Of books and reading
The part of my work life that takes place at an elementary school has recently been affording me the privilege of sitting in on a seminar of 6th-8th graders. I love middle schoolers, and I love to watch them explore their liminal kid/adult roles and come to grips with their new awarenesses. Their task during the first 50 minutes of the school day is to read and discuss and argue about big ideas, and under the extraordinary leadership of their veteran teacher, they do so with confidence and insight. They’re about to start in on To Kill a Mockingbird, one of my favorite books, and I can’t wait to see what they make of it. And so I’ve been thinking about books that really stick with you, that stamp themselves on your person, change the way you think and what you expect of yourself and of others. Then I saw the Unread Books list over at Katie’s:
These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users (as of some days ago). Bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn’t finish, and strike through what you couldn’t stand. Add an asterisk to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights*
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The name of the rose
Don Quixote — reading it again soon, because my brother gave me the new Edith Grossman translation for Christmas
Moby Dick
Ulysses – I’ve read excerpts. I was intrigued.
Madame Bovary – reading it right now! Yay nerdy bookclub!
The Odyssey*
Pride and Prejudice****
Jane Eyre*
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma**
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner– does it count if I read the manuscript and haven’t yet read the finished book? I know they softened the ending, at least, and changed the wife character…
Mrs. Dalloway*
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha – good enough for a beach read, which it was for me, but irrevocably spoiled by a few lines of truly horrific innuendo involving eels and caves. I shudder to think of it.
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury tales*
The historian: a novel
A portrait of the artist as a young man
Love in the time of cholera
Brave new world
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s pendulum – but I was only in 9th grade. I’ll probably try it again.
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A clockwork orange
Anansi boys
The once and future king*
The grapes of wrath
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
1984
Angels and demons
The inferno
The satanic verses
Sense and sensibility***
The picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
To the lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s travels
Les misérables
The corrections
The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime
Dune
The prince
The sound and the fury
Angela’s ashes: a memoir
The god of small things
A people’s history of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A confederacy of dunces
A short history of nearly everything
Dubliners
The unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The scarlet letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake: a novel
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita*
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the art of motocycle maintenance: an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down*
Gravity’s rainbow
The Hobbit**
In cold blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The three musketeers
This is an odd list: I’ve no idea how it was complied, and can only assume titles like Time Traveller’s Wife, Curious Incident, and Kite Runner show up here because they’ve loomed so large on the pop lit scene of late, and therefore they’re on people’s minds as books they think they ought to read (or vow never to read, if they’re contrarians). But there are many books on the list that I consider really important, whose characters have taken up residence in my mind and whose themes have affected me deeply, and I feel pity for all those folks who haven’t discovered them yet.
As for my own current reading, Madame Bovary is engaging, which surprised me a little. I was half expecting I’d need to pull up my socks and apply myself to get into it, but it caught me right away when I started reading on the flight home on Monday. Despite my exhaustion, I blazed through the first six chapters. I also need to get going on Longitude for a school faculty retreat in a month, and I’m thinking I may try to get it on audio so I can listen and knit. The Subtle Knife is on my bedside table: I’m rereading Philip Pullman’s trilogy in the hope of cementing it in my mind before the coming movies recolor my images of the characters and story. And at the risk of offending delicate sensibilities, I also have a dedicated bathroom book. It’s Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry, and it’s been installed on the bathroom shelf since the middle of last winter (all praises upon the former residents who thought to build a bookshelf above the WC). It’s such a languid river of a book, and its inhabitants are so richly drawn, that it’s perfect for just dipping in for a beautiful chapter once a week or so.
So what about you? What books burn brightest in your memory? Because winter is coming, and my favorite local socialist institution is richly stocked, and I’m beginning to think there’s really something to this idea of books on tape + knitting.
Posted: October 13th, 2007 at 11:32 am
thanks for this! i need some good ideas for books this winter. i’m stuck in a rut.
Posted: October 13th, 2007 at 11:53 am
[…] nicollealtidor wrote an interesting post today on Of books and readingHere’s a quick excerptWhat books burn brightest in your memory? Because winter is coming, and my favorite local socialist institution is richly stocked, and I’m beginning to think there’s really something to this idea of books on tape + knitting. […]
Posted: October 13th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
You are so well read!! My short commute combined with knitting makes for little reading time, but lately, all I read is food writing. I recently finished Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle (excellent) and am nearly finished with The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Lots of great stuff to read for work, as always, and lots of good fiction coming out this fall to keep me busy!
Posted: October 13th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I highly recommend the audio books + knitting solution. It’s much better than watching TV/movies and knitting (though I do wayyyy more of that) because there’s nothing visual to distract, and the flow of the words and story into my brain often puts me into one of those knitting trances. Mmm. Delicious on a cold day with some tea nearby and wool socks on the feet.
I’m currently into The Amber Spyglass. This is my first time getting through His Dark Materials, because I started the series once when I was too young to appreciate it. It put me off for many years, but after my friend wrote her senior thesis on the series, it seemed high time to give it another go. I just recently finished Billie’s Kiss, by Elizabeth Knox. Simply fantastic — I’m glad she didn’t let me down after The Vintner’s Luck, one of my top 10 books.
