I read LOTR, Jane Eyre, The Catcher in the Rye and 1984, the last 3 all at school and LOTR shockingly recently for the first time, and not long after that for the second time!
I have read two of those things. 1984, for whatever reason, I have no interest in. I have read 25 pages into Infinite Jest so far. It was then that I realized how many other books lay at my shelf.
Lol. That's a great list. The first two books that popped into my head that people pretend to read were War and Peace and Les Miserables. It takes a lot of dedication to read 1200+ page book. I've tried reading both of those, and never got very far. As for the actual list there, I've read a few of them. Although, I have other read books by some of those authors, like The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
1984 by George Orwell saw the play but never read the book War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy nope, but maybe someday (some year) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens yep, several times - I went through a Dickens phase when I was a teenager The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger yep, didn’t make an impression A Passage to India by EM Forster nope LOTR omigod, more times than I care to admit. For many years I read it twice a year -- during spring break and during the Christmas holidays Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen yes, and it got me to read most of her other books, too ...but relatively recently Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte yep, several times, loved it as a youngster 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas Jules Verne yes, in abridged form (we had it at home) - didn’t really enjoy it, though Several works of Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer's Night's Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth) yes, all of these--did college papers on Hamlet and MacBeth, taught Romeo and Juliet to high school freshmen ...fortunately just after the Zeferelli movie came out, so they were interested! Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck I’m a huge Steinbeck fan, so yes Don Quixote by Cervantes I tried, I really tried, but could not get past the first few pages Thus spoke Zarathustra oddly, yes ...in philosophy class ...but can’t say I got much out of it at all To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Oh, yes ...great book. Read it for ‘fun’ when I was in high school (not on the curriculum at that point in time.) It made a huge impression on me. The Brothers Karamazov by Leo Tolstoy I’ve got it on my Kindle just now, but haven’t started reading it yet Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce MUST read Joyce, must MUST ...this is on my Kindle as well...
As far as the list goes, I've only read The Catcher in the Rye, though I read other works by Dickens, Orwell and Dostoevsky. I started War and Peace when I was in high school, but I guess it was too much for me at the time and I've never gotten back to it. I've also been trying to run To kill a Mockingbird to ground with little success. One was perched on a stand at the book fair I attended once, but it was a translated version. Personally, I'd never lie about reading a book, no matter how ashamed I was for not having read it. But I think that people in general, with all these ostensible freedoms where assailing one's lack of intelligence is taboo, are more inclined to think of themselves as intelligent, and there is nothing better--in my opinion--to socially gauge one's intelligence than a gamut of books a person has read. And considering how every urban person considers themselves highly intelligent to the point of being delusional, the lie comes naturally to them. I believe that some of them would really have liked to have read the books they lie about reading, but living in this time they call the era of instant gratification, it is impossible for people who invest so much effort into nurturing their egos and socially inflating them to retain enough attention and understanding to read those books.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens- Finished it two weeks ago, actually. "Lord of the Rings" by JRR Tolkien "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee I am certainly not a book snob, like some people. I don't really rate others intelligence on their reading matter (usually). I read something because I enjoy it. I do judge you if you pretend to have read a book though. Example: a teacher in my high school days was going on about how deep and meaningful Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead was. I'd just finished reading it. They were saying something along the lines of: 'and it is tragic how Roark dies in the end... Typical Objectivist ending, blah blah blah. I just finished reading it- so tragic. Wonderful metaphor for the isolation he truly felt, etc.' I was just sitting there thinking: he didn't die. Well, obviously he would one day, but he didn't die. I said to the teacher: 'And did you like how Dominique became a typical housewife and brought up their children alone?' 'Oh yes' came the reply. They started looking a bit worried. 'Yes, real... real plot twist, that part.' They'd clearly never read the book.
I read a few books on this list because I thought that I wanted to be considered a "well read " person. "Crime and Punishment" did me in though and I never went back to my list of books after that. I only read what I enjoy now not anything I have to slog through to finish.
Let's see. 1984, yes. Kind of had to, since I graduated from high school in 1972 and we were constantly speculating on whether Orwell would turn out to be right. I liked his Animal Farm better. War and Peace (Война и Мир), no. I studied Russian and I think I had delusions of reading it in the original. Never got around to it. Great Expectations: Nope. In fact, I keep mixing it up with Bleak House, which I got about a third of the way through and found it too depressing. I am a coward. Catcher in the Rye, no. Never had the inclination. I liked Salinger's Franny and Zooey, though. Dispatched that in one afternoon. A Passage to India . . . I read this three years ago when I was studying for my English Language Arts teaching certification. But I did it so fast I don't recall much about it. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Oh, my, yes. The whole thing, several times. Funny, I wouldn't touch it for years, it was too damn popular. Then I heard a reading of it on National Public Radio and thought Hey, this sounds good. And it is. (Sorry, @matwoolf!) To Kill a Mockingbird, yep, yep, yep, more than once, starting from when I was a kid and read it in the Reader's Digest Condensed Version. "Atticus, the world's ending!" is one of my favorite lines of all time. Crime and Punishment, no. At least I don't think so. The Idiot, yes. Pride and Prejudice. This is another book I avoided reading (a guy I liked said it was boring) and finally did upon hearing an NPR dramatization. Several times, boys and girls, several times. Jane Eyre, absolutely. First in the Classics Illustrated graphic novel version when I was in third grade. The genuine article repeatedly since. So what's that make? 6?
