After seeing so many great challenges floating around the blog-o-sphere, I've decided to make my own challenge. A personal challenge. Keeping myself honest. Here it goes:This challenge is to read all those books I was supposed to have read back in high school (or whenever) that I should have read but didn't. One I pretended to read (Lord Jim) while others I never finished. (I know you are shocked!! I hope my old English teacher isn't reading this.) I have all 2009 to finish this challenge.
So without much ado, the list:
1. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
2. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
3. 1984 - George Orwell (Finished April 15, 2009)
4. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
5. The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper
6. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bonus:
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (Never required but why wasn't it?)
9. Anna Karneina - Leo Tolstoy (Because I'm halfway through and need to freakin' finish it.)
***Did you ever pretend to read a book you didn't?
***Excuse the picture...the Paint program only takes you so far.
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Ew. Hemingway. Don't do it. I had to read A Farewell to Arms in 11th grade and I wanted to poke out my own eyes so I wouldn't have to keep reading it. Ack.
ReplyDeleteI read Red Badge but don't really remember it (the 8th grade was a LONG time ago) but I vaguely recall liking it. I tried twice to read Mohicans (as an adult) but it didn't take.
Good luck. Keep us posted about how you like them. :-)
Only two of the ones on your list were ones required of me in high school. Wuthering Heights wasn't bad, but I was definitely not a fan of The Red Badge of Courage. I'm pretty sure I chose to read The Sun Also Rises in high school when we were given a list to choose from and liked it, too.
ReplyDeleteI was supposed to have read Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities in 11th grade for summer reading, but I never managed to finish it. My "not much of a reader" best friend claims it as one of her favorites, so I always wonder if I should go back and try and finish it....
Anywho - this is a pretty neat idea for a personal challenge Good luck!
Suchhhh a good challenge! I've been slowly but surely doing this for a few years now. Wuthering Heights was never actually required of me, but it was one of those books I felt I "should" have read. I finally knocked it off last year and I was sooo glad. It actually turned out to be really worth the time. Unfortunately I haven't read any on your list (though I was supposed to read Tender is the Night in a college class). Maybe I'll try to knock that one off this year. :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I listed you as one of the blogs I love for this week's Weekly Geeks. I'm working on the post now, and it'll go up shortly.
Catch-22 is the bane of my existence. I disliked it so much. Never managed to finish it, I was so tortured by it, but I wish I had so that I could hate it with a much freer conscience if that makes any sense. I'm quite sure there is a change in my brain wave patterns when I think about it. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI like this idea for a challenge. I loved Wuthering Heights and 1984, but skimmed Frankenstein and Their Eyes Were Watching God. I'm getting ready to read Anna Karenina because I want to read What Happened to Anna K. and I feel I should read the original version first.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, your list is ambitious!
I must admit to being guilty of this reading crime! My first year english courses at uni consisted of quite a few books I should have read but didn't! I read Wuthering Heights for the first time last year and found it quite disturbing - couldn't get into it at all.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your personal challenge!
Well, I never skipped a book in high school (nerd, I know) except for The Canterbury Tales (which I simply forgot to read). Some time last year I did listen to MOST of the Tales, but the first few were the best and I got bored after a while. As for your list, there are many on there that I've never read, but there are also some really great ones on there.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed 1984 (in a creepy, dystopian way) and Wuthering Heights is one of my all time favorites.
I've always wanted to read The Last of the Mohicans - in fact, it was on my Friday Finds last week. If you start reading it, let me know - I might read along with you. :)