As with anything, life gets in the way of good intentions. That is particularly true this year as I have spent the past couple of weeks either celebrating thanksgiving or celebrating the life of my Grandfather, who recently passed away. While I am dedicated to forging ahead with this project, I am sure there will be long delays between the completetion of some of these books, so please bear with me.
Oh, and "All the King's Men" is 600 pages long. Just sayin'...
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Author Bio: Robert Penn Warren
Reading bios of Robert Penn Warren makes me think about how small and insignificant my own attempts at writing are. It's like knowing a person who is attractive, kind, successful and wealthy. You are happy for them, but you also hate their guts just a little bit for being so perfect.
During his years as a student Warren spent time at Vanderbilt, University of California Berkeley, Yale Universty and the New College, Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar. C'mon Warren, dude, you are making everyone else on the planet look bad. He spent much of his time at these various schools in various poetry groups and societies and became as well known for his poetry as he would for his novels.
In an interesting flip-flop, there is evidence that Warren spent his early years as a segragationist, but over time became a strong proponent of racial integration, publishing interviews with important civil rights leaders, including Malcolm X and MLK.
His best known work, and the work of his that I am in the process of reading, is All the King's Men, for which he won a Pulitzer in 1947. This work follows the political career of Willie Stark, inspiried heavily by the real-life Governer of Louisiana from 1928-1932, Huey Long. Warren was able to observe Long closely while a professor at LSU during the height of Long's political popularity and subsequent assassination.
Warren is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes in both ficton and poetry. He won twice in poetry for his collections entitled "Promises: Poems 1954-1956" (1958) and Now and Then (1979). He went on to be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Carter, was named first U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987.
...what a loser.
Oh, and once I got an A in our 10th grade poetry assignment. Check and Mate.
During his years as a student Warren spent time at Vanderbilt, University of California Berkeley, Yale Universty and the New College, Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar. C'mon Warren, dude, you are making everyone else on the planet look bad. He spent much of his time at these various schools in various poetry groups and societies and became as well known for his poetry as he would for his novels.
In an interesting flip-flop, there is evidence that Warren spent his early years as a segragationist, but over time became a strong proponent of racial integration, publishing interviews with important civil rights leaders, including Malcolm X and MLK.
His best known work, and the work of his that I am in the process of reading, is All the King's Men, for which he won a Pulitzer in 1947. This work follows the political career of Willie Stark, inspiried heavily by the real-life Governer of Louisiana from 1928-1932, Huey Long. Warren was able to observe Long closely while a professor at LSU during the height of Long's political popularity and subsequent assassination.
Warren is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes in both ficton and poetry. He won twice in poetry for his collections entitled "Promises: Poems 1954-1956" (1958) and Now and Then (1979). He went on to be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Carter, was named first U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987.
...what a loser.
Oh, and once I got an A in our 10th grade poetry assignment. Check and Mate.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
2: "The Sound and The Fury" by William Faulkner (1929)
First off, I have to admit that I didn't enjoy reading this book. If you couldn't glean that from a few of my previous posts, I want to lay it all out there. I don't like "The Sound and The Fury." That having been said, I don't think one is necessarily supposed to like this novel. This story at its root is about the decay of a once affluent southern family. The majority the of the main characters are generally unlikeable and pitiful. The text is next to impossible for a casual reader to get through without some kind of guidance, especially the first couple of sections. I equate my feelings about "The Sound and the Fury" with the feelings I had leaving the theater after seeing "Saving Private Ryan" for the first time. Saving Private Ryan is not a movie you are supposed to like. I don't like seeing the deaths of hundreds of soldiers depicted onscreen. I don't like seeing the destruction of French towns. I don't like seeing the main characters dying one by one as they attempt to achieve a somewhat silly, but noble, goal. Does that mean the film was bad? No, of course not. "Saving Private Ryan" was a extremely well done war film, that can allow viewers who weren't there on the battlefields of France during the Second World War to experience a tiny piece of the terror and loss and brotherhood that soldiers experience. And based on the sobbing older gentlemen I saw leaving the theater, it can apparently allow veterans who were there to revisit a defining experience in their lives. It was a powerful film. Not a likable one, but a powerful and well crafted one. I feel similarly about "The Sound and the Fury." It is powerful. It is beautifully crafted. It is a classic. And I hated every minute of it.
