11. The Aeneid (Virgil)...The classic poem about the founding of Rome. I think.
12. History of the Pelloponnesian War (Thucydides)...Another hit from the classical world. This one's about a war. Sparta vs. Athens. Cool.
13. Essays (Michel de Montaigne)...All I know is this is some Spanish guy from a long time ago who wrote essays. No idea what they're about.
14. Gulliver's Travels (Jonathon Swift)...Little people from Liliput tie down Gulliver. Satire, Olde Englishe Style. Probably good to read while drinking Olde English 800 Malt Liquor...the way it was MEANT to be enjoyed.
15. Jane Eyre (Bronte)...Never read this one, can you believe it? Required reading for eighth grade girls, I think.
16. The Red and the Black (Stendhal)...A french novel, written in the post-Napolean years. That's literally all I know about it.
17. As I Lay Dying (Faulkner)
18. The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner)
19. Absalom, Absalom! (Faulkner)...yep, three by William Faulkner, the great southern writer. I've never read anything by him. I've heard he can be abstruse.
20. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)...I read The Fountainhead in college and loved it. This one probably should have been read in college too, but better late than never. Who is John Galt, anyway?
21. The Naked and the Dead (N. Mailer)...Norman Mailer just died, so I think I had a soft spot to put this one on The List. His first, and many say best novel. I read "An American Dream" while in college, and it didn't really stand out for me.
22. The Portrait of Dorian Grey (Oscar Wilde)...Nope, never read it, or anything else by Wilde.
23. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing)...Well, she just won the Nobel Prize, so she's got to be pretty good, right?
24. The Epic of Gilgamesh...I think this one was written like 20,000 years ago, or something like that. The oldest book ever.
25. Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman)...The only book of poetry on The List. Classic Americana, or so I've heard.
26. The Autobiography of Ben Franklin...More classic Americana.
27. Animal Farm (George Orwell)...I read 1984 in high school, but I've never read this one. Some pig!
28. Things Fall apart (Achebe)...Interesting. Many of those "greatest books ever" lists I found online contained this one. I've never heard of it. Cool!
29. Labyrinths (Borges)...Borges is awesome. So is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but I've read all his stuff, so he's not on The List.
30. Tess of the D'Uerbervilles (Thomas Hardy)...I've always wondered what this one was about. Love the title, but what does it mean?
Alright, back to bed, then back to work...more later...
2 comments:
I'm working on a similar project of trying to get through all the great books that I've missed... I've read some of the ones on your list, so I'll give you some advice:
15. Jane Eyre: I LOVED ths book. If it was required reading for 8th grade girls, I must have missed that class, because I didn't read it until last year, but it was wonderful...but then again, I'm a girl so I think that I'm required to like it.
17&18 - Faulkner. He can be obtuse and The Sound and the Fury is potentially one of the most obtuse pieces of writing. I would suggest finding a good summary of it to help you follow along. That's what I had to do, but it was worth it.
28. Things Fall Apart. I HATED this book for about the first 90 pages (it's only slightly more than 100 I think). I don't know how many times I thought of giving up. But in the end, it was very much worth hanging in for.
30. Tess of D'Urbervilles - great selection! Have you ever read any other Hardy?
The only book by Thomas Hardy I've read was "Return of the Native", which was assigned in my 11th grade English class. I remember thinking I would not like it, but ended up enjoying it. And that's about all I remember of the book.
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