tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post4601616578280364359..comments2024-03-28T06:24:25.829-06:00Comments on The Quivering Pen: Fake-Reading the Classics: True Confessions of a Dude Who Never Read Jane EyreDavid Abramshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06013514596973186440noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-6460824898682040072023-06-11T06:53:48.497-06:002023-06-11T06:53:48.497-06:00Herbal medicine for herpes simplex...................Herbal medicine for herpes simplex...................<br /><br />Work Fast in 14 days,<br /><br />Email (( R.buckler11@gmail.com ))Shannon Macklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07823939088866689045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-27503467430730314812013-09-09T08:21:01.921-06:002013-09-09T08:21:01.921-06:00David: Love your posts. And Fobbit is in my pile o...David: Love your posts. And Fobbit is in my pile of "to be read soon" books.<br /><br />Like you, I somehow managed to NOT read most of the classics, even as a graduate English student. I spent (misspent?) my youth and undergraduate days reading science fiction. I love Shakespeare but haven't read a word of Dickens. (I suppose I should rectify that, eh?)<br /><br />I was forced to read Jude the Obscure in graduate school and found it to be one of the worst books I've ever read. Poorly plotted, poorly thought out, and full of ridiculous coincidences. I can't help but think Hardy wrote it as a joke, in one afternoon, and published the first draft. Frankly, I wouldn't waste my time with it.<br /><br />However, you really should read Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Treasure Island. And even though it's not on your list, The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula LeGuin. That one should be on everyone's list.<br /><br />Meanwhile, like you, I must read Lord of the Flies and Lolita. And Moby Dick. The question, of course, is when? Too many books, too little time.<br /><br />Jim MastroAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-13349426262965750452013-09-09T05:47:48.716-06:002013-09-09T05:47:48.716-06:00BW: "Confederacy of Dunces" is second in...BW: "Confederacy of Dunces" is second in line behind "Lolita" on that list. I cannot die without reading it--I've already warned my body about this indisputable fact. Good or bad, I *will* read it before Last Breath. "Vanity Fair" to Trollope is an easy swap for me since I was indifferent to Thackeray. And, yes, Graham Greene needs to be added to my list and should have been there in the first place.<br /><br />As for Dickens, I'm way ahead of you. I've read every novel--some twice, even thrice--and most of the non-fiction. I only have the Italy travel book and the children's stories left to read.David Abramshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06013514596973186440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-74869738872226522912013-09-08T10:29:43.313-06:002013-09-08T10:29:43.313-06:00David, my list of unread classics would be even &q...David, my list of unread classics would be even "worse" than yours. And I've read a TON of books, including classics. Heck, as an English major, I took two classes on Dickens alone (the regular elective and a special senior seminar that was offered once every five years, both taught by the same scholar/prof). On your list, I exhort you to read The Grapes of Wrath, anything/everything by Thomas Hardy (hard to pick a favorite, maybe Tess), Kidnapped, 1984, and Lord of the Flies. You can skip Kennedy Toole and Collins. Instead of Vanity Fair, I'd opt for The Way We Live Now by Trollope. I hope you've read some Graham Greene (The End of the Affair, The Heart of the Matter, and The Power and the Glory are must-reads). PLEASE read James Agee's A Death in the Family and the just-published Cotton Tenants (a long essay that was rejected by the magazine for which he wrote it, and later expanded to become the legendary Let Us Now Praise Famous Men). Or you can dispense with all of these and just read everything by Dickens. BWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08121811606531694245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-13944588298536842672013-09-08T05:51:14.300-06:002013-09-08T05:51:14.300-06:00Kirby: Any excuse to teach Dickens is a good one!Kirby: Any excuse to teach Dickens is a good one!David Abramshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06013514596973186440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-16384515993768347352013-09-08T05:40:43.316-06:002013-09-08T05:40:43.316-06:00I read all the books I was ever assigned to read, ...I read all the books I was ever assigned to read, and as an English major, there were plenty. It doesn't mean I liked them all...but I read them. I will say that on your list there are a few that you could skip, but I don't know what books you treasure, so I can't really judge which ones you would deem a waste of time.<br />I can tell you that as a high school English teacher, we are being encouraged to "step away from the classics" and teach more contemporary fiction. The conundrum is that there is so little contemporary fiction that isn't full of content that parents would find objectionable. That's my excuse for teaching Dickens, and I'm sticking to it.Kirby Carespodihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01950841302720270756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-10198177236588763852013-09-07T19:51:14.194-06:002013-09-07T19:51:14.194-06:00There are some classic writers whose works I'v...There are some classic writers whose works I've attempted and decided Aren't My Thing, which means I'm simply unwilling to attempt their other books. Billy Budd put me off Melville for good, while "The Beast in the Jungle" did likewise for James. I never even finished "Portrait of the Artist..." so I consider it unlikely that I'll ever attempt Finnegans Wake or Ulysses. And Saul Bellow's "Tolstoy of the Zulus" comment pissed me off so much I doubt I'll ever get around to reading him, either. I would therefore have to say there's no "regrettably" involved with these writers.<br /><br />That said, there are writers whose works I haven't read at all but keep meaning to try (James Baldwin, P.G. Wodehouse, John Dos Passos, Thomas Mann, and Sir Walter Scott, among others.)<br /><br />What's most common, however, is for me to have read one book or even just a bit of short fiction by an author without ever getting around to anything else by him/her. That means I've got to start reading War & Peace, The House of Mirth, A Farewell to Arms, Mrs. Dalloway, Cannery Row, The Brothers Karamazov, Sense & Sensibility, Dead Souls... books galore.<br /><br />Heck, even some writers I've read at some length--Dickens, Nabokov, Chesterton, Shakespeare, Twain--still have plenty of material left to show me.<br /><br />Basically, then, I don't worry about running out of classics to read.<br /><br />But yeah, man, you need to get to Lolita. Like, yesterday.Peter Cashwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15135169175858268409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-15770922174389467122013-09-07T19:12:23.121-06:002013-09-07T19:12:23.121-06:00I came out of my undergraduate program having read...I came out of my undergraduate program having read little more than what was needed to pass English in my junior year of high school and an AP prep course my senior year. (I wasn't an English Major in college and I placed out of taking English 101 by acing the AP exam.) I definitely regretted it.<br /><br />So, to 'solve' the problem, when I started working at a book store in my late 20s, I agreed to lead the store's Classics Reading Group. This, along with agreeing to work in the children's section, made me appear heroic to my co-workers because the Classics group was renowned for being a tough crowd. <br /><br />As a result, I HAD to read a classic a month for the 3 1/2 years I worked there. And, as the book choices were made democratically, I didn't always like what I read. But, we had such an intelligent and fascinating group of people that I always appreciated what I'd read more after our conversations. In fact, I continued with the group for another 10+ years after I left the store. (I left the group when I moved from the Boston area, but it's still going and I'm still on the e-mail list, so I still read for it when I have time.) <br /><br />So, if you really want to read the classics, I highly recommend finding such a group, or founding one yourself. For me, it was a great thing, though I have to admit, because I'm a slow reader, I had little time to read much ELSE when I was in the group. I never really minded because great literature is always nourishing, but I am woefully unaware of MODERN lit as a result.Evan Wilsonnoreply@blogger.com