Comments | vaznetti: Meme of unread books

vaznetti

Meme of unread books

Oct 01, 2007 13:06

As seen everywhere, the list of books other people say they haven't read. The best part about this is learning that many, many people share my loathing of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

( the explanation and the list )

memes

Comments 34

nestra October 1 2007, 16:12:35 UTC

Oh, you should read Jane Eyre. Much, much better than Wuthering Heights. In fact, I should have put Wuthering Heights on my "hated it" list.

vaznetti October 1 2007, 16:19:33 UTC

I read Wuthering Heights over a couple very hot days immediately after finishing my Cambridge exams -- it was the perfect thing to read then because it was all misty and overwrought. So I remember it fondly for the reading experience, even though I recall that the characters were mostly crazy and unlikable and came to bad ends. But I will read Jane Eyre someday.

nestra October 1 2007, 16:20:54 UTC

My dislike was the result of years of being told that Heathcliff was the ideal romantic hero. Around the time he started hanging puppies, I began to doubt that.

cofax7 October 1 2007, 16:27:56 UTC

::seconds Nestra's Heathcliff-dislike::

Hated that book and nearly everyone in it.

Thread 9

cofax7 October 1 2007, 16:17:47 UTC

People couldn't finish Watership Down? Really? Sheesh. I should do this meme, but not until I'm home and can use Semagic: I have no patience for hand-coding the whole thing.

vaznetti October 1 2007, 16:22:56 UTC

I find that hard to imagine, as well, but it is a long book, I guess.

I really ought to start using a client -- I was thinking as I did this that hand-coding a list of this kind is such a pain. But I tried to use Semagic when I first started posting to LJ and it kept eating my entries, so I gave up.

cofax7 October 1 2007, 16:27:22 UTC

Wow, I've never had any problems with Semagic. Maybe the updated version has corrected that? I really love the edit last entry function, and the flist-management stuff, both of which operate MUCH better than LJ's interface does.

vaznetti October 1 2007, 17:32:51 UTC

It would open Word and then crash, IIRC. But I haven't tried using it since then, and that was 2002 or something, so I'm sure it's much better now. I just got used to hand-coding on the LJ interface, or copy-pasting from wordpad, which I find straightforward.

Thread 10

lesbiassparrow October 1 2007, 16:42:20 UTC

I am strangely cheered by how many people never read Crime and Punishment. I hate that novel with a fiery passion.

vaznetti October 1 2007, 17:28:57 UTC

I like having long serious books to read on beach holidays, because I run through anything else too quickly. But I may strike that one from the list.

lasultrix October 1 2007, 17:45:12 UTC

I have 125 books listed as 'unread' on LT (a fifth or so of the total - I'm so ashamed) and yet, interestingly, only Quicksilver is on both that list and mine.

Oh, Oryx and Crake, too, but after hearing so many bad comments about it I decided not to tackle it.

And do read Crime and Punishment! So powerful. It completely sucks you in - you can feel the miasma of guilt choking Raskolnikov. In a rather masochistic way, my brain used to always demand to reread C&P shortly before exams, because my guilt at reading rather than studying put me in exactly the right mood for it.

I confess I'm a Tess-lover, but different parts of my brain are responsible for those different loves.

vaznetti October 1 2007, 19:47:00 UTC

I didn't really hate Oryx and Crake, but it was rather a waste of time. I have very little tolerance for novels of ideas, especially when the ideas are foregrounded so much that there are no characters at all.

Hm. