Just the other day I was emailing with my virtual friend Chris about books we haven't read and are embarrassed not to have. His was Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano; mine was (is!) Herman Melville's Moby Dick. We both have copies of our unread books and we both have good intentions, but......
Today on the blog at Hunger Mountain many editors reveal their Book Shame, classics they feel they should have read by now but haven't. I'm happy to report that at least one other person hasn't read Moby Dick!
Since my last post was about reading, and the previous one was about shame, book shame seems right up my alley.
What about you? What haven't you read that nags at you?
12 comments:
Mine is also Moby Dick. And Anna Karennina, which I promise to start before the summer's over.
Erin, I'm glad to be in good company. And I haven't read Anna Karenina either. But I am going to get through Moby Dick before I start to feel bad about Anna.
I actually finished Moby Dick! (I don't know how...) Mine is The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.
Good for you, Karen, finishing Moby Dick. I read The Red Badge of Courage in junior high school for English class. I actually found it pretty impressive at the time.
Finally ready Moby Dick this winter-actually a really great book. (nice that Melville has my vote of approval isn't it?)
Leslie, you go, girl!
Now I'm wondering if I can read Matt Kish's Moby Dick in Pictures: One Picture for Each page in lieu of the original......
http://www.amazon.com/Moby-Dick-Pictures-Drawing-Every-Page/dp/1935639129
Catcher in the Rye, War and Peace, Ulysses, Anna Karennina... my shame list is long and lumpy.
I haven't ready Ulysses yet either, Mari. Sigh.
Honestly, I don't know if I'd have the patience for it. Isn't reading supposed to be enjoyable (rather than an ordeal)?!
Interesting question...I think there is fun reading, enjoyable reading, and then there is reading which is like exercising...it gets to be fun after some effort. And then there's reading which never seems to get there, and recently I quit those books. Big departure from when I was younger and read everything through to the end in case there would be some redeeming factor in there somewhere.
I also like to finish what I've started, but sometimes it's prudent to throw in the towel... and as I get older I find myself "grazing" among several books simultaneously, which doesn't make for a particularly linear reading experience, but then I'm not a very linear person... : )
Me too, Mari! I used to finish one book at a time, a serially monogamous reader, but now I've usually got 3 or 4 or more going at once. A function of age? Of wisdom? Let's go with wisdom.....
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