I'm a junior in college, and I somehow expect myself to have done a lifetime's worth of reading in twenty years.

(There's such a thing as the "Lifetime Reading List." It's updated by one of the major publishing houses every couple years. And even if you don't follow it book by book, it's still great to use when you a.) want to feel bad about how little you've accomplished academically in life, or, b.) just need a reading suggestion.)

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Haven't read any Tolkien, don't really care one way or the other if I ever do. Will probably read the rest of Shakespeare eventually. In general I DO NOT LIKE books with sad endings (I don't care how good it was otherwise; if it bums me out for days after I finish it that ruins it for me. I don't need more sad things in my head, thanks), so that shoots out most of all the great classics for me.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Someday, I will finish Anna Karenina. And Paradise Lost, if only so I can appreciate Philip Pullman more. And Pilgrim's Progress. Those are the only Foundations of Western Civ and Lit books I haven't read. Oh, and the Bible. Yeah. That might be important. I have a lot to read, mind you, like Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair and Bleak House and Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses and Underworld and Lady Oracle and Sentimental Education and 2/3 of Shakespeare's plays, but I think I have a working foundation of mythology, criticism, history, and linguistics to be going along with--even though every day I find another gap.

But then there's non-Western Civ and Lit, where I draw a complete blank. Lady Murasaki. Um. And those other ones. Complete blank.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

I haven't read most of the books on Beth's reading list. I've read some Hemmingway, FS Fitzgerald, I've read 2 of 3 Lord of Rings books, Heinlien, That Fountainhead book, Steinbeck, Jane Austen (KILL ME NOW - never again), some Shakespeare of course, James Joyce. A lot of others that are considered classics.

I just prefer light reading. I'm a Science geek- that's what I want to learn, reading is a good way to past time, and I don't want to really think a lot when I do it - One of my favorite authors is Fiona Walker- long tales of silly people. Bliss

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

I had the same kind of problem with Emily Dickinson that Jen had. For me, though, the tune was "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Try it. You'll see.

I have missed out on the Bronte sisters. I don't know how I managed it. No Wuthering Heights. No Jane Eyre.

I'm impressed by Beth's plan as well. If I were better organized, I could do the same, but so many of my books (read and otherwise) are still in boxes. Maybe that's just the impetus I need to unpack them.

I used to have a book that was an annotated reading list. I wish I still had that. It wasn't one of those "top 100 books" lists. It was divided into fiction/nonfiction, which additional divisions under those genres. Is there something like that available on the web?

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

Um ...... AP English guaranteed that I didn't miss that much. I could stand to read more Hemingway though and I never could make myself read George Orwell.

As for Heinlein, coming from the experience of having been scarred for life by reading Stranger in a Strange Land at too young an age, I'd say start on his lighter end and work up to that magnum opus instead, honestly.

Friday is a touch lighter, has a kickass heroine as well as being a tightly written quick pick-up action/adventure story. Starship Troopers is an interesting commentary on civic responsibility which was one of Heinlein's pet issues, and has -nothing- to do with that schlocky film which is a guilty pleasure in our house.

Up until 2 years ago, I'd missed out on Tolkien's The Silmarillion which I also first attempted at age 9 and never could get into, but finally ate up on Metro rides into the city when I was still working downtown DC in '99 and my history-loving self loved the mythos developed there.

If you don't like The Lord of the Rings, try The Hobbit instead, which has much more humor and a lighter touch than LotR and can help you get fond of the world and some of the characters who show up again in LotR.

Also amusing by Tolkien, The Father Christmas Letters -- you can get this at amazon.com or any of the online bookshops if you can't find it in a store -- it would be in the children's section, and it's a series of letters written by Tolkien for his children as Father Christmas. He wrote one for them every year, along with illustrations, generating a charming on-going yearly story about the denizens of the North Pole in epistolary format.

I tend not to read too many bestsellers or non-fiction. Every now and then, something will grab me and I'll pick it up. But mostly I stick to scifi/fantasy.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

no orwell here, either. and i made it exactly halfway through lord of the rings before giving up. no dante, very little paradise lost and no spenser or faerie queens at all.

i feel guilty about the epics. and the orwell. but i really couldn't give a shit about lord of the rings.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

Sorry, BethK, I've read The Hobbit, and it didn't make me feel any more interested in The Lord of the Rings.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

I haven't read Paradise Lost --except as the words to the Wm. Blake illustrations. Haven't read much philosophy. For those anti-orwell folks, you could try "Homage to Catalonia", which is a gteat journalistic read, as Orwell describes his experiences fighting the fascists in the Spanish Revolution. Or you could check out Animal Farm with the Ralph Steadman illustrations..

I like Austen, but she cen be tiring, not the wordiness as much as the overall take on the futility and viciousness of 'society'. I don't mind the wordy ones much, though I can't read'em all the time. I also dig The Scarlet Letter, because Hester is kick-ass.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

Lizzie, I read the HOBBIT when I was ten or so, and wasn't particularly impressed. THE LORD OF THE RINGS when I got to it, at thirteen or so, knocked me flat. I'm not saying you'll love it like I did. But I DO say you can't judge LOTR by the HOBBIT. One's written as a kid's book, the other as an epic.---Al of NOVA NOTES.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001

On my "one of these days" list: Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged; James Fenimore Cooper, Last of the Mohicans; Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood. (Sabatini was one of my Grandfather's favorite authors. I inherited his hardcover copies. The illustrations are magnificant.)

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2001

Al, I feel Lord of the Rings is perfect for 13 year olds. I read it in Jr High and liked it a lot. But now? It doesn't interest me at all.

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2001

Understandable, Lizzie. I find it richer now---especially after reading the SILMIRALLION (I'm too lazy to look up the right spelling) and THE LAYS OF BELERIAND and finding much of the hinted history of Middle-Earth...but to each their own. Certainly its flaws are many--- but like W.H. Auden, I remain extremely impressed by it as a whole.--- Al of NOVA NOTES

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2001

Aaagh...so much I haven't read! I read a lot of nonfiction history as I teach history and I'm always trying to stay on top of different subjects. My students are all soldiers and when we talk about civil wars, inevitably Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia, etc. come up and i need to know what was happening over there (historically and currently.) I do recommend Philip Gourevitch's "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" if you want to understand Rwanda. He is a brillian writer.

I haven't read the Brontes all the way through and last attempted them more than five years ago. I'm committed to getting through Jane Eyre at least this year. I want to read the Three Musketeers and after renting Emma Thompson's version of Sense and Sensibility last month I have an interest in reading Jane Austen. Never really cared before, but that's my own laziness.

And there's so much more. I read Shakespeare and Swift in high school, but I have a great copy of Chaucer that belonged to my father and I would like to get through that once. Some Hemingway I like, some not, haven't read Fizgerald since high school either. The big one I feel like I missed is Dickens though. I've never even read A Christmas CArol all the way through. I've heard about so many of his books and caught bits and pieces on tv. Seems like I should finally see just what he wrote.

I have a copy of Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters, and it really is fabulous!

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2001

I have not read War and Peace. I have it, and I'm just been waiting for the right phase when I will have time to get through it at a rate of more than 5 pages a day on the subway. I also never read The Faerie Queen or Paradise Lost, and only a wee bit of Dante.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2001

Christ in Concrete...ive tried for 3 weeks..i havent gotten beyond page one. Hold me in ur prayers all. I have a paper due on Thursday

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001