BOOKS
In following Julia's ever sterling example, I have compiled a list of books I would like to read before New Year's Eve 2015.
These are books I think will make me a more scholarly, well rounded individual (I even included Harry Potter as a sign I that I cannot remain ignorant of such an influential cultural piece) (I also even included Great Expectations, because it's only fair I suck it up and read it). Granted, Julia's list is twice the length of mine but she's a much better reader than I am (though, after making this list, I feel relatively good about myself, based on how many books I didn't have to include...it's also really tempting to just make a list of important books that I have already read and then reread them...). The 'X's by certain names denote books by authors that I have either read other books, essays, plays or enough work to be generally familiar with their style. This is another handicap I gave myself, in the sense that I get to read some of my favorite authors, yet still read new and important material (A breather I will probably rely on). They make up exactly half the list (though in my defense, some of these authors I don't particularly enjoy--they're getting a second chance for the sake of my education). Maybe I should've tried harder to find more important authors that I know nothing about but I'm hesitant to say I'll accomplish this list as it is.
Sense and Sensibility Austen, Jane X Go Tell It on the Mountain Baldwin, James Waiting for Godot Beckett, Samuel X Decameron Boccaccio The Martian Chronicles Bradbury, Ray X Agnes Grey Bronte, Anne In Cold Blood Capote, Truman X The Seagull Chekov, Anton X And Then There Were None Christie, Agatha X The Fountains of Paradise Clarke, Arthur C. X Nostromo Conrad, Joseph X The Red Badge of Courage Crane, Stephen Great Expectations Dickens, Charles X The Idiot Dostoevsky, Fyodor X As I Lay Dying Faulkner, William X This Side of Paradise Fitzgerald, F. Scott X Madame Bovary Flaubert, Gustave A Passage to India Forster, EM I, Claudius Graves, Robert For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway, Ernest X Les Mieserables Hugo, Victor The Portrait of a Lady James, Henry Ulysses Joyce, James The Trial Kafka, Franz X The Dharma Burns Kerouac, Jack X Sons and Lovers Lawrence, DH The Naked and the Dead Mailer, Norman The Heart is a Lonely Hunter McCullers, Carson Tropic of Cancer Miller, Henry Anne of Green Gables Montgomery, LM The Violent Bear It Away O'Connor, Flannery Swann's Way Proust, Marcel Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas Atlas Shrugged Rand, Ayn All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque, Erich Maria Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rowling, JK Midnight's Children Rushdie, Salman X Franny and Zooey Salinger, JD X The Tale of Genji Shikibu, Murasaki Botchan Souseki, Natsumi X The Pearl Steinbeck, John X Vanity Fair Thackeray, William Makepeace Walden Thoreau, Henry David X Rabbit, Run Updike, John X Infinite Jest Wallace, David Foster X Brideshead Revisited Waugh, Evelyn The Age of Innocence Wharton, Edith X The Bonfire of the Vanities Wolfe, Tom X A Room of One's Own Woolf, Virginia X Dream of the Red Chamber Xueqin, Cao
These are books I think will make me a more scholarly, well rounded individual (I even included Harry Potter as a sign I that I cannot remain ignorant of such an influential cultural piece) (I also even included Great Expectations, because it's only fair I suck it up and read it). Granted, Julia's list is twice the length of mine but she's a much better reader than I am (though, after making this list, I feel relatively good about myself, based on how many books I didn't have to include...it's also really tempting to just make a list of important books that I have already read and then reread them...). The 'X's by certain names denote books by authors that I have either read other books, essays, plays or enough work to be generally familiar with their style. This is another handicap I gave myself, in the sense that I get to read some of my favorite authors, yet still read new and important material (A breather I will probably rely on). They make up exactly half the list (though in my defense, some of these authors I don't particularly enjoy--they're getting a second chance for the sake of my education). Maybe I should've tried harder to find more important authors that I know nothing about but I'm hesitant to say I'll accomplish this list as it is.
Sense and Sensibility Austen, Jane X Go Tell It on the Mountain Baldwin, James Waiting for Godot Beckett, Samuel X Decameron Boccaccio The Martian Chronicles Bradbury, Ray X Agnes Grey Bronte, Anne In Cold Blood Capote, Truman X The Seagull Chekov, Anton X And Then There Were None Christie, Agatha X The Fountains of Paradise Clarke, Arthur C. X Nostromo Conrad, Joseph X The Red Badge of Courage Crane, Stephen Great Expectations Dickens, Charles X The Idiot Dostoevsky, Fyodor X As I Lay Dying Faulkner, William X This Side of Paradise Fitzgerald, F. Scott X Madame Bovary Flaubert, Gustave A Passage to India Forster, EM I, Claudius Graves, Robert For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway, Ernest X Les Mieserables Hugo, Victor The Portrait of a Lady James, Henry Ulysses Joyce, James The Trial Kafka, Franz X The Dharma Burns Kerouac, Jack X Sons and Lovers Lawrence, DH The Naked and the Dead Mailer, Norman The Heart is a Lonely Hunter McCullers, Carson Tropic of Cancer Miller, Henry Anne of Green Gables Montgomery, LM The Violent Bear It Away O'Connor, Flannery Swann's Way Proust, Marcel Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas Atlas Shrugged Rand, Ayn All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque, Erich Maria Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rowling, JK Midnight's Children Rushdie, Salman X Franny and Zooey Salinger, JD X The Tale of Genji Shikibu, Murasaki Botchan Souseki, Natsumi X The Pearl Steinbeck, John X Vanity Fair Thackeray, William Makepeace Walden Thoreau, Henry David X Rabbit, Run Updike, John X Infinite Jest Wallace, David Foster X Brideshead Revisited Waugh, Evelyn The Age of Innocence Wharton, Edith X The Bonfire of the Vanities Wolfe, Tom X A Room of One's Own Woolf, Virginia X Dream of the Red Chamber Xueqin, Cao