I have read 12 of the board's choices, and 14 of the reader's choices. I can't believe they chose "We the Living" as #8--I thought only I have ever read that book. It has to be one of Rand's least read. The Objectivist/Scientology theme of the reader's top ten makes me a little shaky on their value as critics.
It surprises me that almost all of my favorite books are in the list. It also surprises me that "Atonement" is not on the list.
Some books on the list I want to read:
- Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
- The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
- To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
- Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys
- The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
We might go ice skating later. Ah, winter.
2 comments:
I read Wide Sargasso Sea in my women's lit class last year; I trust you have read Jane Eyre, but if you haven't recently, repeat as a refresher before this one. It's vaguely from the perspective Bertha. Crazily engaging.
I read Jane Eyre the summer before college and barely got through the book without shooting myself. It was one of Schwartz's summer reading books (where we'd have to read like 2 books before we met each week) and I think those 400ish uneventful pages in a 3-day period sort of ripped at my soul. I don't think I'd feel such disdain for it if I had been given more time. But, Emily = the superior Bronte. I loved Wuthering Heights.
But I've wanted to read WSS since I talked to this guy who teaches English at a university in Washington and he said it was one of his favorite books--and he hated Jane Eyre. (He also loved Atonement and WH.)
:D Thanks for further encouraging me.
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