....well, ok, maybe not every minute. I hated 3/4 of my minutes with Faulkner. And I suppose hate is a little too strong of a word. I really didn't hate this novel. There were times I stopped to marvel at the style Faulkner uses to convey the points of view of his subjects. "The Sound and the Fury" is broken up into 4 long chapters, or sections, and is set on a different date and comes from a different character's point of view. It details a few days in the lives of the members of the Compson family. An affluent clan whose wealth and power and reputation is in decline. The first two sections were incredibly difficult reading. The very first is from the perspective of a boy, Benjy, who is mentally handicapped. He is the youngest of the four Compson children There is little language that indicates the chronology of the events that Benjy experiences. The style of writing is purely stream of consciousness. There were pages at a time when I realized I couldn't remember what was actually happening, I just got lost in the cadence of the prose. I won't attempt to discuss the events that take place in this section, because I don't think I can. Go give it a try yourselves! The following section is, like the first, difficult reading. It comes from the perspective of Quentin, a Harvard student and oldest of the Compson children. He is obsessed with his sister Caddy, who has been victim of sexual scandals starting at a young age. As the section progresses, chronology gets more jumbled, and consistent punctuation, grammar and spelling goes out the window. Apparently this indicates Quentin's slow mental deterioration as he is unable to come to grips with the fate of his sister, his family, and the degradation of the American south since the end of the civil war. (Thank you Internet for explaining this to me).
It is at this point in the novel I considered giving up reading altogether and instead focusing on cable reality shows, but persisted. I don't think a book has ever made me feel, outside of maybe my Federal Tax Law casebook in law school, so incredibly stupid than the first two sections of "The Sound and the Fury." I felt like I just wasn't getting it. This is one novel that I wish that I had read within the context of a literature class.
Thankfully the last two sections were less of a chore to get through. The third section follows Jason, the third child and the means of financial support for the family. This section is linear and much easier to read. Jason's role has left him as a despicable character, whose sole focus lies on money. The last section is the only that is not set from a first person narrator, and the only one not focused on person outside of the family. It follows Dilsey, who is a black servant to the Compsons. Her section was the easiest to read, and the most enjoyable for me. Her character is likable. The simplicity of the prose in her section mirrors the simplicity of her life, compared to the Compson children, which revolves around her faith and her loyalty to the Compsons, despite their sometimes harsh treatment of Dilsey and her family.
I don't care to try and explain more of the plot of the novel, nor will I try to dissect the style Faulkner uses in his various sections. It would take it's own book to be done properly. Generations of brighter minds than I have already done so far better than I ever could. I can only relate my experience while reading "The Sound and the Fury." Again, I didn't necessarily enjoy this book, but I did marvel at the style and complexity of Faulkner's achievement. How someone could weave the threads of this work together, long before being able to easily save and edit on a computer, I will never know! This work could be Exhibit A for an example of how fine the line between genius and insanity can feel.
Now it is my time to say Goodbye to the "The Sound and the Fury" I am proud to have read you, and I am happy to be moving on!
....well, ok, maybe not every minute. I hated 3/4 of my minutes with Faulkner. And I suppose hate is a little too strong of a word. I really didn't hate this novel. There were times I stopped to marvel at the style Faulkner uses to convey the points of view of his subjects. "The Sound and the Fury" is broken up into 4 long chapters, or sections, and is set on a different date and comes from a different character's point of view. It details a few days in the lives of the members of the Compson family. An affluent clan whose wealth and power and reputation is in decline. The first two sections were incredibly difficult reading. The very first is from the perspective of a boy, Benjy, who is mentally handicapped. He is the youngest of the four Compson children There is little language that indicates the chronology of the events that Benjy experiences. The style of writing is purely stream of consciousness. There were pages at a time when I realized I couldn't remember what was actually happening, I just got lost in the cadence of the prose. I won't attempt to discuss the events that take place in this section, because I don't think I can. Go give it a try yourselves! The following section is, like the first, difficult reading. It comes from the perspective of Quentin, a Harvard student and oldest of the Compson children. He is obsessed with his sister Caddy, who has been victim of sexual scandals starting at a young age. As the section progresses, chronology gets more jumbled, and consistent punctuation, grammar and spelling goes out the window. Apparently this indicates Quentin's slow mental deterioration as he is unable to come to grips with the fate of his sister, his family, and the degradation of the American south since the end of the civil war. (Thank you Internet for explaining this to me).
