Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Yet another Classic Meme of Sorts

I believe this originated with Julie but I can't be completely completely sure.

Classics I Have Never Read and Don't Even Feel Guilty About

1) Moby Dick
2) Paradise Lost
3) James Joyce--I'll never ever ever ever feel compelled to read any of his books

I've never read Steinbeck. I've never read Faulkner. I've never read F. Scott Fitzgerald. I've only read one Joseph Conrad--Lord Jim--but I'll be passing by his other stuff guilt free.

Classics I Have Never Read and Feel A Tad Guilty About

1) Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
2) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
3) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4) David Copperfield by Dickens

I'd say I haven't read many of Dickens' books and while I feel slightly guilty about not liking him, I'm not going to be rushing out to fix this any time soon.

Classics I Almost Want To Read

1) Divine Comedy--don't ask me why--I just want to have read it
2) Don Quixote--again, I just love Man a La Mancha and I'd like to have said I read the book
3) Vanity Fair
4) War and Peace
5) Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

More books by the Brontes. More books by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Classics I Want To Read But Haven't Yet

1) Cecilia by Fanny Burney
2) The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
3) The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
4) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
5) Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
6)A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
7) Howard's End by E.M. Forster
8)The Monk by M.G. Lewis

Classics I have read (or mostly read) and deeply regret

1) Silas Marner by George Eliot. I know it's short but really really disliked it.
2) Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. Again, I know it's short but hated it.
3) Jude the Obscure. Thomas Hardy. Without a doubt in my bottom two of books ever read.
4) Animal Farm. George Orwell. If I had a time machine, I'd go back and save myself the misery.
5) Great Expectations. Dickens. I've read it twice and blocked it from my memory at least one and half times. Now all I know are Pip. Esther. Crazy wedding-cake lady. And I think there's a scene with a boat.
6) The Ice Man Cometh. by Eugene O'Neill. This one would be in the bottom two for sure. Hate. With a passion HATE.

5 comments:

chrisa511 said...

I absolutely love The Divine Comedy. I read it in honors English in high school and fell in love with it. I thought it was just a genius work of literary art. I don't know how I'd feel about it now...that was over 10 years ago. I'd like to read it again. Hated Don Quixote :/ I may be one of the few, I don't know, but I just couldn't stand that book! lol...I want to read Cranford too after seeing some of the Masterpiece Theatre production of it!

Suey said...

That's exactly how I felt about Great Expectations until I re-read it and then it jumped to one of my all time favorites!

Annette Laing said...

Okay, I can see feeling that your life is complete without War and Peace. But Grapes of Wrath? Truly, it's one of the best novels I've ever read, not at all boring. And I'm a Brit who can be a bit snotty about American lit (I once suffered through a college class on the Contemporary American Novel. It was traumatic.)

Becky said...

I may have to give Grapes of Wrath a try. :) I really haven't thought much about it one way or the other.

Anonymous said...

Hey I liked Animal Farm.