Tuesday, May 24, 2005

And now I am "it"

A neat idea passed down from John: write out a list of 5 books have you NOT read but are really meaning to read one day. Then get responses from three other people... or something like that. I dunno, this might just be an exercise in making me feel unliterate...

1) The Bible. Any version of it. If it weren't for the fact that The Book burns my hands and leaves my palms red and itchy, I'd have read it by now. (I need and young priest and... bah, screw the old priest.)

2) Jane Eyre. It's been on my bookshelf for maybe 10 years, and I just can't steel myself to dive in. Same goes for anything in the classics genre – the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice...any of those women-in-the-18th-century stories.

3) Anything by Tolstoy. War and Peace is probably first on my list because everytime I see Happy New Year Charlie Brown, I cringe at how dedicated Charlie Brown is about finishing the epic tomb that seems to crush his tiny little legs under its weight before the holiday is over. Then he falls asleep on the porch reading, and misses ringing in the New Year and the chance to get kissed by the little red-headed girl. AUUUGGGHHH!!!!

4) Sun Tzu's The Art of War (not the crappy Wesley Snipes movie). It sounds like something that should be on my bookshelf, right alongside my mother's copy of Mao's little red book.

5) Machiavelli's The Prince. That really belongs right next to The Art of War.

On John's end, I'm proud to have said that I DID manage to plow through Heart of Darkness and it was SO BORING. I've read A Christmas Carol, and it remains one of my favourite plays/movies/Muppet adaptations/cartoons. I also own a copy of Darwin's Origin of Species, but I bought it for the pictures. So there. Nyah.

Now you try! I tag Michelle, though I know she's probably read just about everything...

1 comment:

The Red Fork said...

Whee! I've read your Jane Eyre and all that Jane Austen, and Little Women too. I loved them all. You will too.

My top 5, hmm. I had to choose off the top of my head:

1) The Bible as well, and the Koran too while I'm at it. I'd read the Torah or the Talmud but my hebrew is limited to the Four Questions and the back of the matzo meal box.

2) Mein Kamf, because I understand it is a very interesting book. I'm gonna play my Jew card on this one.

3) The diaries of Virginia Woolf. "I shall go down with my colours flying."

4) Tolstoy too, maybe some Dostoyevsky while I'm at it.

5) Jane Jacobs. Bandwagon--ho!

I could go on and on and on. I'm about to donate my "books still to read" shelf to a library because I've been meaning to read them for at least two years and I hate looking at them now. Want some books Vicki?