I come from a family of readers. Both of my sisters, in particular, have voracious appetites for the written word. Both of them probably have at least five in-progress books on their nightstands at this very moment. I think that’s part of the reason why they’re so darn smart, and have such wonderful imaginations.
As much as I hate to admit it, I am the least literary member of my immediate family. I like reading… I mean, come on, who doesn’t? But since graduating college, I haven’t read nearly as much as I think I should. And when I do read, I often choose “fluff” novels over real literature as a form of escapism.
Despite my bad track record, I’m a firm believer that reading makes you a better person, and of course a better writer. So… I will read.
I’ve started a reading list full of classics and literary heavy hitters (as well as some lighter fare to break it up a bit) that I’m going to start before my birthday. Some of these are books I’ve read before and would like to revisit, some I’ve started but never finished (Middlemarch, anyone?), and some will be brand new to me. This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor is it a list I plan to finish before I turn thirty. But it’s a start. And every story has to start somewhere.
Currently Reading:
Down & Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (added by Robin & Jillian)
Reading List (in completely random order):
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise by F Scott Fitzgerald (Can you tell I like Fitzgerald?)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings
Far Away and Long Ago by W.H. Hudson
The American by Henry James
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Ulysses by James Joyce
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The World According to Garp by John Irving
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Stranger by Albert Camus
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (added by Robin)
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (added by Donica)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (added by Jillian)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (added by Jillian)
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (added by Jillian)
Recommendations are very much welcome.
Are there books you love so much you read them over and over again? Books that made you cry, laugh uncontrollably, or changed your thinking completely? Books that changed your life? Post them in the comments and I’ll add them to my list.
As much as I hate to admit it, I am the least literary member of my immediate family. I like reading… I mean, come on, who doesn’t? But since graduating college, I haven’t read nearly as much as I think I should. And when I do read, I often choose “fluff” novels over real literature as a form of escapism.
Despite my bad track record, I’m a firm believer that reading makes you a better person, and of course a better writer. So… I will read.
I’ve started a reading list full of classics and literary heavy hitters (as well as some lighter fare to break it up a bit) that I’m going to start before my birthday. Some of these are books I’ve read before and would like to revisit, some I’ve started but never finished (Middlemarch, anyone?), and some will be brand new to me. This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor is it a list I plan to finish before I turn thirty. But it’s a start. And every story has to start somewhere.
Currently Reading:
Down & Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (added by Robin & Jillian)
Reading List (in completely random order):
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise by F Scott Fitzgerald (Can you tell I like Fitzgerald?)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings
Far Away and Long Ago by W.H. Hudson
The American by Henry James
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Ulysses by James Joyce
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The World According to Garp by John Irving
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Stranger by Albert Camus
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (added by Robin)
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (added by Donica)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (added by Jillian)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (added by Jillian)
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (added by Jillian)
Recommendations are very much welcome.
Are there books you love so much you read them over and over again? Books that made you cry, laugh uncontrollably, or changed your thinking completely? Books that changed your life? Post them in the comments and I’ll add them to my list.