It is at this point in the novel I considered giving up reading altogether and instead focusing on cable reality shows, but persisted. I don't think a book has ever made me feel, outside of maybe my Federal Tax Law casebook in law school, so incredibly stupid than the first two sections of "The Sound and the Fury." I felt like I just wasn't getting it. This is one novel that I wish that I had read within the context of a literature class.
Thankfully the last two sections were less of a chore to get through. The third section follows Jason, the third child and the means of financial support for the family. This section is linear and much easier to read. Jason's role has left him as a despicable character, whose sole focus lies on money. The last section is the only that is not set from a first person narrator, and the only one not focused on person outside of the family. It follows Dilsey, who is a black servant to the Compsons. Her section was the easiest to read, and the most enjoyable for me. Her character is likable. The simplicity of the prose in her section mirrors the simplicity of her life, compared to the Compson children, which revolves around her faith and her loyalty to the Compsons, despite their sometimes harsh treatment of Dilsey and her family.
I don't care to try and explain more of the plot of the novel, nor will I try to dissect the style Faulkner uses in his various sections. It would take it's own book to be done properly. Generations of brighter minds than I have already done so far better than I ever could. I can only relate my experience while reading "The Sound and the Fury." Again, I didn't necessarily enjoy this book, but I did marvel at the style and complexity of Faulkner's achievement. How someone could weave the threads of this work together, long before being able to easily save and edit on a computer, I will never know! This work could be Exhibit A for an example of how fine the line between genius and insanity can feel.
Now it is my time to say Goodbye to the "The Sound and the Fury" I am proud to have read you, and I am happy to be moving on!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Next Up, and my experience with films based on books.
I am nearing the completion of "The Sound and the Fury" (thank the lordy) which means it was time to randomize myself up a new book. Up after my Faulkner marathon will be "All the King's Men" (1946) by Robert Penn Warren.
This will be interesting, as I did see the 2006 Film based off of this novel, so I do know the basic story already. I do tend to like reading a book before I see a film based on it. That started when I was young and wasn't allowed to see PG-13 rated films yet. Since I couldn't see Jurassic Park right away when it came out in theaters...I was ten or eleven at the time.... I read the book. For anyone who is familiar with Jurassic Park the novel, which is filled with talk of genetics, biological engineering, chaos theory, and computer engineering and programming to name a few areas of science, it wasn't an easy read for a ten year old. I got through it though, and was excited to see the film. Thanks to that book however, I was probably the only ten year old in the US disappointed with the film version of Jurassic Park. It was so different from the book! Half of the stuff I liked from the book was missing. Characters weren't all the same. Some people who died in the book lived in the movie. Huge plot points were missing (spoiler alert: the island gets destroyed at the end.) Thanks to Jurassic Park, I realized at a young age that when you have a choice between the two, you probably can't go wrong with reading the book as opposed to seeing the film. It also helped me to learn that just because you have seen the film, that doesn't mean you have the whole story as it was originally meant to be told. See: Lord of the Rings, The. Anyway, bring on "All the King's Men"
It has also been brought to my attention that "The Sound and the Fury" was made into a film in the 1950's.
I'll Pass.
