Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Top Ten Tuesday

It's Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish. So again first time...Here's my shameful list of books I have never read in no particular order.

1. Hamlet by Shakespeare. I kid you not. I have seen it performed, but forget what I said about "no particular order" this IS my most shameful.

2. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Shamefully, I've never read anything by Faulkner.

3. The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. I haven't read Ulysses either, and it scares the crap out of me, but this (I think) is supposed to be Joyce's accessible novel...

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I blame my teachers for this one. Am I the only product of the U.S. public school system that was never assigned this book? The hell of it is I READ all of those books that I was assigned...those other teachers wasted their Mockingbird assignments on a bunch of kids thumbing through Cliff Notes!

5. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I've read much of Hemingway's work, and I would not feel bad about missing this one if it weren't for one little thing. My research paper in English 201, my sophomore year of college, was titled "Symbolism in Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms". And I received an A+ on the paper from a teacher who informed us on the first day of class that she doesn't give out A+ grades. I somehow weaved my magic out of a bunch of critical articles on the novel. Shameful. I wish I still had the paper for when I read the book.

6. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevski. I'm not looking up the spelling on that name. Shoot me. It looks really long.

7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It looks really long.

8. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It looks really long.

9. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I've always thought the opening lines were cool. No clue why I've never read past them.

10. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Seems a favorite novel of many people. I thought Franny and Zooey was just OK, so who knows when/if I'll get around to this.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for visiting my blog, and commenting on my "Top 10" this week. I typically go through a very quick "instant reaction" for these, so here I go:

    1. Awesome! Definitely read it.
    2. Probably my 2nd favorite Faulkner, after Light in August
    3. Haven't read it yet, but would like to.
    4. Surprisingly, I didn't enjoy this one very much.
    5. Absolutely my favorite Hemingway, and one of my favorite novels.
    6. Haven't read it yet, but I own it and hope to get to it.
    7. Haven't read it yet, but I own it and WILL get to it someday.
    8. Probalby in my top 3 favorite novels of all time.
    9. Really good, though I would suggest reading this one before Les Miserables because they have similar themes but Les Miserables completely outshines A Tale of Two Cities (at least in my opinion.
    10. Amazing, of course. I actually preferred Franny and Zooey, though. That's my favorite book. :)

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  2. I think your name gave away your feelings for Salinger :) What I remember of Franny and Zooey was being frustrated with the 'talking heads' nature of it, and really, really loving the ending. I also seem to remember liking the second part (is that Zooey) better than part one. On good reads, I think I rated it 3 stars.

    I was considering starting Les Miserables next after I finish reading Decline and Fall, but I'll probably chicken out. Plus, now you're telling me to read Tale of Two Cities first. ;)

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  3. Don't feel too bad about not having read Hamlet. You are so not alone there.

    The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird, which happen to be the only two books I've read on your list, are fantastic. I would suggest making time for them.

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  4. But I like Shakespeare, so I DO need to remedy this.

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  5. To Kill a Mockingbird you should certainly read.

    The Catcher in the Rye on the other hand, I didn't really get the hype. I preferred The Perks of Being a Wall Flower as far as 'coming of age' novels go.

    As for Hamlet I don't think it's shameful not to have read it, after all Shakespeare didn't write it to be read.

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  6. Thanks for stopping by. I don't subscribe to the idea that Shakespeare shouldn't be read, because he wrote to be performed, but don't let that stop you from skipping reading him. ;)

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