Where I tackle two reading lists at once.
Out of sheer boredom I decided to tackle some reading lists that I bookmarked a while ago. The first two are io9's Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life and Clifton Fadiman's New Lifetime Reading Plan. The Fadiman list is really long, so it'll be a while before I can get to the other lists.
I missed reading so much.
Books already finished on the io9 list:
At The Mountains of Madness - H.P. Lovecraft
Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
Books already finished on the Fadiman list:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Oedipus Rex; Antigone - Sophocles
The Republic - Plato
The Tale of Genji - Lady Murasaki Shikibu
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
"The Ancient Mariner"; "Kubla Khan" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
A Doll's House; Ghosts - Henrik Ibsen
Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
Women in Love - D.H. Lawrence
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Animal Farm; Nineteen Eighty Four; Burmese Days - George Orwell
The Stranger - Albert Camus
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Having taken inventory of the items I've already read, items that I own but haven't read, and public domain works available online...I set to work.
Day 1 and 2: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
A long slog in parts. I have to say, the framing device kind of wrecks the suspense.
Day 3 and 4: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
I've seen a few film adaptations of this, but reading the original was much different. It wasn't what I expected at all. It's not non-stop horror, there are these quiet moments of reflection and pretty language, too. So when the horror arrives, it's much more shocking.
Day 5 and 6: The Iliad by Homer
Lots and lots of characters. Some of them sure love to talk. I have to say Achilles is the most annoying, douchetastic "hero" since John Galt. (Okay, Achilles came first, but you know what I mean.) Have you ever seen a hero sulk for eighteen chapters? Get over yourself, already! Ulysees, Ajax, Diomed, and Hector were the real heroes.
I really had to force my way through certain parts. But the rest of it. Epic in the original sense of the word. I did have one question. What is the difference between Trojan armor and Greek armor? I had a hard time picturing it.
Tomorrow, I start I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. I needed a break from the ancient epics.
I missed reading so much.
Books already finished on the io9 list:
At The Mountains of Madness - H.P. Lovecraft
Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
Books already finished on the Fadiman list:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Oedipus Rex; Antigone - Sophocles
The Republic - Plato
The Tale of Genji - Lady Murasaki Shikibu
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
"The Ancient Mariner"; "Kubla Khan" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
A Doll's House; Ghosts - Henrik Ibsen
Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
Women in Love - D.H. Lawrence
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Animal Farm; Nineteen Eighty Four; Burmese Days - George Orwell
The Stranger - Albert Camus
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Having taken inventory of the items I've already read, items that I own but haven't read, and public domain works available online...I set to work.
Day 1 and 2: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
A long slog in parts. I have to say, the framing device kind of wrecks the suspense.
Day 3 and 4: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
I've seen a few film adaptations of this, but reading the original was much different. It wasn't what I expected at all. It's not non-stop horror, there are these quiet moments of reflection and pretty language, too. So when the horror arrives, it's much more shocking.
Day 5 and 6: The Iliad by Homer
Lots and lots of characters. Some of them sure love to talk. I have to say Achilles is the most annoying, douchetastic "hero" since John Galt. (Okay, Achilles came first, but you know what I mean.) Have you ever seen a hero sulk for eighteen chapters? Get over yourself, already! Ulysees, Ajax, Diomed, and Hector were the real heroes.
I really had to force my way through certain parts. But the rest of it. Epic in the original sense of the word. I did have one question. What is the difference between Trojan armor and Greek armor? I had a hard time picturing it.
Tomorrow, I start I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. I needed a break from the ancient epics.