This will be interesting, as I did see the 2006 Film based off of this novel, so I do know the basic story already. I do tend to like reading a book before I see a film based on it. That started when I was young and wasn't allowed to see PG-13 rated films yet. Since I couldn't see Jurassic Park right away when it came out in theaters...I was ten or eleven at the time.... I read the book. For anyone who is familiar with Jurassic Park the novel, which is filled with talk of genetics, biological engineering, chaos theory, and computer engineering and programming to name a few areas of science, it wasn't an easy read for a ten year old. I got through it though, and was excited to see the film. Thanks to that book however, I was probably the only ten year old in the US disappointed with the film version of Jurassic Park. It was so different from the book! Half of the stuff I liked from the book was missing. Characters weren't all the same. Some people who died in the book lived in the movie. Huge plot points were missing (spoiler alert: the island gets destroyed at the end.) Thanks to Jurassic Park, I realized at a young age that when you have a choice between the two, you probably can't go wrong with reading the book as opposed to seeing the film. It also helped me to learn that just because you have seen the film, that doesn't mean you have the whole story as it was originally meant to be told. See: Lord of the Rings, The. Anyway, bring on "All the King's Men"
It has also been brought to my attention that "The Sound and the Fury" was made into a film in the 1950's.
I'll Pass.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Faulkner v. Calvin
As my attempt to read "The Sound and the Fury" stretches into its' second month, I have found that I have lost all motivation to sit down and read. Not read in general, just this book. As I forge ahead into the second half of this great American novel, I am astounded by two things. First, the amazing variety of writing styles that Faulkner employs from page to page and the depth of the world he has created. It is truly an amazing work of art. Second, how little I care about it. Here is the anecdote that prompted me to write this post. I was staying at my parents' house for a night as my wife had a bunch of girls over for one of her friends' bachelorette party. I took my Faulkner with me to read before bed, and I set a goal of 30 pages to read that evening. On the positive side, I did end up reading 30 pages. On the negative side, those 30 pages were of Calvin and Hobbes. I can honestly say that I got more enjoyment from my half hour of following Calvin on his adventures to school, learning to ride his bike, arguing with his stuffed tiger, and creating a horrific tableaux of snowman carnage than the hours I have spent slogging through Faulkner.
I am dedicated to finishing "The Sound and the Fury," but it may be a couple more weeks before I do. A couple of months if I come upon a pile of Calvin and Hobbes books.
I am dedicated to finishing "The Sound and the Fury," but it may be a couple more weeks before I do. A couple of months if I come upon a pile of Calvin and Hobbes books.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Author Bio: William Faulkner
Because reading "The Sound and the Fury" has turned into a bit of a marathon, and because it was a struggle to read the first section of the book, I wanted to take time to examine the author. This short bio is not an attempt to give a comprehensive view on Faulkner's life, just to research and provide some general information to better put his work into context. Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, and his experiences there shaped his career as an author. Each novel he wrote contributed to the whole that was his creation of the history of a fictional county in Mississippi, the lives of the families living there, and the changes they go through over the course of several generations. Generally, his work is about the fall of the classic "old southern" family, and the decline of the decadance of the old south. As a lifetime Northerner, and as someone who didn't grow up in the 1910's, the place and time Faulker wrote about is very foreign to me. I don't know much about that style of life, and about how it must have felt to live through its' demise. I am hoping that as I read through the remaining 2/3 of "The Sound and the Fury," that I can share in that experiene with the author just a little bit.
Faulkner went on to write over a dozen novels, a hundred short stories, poetry and hollywood screen plays. He went on to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949, several Pulitzers and the disctinction for being a pain in the ass to read, but highly rewarding if you put your time in. I can vouch for the former, and I am continuing to hope for the latter.
Faulkner went on to write over a dozen novels, a hundred short stories, poetry and hollywood screen plays. He went on to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949, several Pulitzers and the disctinction for being a pain in the ass to read, but highly rewarding if you put your time in. I can vouch for the former, and I am continuing to hope for the latter.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Next Up: The Sound and the Fury
The next novel I will tackle on my list is "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner. And just a note on this novel, I know Faulkner is an award winner and one of the best American authors of the 20th century, but.....Yikes. This one may take me a while to get through.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
1: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
On to the actual list! I was excited to see that the radnomizer chose Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut to start me off. This is one of the handful of books on this list that I probably would have chosen to read on my own, outside of a project like this. I am also a big history buff, especially World War II history, so I thought this would be a great way to ease myself into reading such a diverse body of literature. I am well aware of the firebombings of Dresden, so I was very interested in reading about a first hand account of the bombings, even if it is fictional. Those are the elements of this story I expected. What I got was something completely unexpected.