I’m so glad you posted about your bathroom book. Mine is Julie and Julia, which I’m currently considering replacing. It’s just not keeping my interest.
Posted: October 13th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
don’t feel bad, i have a bathroom book as well. when i finish the bedroom book, the bathroom book rotates into the bedroom. that way t hey don’t linger for weeks & weeks (i check lots of books out of the library, lol)
i’m ashamed to say that i havent’ even heard of half of the books on the list. however, i have read some. and satanic verses is in my pile from the library (although it’s at the bottom since i just picked it up thursday)
Posted: October 13th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
In honor of her recent Nobel Prize win, I have to recommend Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook. I’d like to reread this one myself, as it deeply affected me when I was 18 but I might have a different view of it now. Also, if you’re willing to give graphic novels a try, I’ve loved everything by Marjane Satrapi.
Posted: October 14th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I agree with you about Geisha. I think of it has a fun historical soap opera. But another newish book I LOVED was Middlesex. It’s a story that stays with you long after you read it. Plus, I learned about the Detroit race riots and a little Greek history as well. Mists of Avalon .. got to love it! Barbara Kingsolver too. I enjoy your website.
Posted: October 15th, 2007 at 3:35 am
I love listening to Sandra Brown, Lisa Jackson, or Suzanne Brockman books on CD. Great suspense and action. They usually have really good readers, easy to understand and good acting skills.
Posted: October 15th, 2007 at 8:43 am
I love reading other people’s book reading lists! I am reading Tender is the Night right now and, while the language is absolutely capitivating, the flow of the book is not compelling. I think a part of it is the historical timliness of the the story. I prefered Gatsby. But I won’t put it down because some of those turns of phrase just break my heart. I want to read Mme. Bovary. I need a book club.
Posted: October 15th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I know you’re a Portlander and want to be sure you know about Library 2 Go. You can get audio books from Multnomah Co Library downloaded with your library card. It’s great! I’m all for knitting and listening. It’s the only way I get things done when I’m knitting anything other than stockinette.
Posted: October 15th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Oooh, you are a Jane Austen fan also. I was just trying to think which book I like better Pride & Prejudice or Persuasion. I can’t count how many times I’ve re-read those two. Just finished Remains of the Day, which was lovely and haunting. Prodigal Summer is kind of a fun, natural science-meets-trashy summer novel by Barbara Kingsolver. I just read Madame Bovary this summer and enjoyed it a lot. Actually in the past few years I read a bunch of excellent classics I couldn’t believe I had never read before: Anne of Green Gables, Wuthering Heights, Little Women, Jane Eyre and a few others I’m forgetting. Oh, oh, I know. Ruth Reichl’s books Garlic and Sapphires and Tender at the Bone are both fabulous books on her life and amazing food. I started A Confederacy of Dunces and *loved* it at first and then it just completely got on my nerves to the point where I couldn’t finish it.
Thanks for the list. I’ll peek at it for some good winter reads.
Martha
Posted: October 15th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
That was an interesting list; I stole the meme. I’ve read most on the list, partly due to my Great Books program in college, and partly due to my own readaholism. Unfortunately, our library has been closed for six months, but is opening again next month. I’ve spent way too much money on books lately!
Recent good books: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Animal Vegetable Miracle, Ishmael, Women Who Run With the Wolves, and Birth as an American Rite of Passage.
I’m glad you love Pullman, too! I just hope the movie isn’t butchered too horribly. The visuals at least look great.
Posted: October 16th, 2007 at 6:06 am
East of Eden is the best book I’ve ever read. I recommend it highly. That is a pretty unusual list of books. Very eclectic.
Posted: October 16th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I gravitate toward books set on the sub-continent for some reason, and read Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance earlier this year – it had a profound effect on me. I even had a waitress in a cafe tell me one day ‘That book will change your life!’ (It hasn’t changed my life exactly, but I do still ponder the book and its characters frequently, six months after finishing it.)Everyone in my family is getting a copy for Christmas!
Ah to be in 6th-8th grade and experiencing some of those books for the first time again…
Posted: October 16th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
I am reading The Time: Night and when I am done with that I will probably delve back into (I try to finish it every so many months or so) The Tale of Genji or Atlas Shrugged.
I read a lot of children’s and young adult novels, so every once in a while I read some literature or nonfiction for balance.
Posted: October 18th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I loved The Great Gatsby and read it several times, along with his short stories and the other novels (though they weren’t as compelling for me as Gatsby). Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth is also a favorite. Right now I’m in a Robert Browning poetry mood!
You’ve intrigued me with Mme. Bovary. I’m looking forward to your review.
Posted: October 22nd, 2007 at 7:08 am
Bless you for loving the middle schoolers, I didn’t even like being one. I was an F. Scott Fitzgerald/Jane Austen/James Herriot girl in middle school. I know they don’t seem to go together, I’m multi-faceted (kidding).
Posted: October 30th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Hey, the pictures at Harvard were great! Very cool dress. As for the book list, I’ve seen that a few places but don’t know how to use it. Do I copy and paste from yours or is there an “original” somewhere? Thanks!
Posted: October 31st, 2007 at 11:02 am
Thanks for this list, it has provided some much needed inspiration. I’ve been thinking about what to read during my winter break from grad school. This is a great place to start!