Bragging, bibliophile style. And I wish it were a little more nuanced: I thought Animal Farm was interesting, but in no way did I love it the way I did Harry Potter or Pride and Prejudice. However, that’ not going to stop me from going overboard on this. Hang on to your hats. Real content tba.

And of course you can always…

People were running around with copies of Pattern Recognition and saying neat things about it right under my very nose for three years, and I never got my hands on one…I think this makes me a failure in bookwormdom.

More notes on lack of nuance: I say I liked Jonathan Strange because it kept my interest. At least, it kept my interest after I slogged through 80 pages. However, since the book is 800 pages long, there was plenty left. I think it would have been a better book at 2/3 the length, though. There were an awful lot of subplots and tangents.

Snow Crash, however, was super cool. I need to read it again one of these days.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Frankenstein really should be in the same category: I am ambivalent about both. The distinction is that I enjoyed Tess most of the way through, but got frustrated by the ending. I was annoyed with Frankenstein all the way through, but I think the way the story is told is really neat.

Some of you will be amazed that I marked two of the three Shakespeare plays the way I did. For the first, I merely point out that it is, after all, R&J. As for Lear…I dunno. I’m waiting for a production that really makes me like Lear. There’s neat stuff in the text, but the productions I’ve seen (one stage, one film) haven’t cut it. I like the subplot with Gloucester and his sons, but a play loses something when you can’t stand the main character.

And here’s the shocker for some of you who had AP European History with me: I had to read Candide during my freshman year of college and guess what? It was hilarious! Amazing. I think it was a better translation that the thing I slogged through in 10th grade…

Hmm. So the 20th century isn’t my forte… I probably ought to read some Steinbeck and Hemingway just because. No–I have read some Steinbeck! We read The Pearl in eighth grade. It was depressing…

Well, still.

I really just want to read Lolita because I want to read
Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Slaughterhouse Five is cool, but it warps your mind.

A lot of these I just haven’t heard of. However, I’ve just started The Shadow of the Wind, and it’s exciting so far. And I’ve started Kavalier and Clay at least twice, but never in times and places where I can finish it…then I keep forgetting that my dad actually does own the book… Long story.

I’m not even bothering to include the non-fiction section. The only one I’ve read is Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (well put-together; likely to make you avoid fast food for a long time). I also own Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which I have read parts of, but not cover to cover. I like it, though. And of course there’s Tuesday’s With Morrie, which we heard part of in ToK. I think there’s a copy of that in the house too, but I’ve never read the end.

I adore good YA lit. And so many of these are old friends of mine: Little Princess, Secret Garden, Wrinkle in Time, The Giver, Watership Down (which I wouldn’t have classified here, but okay). I’m also a little puzzled about why A Wrinkle in Time is classified separately from the Time Quartet (which starts with Wrinkle).

Philip Pullman rocks.

I admit that I never got through all of a Lemony Snicket book. In my defense, I tried, if not very hard.

Again, lots of books I’ve never heard of. And are The Stranger and The Outsider actually two separate books, or was Camus just on a roll? However, I recommend the other two I’ve read.

Anyone actually make it to the end of this mess? Real news coming up real soon…stay tuned.

Edit, 11/26/06. Color Angels & Demons red, Sense & Sensibility green, To Kill a Mockingbird very green, and I’m in the middle of Pattern Recognition. Green so far.

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