I knew that this novel wasn't a standard linear story going into it, but I had no idea how strange it would be. The story incorporates elements of war history. The history of wars is, if you think about it, strange enough on its own. Unfortunately, it is just a strangeness we are all too used to. Beyond that, it incorporates science fiction into the narrative through introducing aliens and time travel as major elements of the story. Though it is heavily suggested that aliens and time travel only exist in the mind of the main character, and flourish due to a combination of head trauma suffered during an accident after the war and to post traumatic stress, this is never explicitly stated, and the existence of both in the world Vonnegut has created is left slightly open ended. The status of these elements added to the feeling of confusion and isolation the the novel created. Are the Aliens supposed to be real? If not, which is likely, why does Pilgrim think they are real? His head injury? His fatalistic personality? Post traumatic stress? A way to escape any feeling of survivor's guilt he may have? Of course this is never explained, but it let me share in some of these emotions that Billy was feeling.
Though the firebombing of Dresden is a central theme of a the novel, there is very little time spent describing it or dealing with the events surrounding it directly. Most of the time are spent during different periods of the life of Billy Pilgrim, the main character - though it is hard to call him a protagonist. Pilgrim is, to me at least, a completely unlikeable figure. I felt sympathy for the painful experiences he had to endure. However, the narrative of the story makes it impossible for Pilgrim to actually care about participating in life because of his time travels, as he knows what will happen and that the future cannot be changed, which makes it seem like Pilgrim is watching his life on TV reruns instead of living it, makes it difficult to like or root for him. If he doesn't care to participate in life, why should the reader care about it?
I think it is natural as a reader to want a protagonist to identify with and root for, but Vonnegut manipulates that need beautifully by created an individual who can't even really root for or identify with himself, let alone creates any of those connections between the reader and the character. Are there really any protagonists in a war like this? Or are the actors in it just floating along, reacting to all of the circumstances they are subjected to? There are no answers to these questions, but they came to my mind all the same.
I also have to comment on the phrase "so it goes." Vonnegut writes that phrase after every mention of death in his novel. From people burned alive during the firebombing to a bottle of champagne that has gone flat and is "dead," they all get a "so it goes." This phrase appears more than 100 times. At first it was a statement that seemed to convey a resigned acceptance to the fate of us all. After multiple repetitions it becomes comic relief, especially when used in unexpected places such as refering to flat champagne. At the end it becomes frustrating, as though I could predict when I would have to read those words again. "So it goes" became my fate. Like Billy Pilgrim, I could see into the future and count on reading about the death of yet another individual and have to read "so it goes" again. By the very end of the novel, I was as resigned to reading the words "so it goes." As resigned as Pilgrim was to his own fate.
Vonnegut writes in the first few pages that he is sorry for how the novel came out because it is a jumbled mess, and goes on to say that there is not much to write about a massacre. He doesn't disappoint on the first point, but proves himself wrong on the second. The entire novel is composed of short blurbs of text, ranging from a paragraph to maybe a page or two. While some blurbs may run together in linear fashion, some may take a jump backward or forward in time or to a different planet. It is a jumbled mess, but through that mess he created in me a feeling that is hard to describe. It almost made me sick to my stomach. The combination of a terrible subject pulled from recent history, a frustrating protagonist, jumbled writing style, and unexpected sci-fi elements made for a disconcerting reading experience.
All of this is the point, I suppose. The war as a whole, and the firebombing of Dresden in particular, was such a pointless waste. As was the war in Vietnam, which was in its' most destructive prime when Slaughterhouse-five was published. The entire experience for people who lived through that time, even those far away from the fighting, is so difficult to capture. Conventional history books cannot do justice to the emotions felt by those that lived it. I doubt Vonnegut would have claimed to encompass everything felt by witnesses to the war in his novel, but he is able to capture and describe and convey a small sliver of that emotion to those of us who don't know what it was like. I don't know if I will read Slaughterhouse-five again, but I am glad that I did before I die.
So it goes.