Hilarious re: The Fountainhead. The teacher was saying the ignorant things, too? Yikes. As an architecture student of course I couldn't not read it, and ate it up. Took the movie version to show me how unrealistic all that architectural nobility was. Which is funny, since the novel I'm working on now has architectural nobility as a major theme.
When we got bored in HS Russian class we'd act out the Act V sword fight from Hamlet (with all the lines). Using my knitting needles.
As much of a non-reader as I am, I can at least positively say I read MOST of Pride and Prejudice when I was 17. I admit I never finished it, I read the cliffnotes to get the assignment done.
Hi @Catrin Lewis. I can't find what I said. Maybe I was trying to give an historical perspective. In the 'Eighties' mathematicians and science types played D&D, read L o the Rings, listened to Iron Maiden, whilst cool grifting literature types read Burroughs and listened to indy music. The scientists won this battle. My short story got published five minutes ago in a Californian magazine called Hobo Pancakes, so that's really good. Not the best or worse I have ever written, but 'good' for me. My story's called Hillbilly.
Ohhhh. I refused to ride the previous (1970s) LotR wave, the one when "Frodo Lives" stickers were everywhere. Missed the one in the Eighties. Or wasn't aware of it. Is Hobo Pancakes online or inprint? Got a link for us? And do you really live in Brighton Heights on the Banks of the O-Hi-O? I dunno, but there's something about your fiction voice that reads more Brighton on the Channel. (You don't have to answer that if you don't want.)
Heyhum, hey Catrin. Is there a place called Brighton Heights on the Ohio river in America, if that's what you mean..? Does it have associations? Would you think I was an old lady, for example, or a millionaire..? Yes I am currently a Brighton person. I really like it, never had quite as strong an attachment to anywhere really. I like it for all the obvious reasons, and in some ways it's like a little London, but you can jump in the sea. Before - we moved to the far south west when we had little kids but I found it kind of oppressive, it's a theme for me Books..okay...I have five volumes of 'Quiet Flows the Don' unread, across the way, in the bookcase. It was my Dad's favourite. Russian novels: I've really enjoyed Pushkin shorts and the obvious twentieth century stuff but never Tolstoy, half way with Doestyevsky, Anna Kerenina waits...pfff, apols spelling. My own story is easy traceable, it's okay, I didn't get paid. My biggest success is with the local scene: readings, stand-up, making my way thatta ways, thinking festivals and stuff. I had a year of flinging out (too few) submissions...and waiting, which is hard. It's better to get in the game locally and bloom, like seaweed or a foul virus [next day edit here ] , I think?
Yep. Click on the location link for your avatar. It comes up Brighton Heights, Pennsylvania, just outside the Pixburgh city limits.
I hate getting loquacious on the innernets..always the same :/ hi tlk, Catrin...I'll research Brighton heights, eh...doh Shut up. Right, off to work, wish me luck...
# 1-10: Any book ever. Especially the Bible. Seriously, most of the people I know literally don't read anything unless they're forced to. Not exaggerating a bit. They love playing scrabble, though... But only on their iPhone. God bless America......
Hey, I like to read! >:[ Actual paper books, mind, not the Kindle stuff. Though the stuff I read are mysteries and historical fiction.
I can't believe it, but I have read them all. I couldn't have gotten out of high school without reading
I never pretended to read books, and usually tell people outright my experience with them. I have never ever skipped anything in any book, and I think it is a horrible thing to do. An insult, even. We weren't made to read books in school since English isn't our native language and my school was focused on the sciences anyway. I read 1984 when my teacher lent it to me from her collection. I didn't read LOTR because I'd already watched the movie and so read the Hobbit instead. I read Great Expectations when I was young and was surprised with how saucy the movie turned out to be. I have had a busy couple of years with all the exams so I couldn't continue reading Anna Karenina even though I loved it and was a third of the book into it. I just didn't have time so I ended up reading a Best Russian Short Stories collection from Guttenberg. Samething happened with Dostoyevskey's works (specifically The Idiot, which I was engrossed in). It is not the style that detracts me for I love the old ones. I have read dozens of Lovecraft's texts and will read many more. However when I decided to read Pride and Prejudice I was in a hectic mood and so returned it directly. I have Moby Dick in my library (left over from mother's library) but I only read the first few pages. Though I might read it now since I had thought there was nothing in it but whaling information. Really, I had no idea there was a plot to it. I might have read Jane Eyre, but it was long ago and not in English. Regarding Catcher In The Rye, I will read it this summer since my little sister got it as a gift. I am used to reading ebooks, and to be honest if it weren't for them my poor butt wouldn't have read anything at all, since the closest public library was very far away. However, having the book in paper form accelerates the pace by a lot, since I do most of my reading at home which can not exceed eight hours every day on normal (empty) days. A paper book, however, can increase them by about four.
