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Veronica at Toddleddredge posted a hugeible* list of books that she has not yet read but would like to get at it. I honestly don't know what is holding her back, it's not like her hubby is a shift worker or she is a nursing mom with four kids age five and under. Oh wait a second, this is true. The fact that she has the energy to even write posts still astounds me. Never mind having a list of 57 books she's planning to read.
My list of books that I keep meaning to get at but have not yet will be a bit less ambitious. BUT if I put it out there maybe I will actually get at it. Who knows.
Please note. When you read this list and notice ALL the classics on it, you may say to yourself, hey wasn't she an English Major? What exactly did she read at University? For the record, I have a BEd with an English concentration and for some reason (that I still haven't figured out) decided to only take modern literature courses with the exception of a year long Shakespearean course. So, instead of reading great literature, I read Lolita. And Beautiful Losers. And a bunch of other stuff that is passed off as literature. I was so burnt by the horrific-ness of it all that I only read fluffy books for nearly ten years, other than the stuff I had to teach.
1. The Screwtape Letters -C.S. Lewis
2. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
3. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. I know this much is True -Wally Lamb
5. Faust - But I don't know which version is best.
6. Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
7. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
8. How Then Shall We Live?- Francis Schaffer
9. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
10. Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
11. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
12. The Hounds of Baskerville - Sir Arther Conan Doyle
13. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
14. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
15. I'd also like to read a book on Hermeneutics. Whenever I ask the cute PhD for recommendations I usually get something meant for a serious preacher. I'd just like something to enhance my own study of Scripture without getting a pink book with a title like "Hermeneutics for The Little Lady."
So, that's a few of my never-yet-read-but-keep-meaning-to. Is there anything on here you have read over and over again? Anything you pitched out the window?
7 comments:
I don't know if I'll get booed out for this comment but I didn't find Mere Christianity as inspirational as people had been ranting and raving about for years.
I found others more inspirational and encouraging to my walk.
From a purely literary standpoint, Screwtape Letters is better than Mere Christianity.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, though worth an eventual read, is maudlin and a little forced. I would put it at the bottom of the list.
I loved Wuthering Heights, but no woman of sense can love that book IF she believes the idiots around her who think it is a love story. Heathcliff is the VILLAIN.
And for a short hermeneutics book - maybe one of Robert Alter's? It's been so long since I read them, I don't even remember if I liked them. But they are short and respected and should not be too difficult for someone who has already studied literature. The Art of Biblical Narrative and The Art of Biblical Poetry are their names.
Some of those are on my list, too. Let me know if you get through them. Any of them. It is hard to read those classics, when escapism helps to defray the frenzy of preschoolers...
Funny, I was just saying how I want to read Uncle Tom's Cabin. My mom recently read it and said it was really good.
I can't read CS Lewis. I am ashamed to admit it, but I can't. His writing style - my mind wanders.
Thank you for the heads up in my comments!
Love some of the choices on your list, some of them, aren't great reading back to back, you'll be friggin depressed all summer!!!
PS. I Always read, don't always comment, that would require moving more than my mouse and well, I'm lazy!
I love your list! War and Peace is one of my all-time favorites. I also loved I Know This Much is True and I liked The Hitchhiker's Guide and Wuthering Heights. Honestly, I hated Uncle Tom's Cabin. I read it in college, and despite its historical significance I thought it was a dreadful novel. I'll be interested to see what you think. :)
I posted my list here -- http://starkravingbibliophile.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-pile-of-unread-books.html
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