I knew that this novel wasn't a standard linear story going into it, but I had no idea how strange it would be. The story incorporates elements of war history. The history of wars is, if you think about it, strange enough on its own. Unfortunately, it is just a strangeness we are all too used to. Beyond that, it incorporates science fiction into the narrative through introducing aliens and time travel as major elements of the story. Though it is heavily suggested that aliens and time travel only exist in the mind of the main character, and flourish due to a combination of head trauma suffered during an accident after the war and to post traumatic stress, this is never explicitly stated, and the existence of both in the world Vonnegut has created is left slightly open ended. The status of these elements added to the feeling of confusion and isolation the the novel created. Are the Aliens supposed to be real? If not, which is likely, why does Pilgrim think they are real? His head injury? His fatalistic personality? Post traumatic stress? A way to escape any feeling of survivor's guilt he may have? Of course this is never explained, but it let me share in some of these emotions that Billy was feeling.
Though the firebombing of Dresden is a central theme of a the novel, there is very little time spent describing it or dealing with the events surrounding it directly. Most of the time are spent during different periods of the life of Billy Pilgrim, the main character - though it is hard to call him a protagonist. Pilgrim is, to me at least, a completely unlikeable figure. I felt sympathy for the painful experiences he had to endure. However, the narrative of the story makes it impossible for Pilgrim to actually care about participating in life because of his time travels, as he knows what will happen and that the future cannot be changed, which makes it seem like Pilgrim is watching his life on TV reruns instead of living it, makes it difficult to like or root for him. If he doesn't care to participate in life, why should the reader care about it?
I think it is natural as a reader to want a protagonist to identify with and root for, but Vonnegut manipulates that need beautifully by created an individual who can't even really root for or identify with himself, let alone creates any of those connections between the reader and the character. Are there really any protagonists in a war like this? Or are the actors in it just floating along, reacting to all of the circumstances they are subjected to? There are no answers to these questions, but they came to my mind all the same.
I also have to comment on the phrase "so it goes." Vonnegut writes that phrase after every mention of death in his novel. From people burned alive during the firebombing to a bottle of champagne that has gone flat and is "dead," they all get a "so it goes." This phrase appears more than 100 times. At first it was a statement that seemed to convey a resigned acceptance to the fate of us all. After multiple repetitions it becomes comic relief, especially when used in unexpected places such as refering to flat champagne. At the end it becomes frustrating, as though I could predict when I would have to read those words again. "So it goes" became my fate. Like Billy Pilgrim, I could see into the future and count on reading about the death of yet another individual and have to read "so it goes" again. By the very end of the novel, I was as resigned to reading the words "so it goes." As resigned as Pilgrim was to his own fate.
Vonnegut writes in the first few pages that he is sorry for how the novel came out because it is a jumbled mess, and goes on to say that there is not much to write about a massacre. He doesn't disappoint on the first point, but proves himself wrong on the second. The entire novel is composed of short blurbs of text, ranging from a paragraph to maybe a page or two. While some blurbs may run together in linear fashion, some may take a jump backward or forward in time or to a different planet. It is a jumbled mess, but through that mess he created in me a feeling that is hard to describe. It almost made me sick to my stomach. The combination of a terrible subject pulled from recent history, a frustrating protagonist, jumbled writing style, and unexpected sci-fi elements made for a disconcerting reading experience.
All of this is the point, I suppose. The war as a whole, and the firebombing of Dresden in particular, was such a pointless waste. As was the war in Vietnam, which was in its' most destructive prime when Slaughterhouse-five was published. The entire experience for people who lived through that time, even those far away from the fighting, is so difficult to capture. Conventional history books cannot do justice to the emotions felt by those that lived it. I doubt Vonnegut would have claimed to encompass everything felt by witnesses to the war in his novel, but he is able to capture and describe and convey a small sliver of that emotion to those of us who don't know what it was like. I don't know if I will read Slaughterhouse-five again, but I am glad that I did before I die.
So it goes.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Rereads and The Lord of the Frickin' Rings
As I mentioned in my first post, I have read a few of these books already, and I intend to re-read all of them when their turn comes, except for possibly one.
The Lord of the Rings.
Now don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed reading the Lord of the Rings. The world the Tolkien creates is incredible, and his attention to detail is unmatched. He created his own freakin' language, for crying out loud! But reading the Lord of the Rings is actually reading 3 books, or even 6 depending on how you break it down. It is also a work I have already read multiple times, and don't want to get bogged down in it again, at least right now. It is also a work that recently was released as a major motion picture trilogy (if you haven't heard of them, I will pause now so you can smack yourself), which I have seen multiple times and find it hard to seperate the literature from the film. I may not skip it enitrely, but if it is one of the first books that pops up in my randomizer, I will at the very least, push it back. I may hold off reading it as the cherry on top of this project, as book #100. Or if the Hobbit film ever gets rolling, I may read them in anticipation for its' release, we will see.
Just a friendly heads up that I have already started creating exceptions to my own rules. It is my project, don't judge me!
The Lord of the Rings.
Now don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed reading the Lord of the Rings. The world the Tolkien creates is incredible, and his attention to detail is unmatched. He created his own freakin' language, for crying out loud! But reading the Lord of the Rings is actually reading 3 books, or even 6 depending on how you break it down. It is also a work I have already read multiple times, and don't want to get bogged down in it again, at least right now. It is also a work that recently was released as a major motion picture trilogy (if you haven't heard of them, I will pause now so you can smack yourself), which I have seen multiple times and find it hard to seperate the literature from the film. I may not skip it enitrely, but if it is one of the first books that pops up in my randomizer, I will at the very least, push it back. I may hold off reading it as the cherry on top of this project, as book #100. Or if the Hobbit film ever gets rolling, I may read them in anticipation for its' release, we will see.
Just a friendly heads up that I have already started creating exceptions to my own rules. It is my project, don't judge me!
The List and Order
Here is a link to the list I will be working off of:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1951793,00.html
As these books are in alphabetical order, I will be using a randomizer to choose the order I will read the books in, and unless I can't get my hands on a certain book when its' turn comes, I will stick to what is randomly chosen for me.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1951793,00.html
As these books are in alphabetical order, I will be using a randomizer to choose the order I will read the books in, and unless I can't get my hands on a certain book when its' turn comes, I will stick to what is randomly chosen for me.
What's the point?
Hey everyone out there who either stumbles across this blog or humors me when I tell them what I am doing and checks this out. This blog is an attempt to record my attempt to read all of the novels that appear on a list that Time.com published on their website in 2005. This list was compiled by Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, two critics working for Time at that time. I honestly know very little about these guys, but I wanted to find a reasonable list I could work off of, and this seemed as good as any. If you have any interest in how they put their list together, here is a link to their explanation:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1952021_1952025,00.html
So why am I doing this? To many, this task probably seems akin to choosing to pull out every hair on their forearms one by one. Even to people who love literature, there are probably many books on this list that they wouldn't get near even if an envelope containg the secrets of the universe were contained within. The answer to the question "Why?" is that as someone who believes themselves to be reasonably well educataed, I have a BA in History and Religion, and a JD in...well, the law, I was ashamed to find when I came across this list I have read a grand total of 7 of these books. From middle school on through high school, college and law school, I have only read 7 of the 100 greatest books of the last 90 years. Though many books on this list are certainly up for debate, I felt like I should have been batting better than .070. So in order to right that particular wrong, and to open myself up to reading more than military history, biographies, case law, and Sports Illustrated, and to hopefully learn a little bit about literature, writing and maybe myself in the process, I am going read every book on Time's All Time 100 Novels list. Lord help me.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1952021_1952025,00.html
So why am I doing this? To many, this task probably seems akin to choosing to pull out every hair on their forearms one by one. Even to people who love literature, there are probably many books on this list that they wouldn't get near even if an envelope containg the secrets of the universe were contained within. The answer to the question "Why?" is that as someone who believes themselves to be reasonably well educataed, I have a BA in History and Religion, and a JD in...well, the law, I was ashamed to find when I came across this list I have read a grand total of 7 of these books. From middle school on through high school, college and law school, I have only read 7 of the 100 greatest books of the last 90 years. Though many books on this list are certainly up for debate, I felt like I should have been batting better than .070. So in order to right that particular wrong, and to open myself up to reading more than military history, biographies, case law, and Sports Illustrated, and to hopefully learn a little bit about literature, writing and maybe myself in the process, I am going read every book on Time's All Time 100 Novels list. Lord help me.
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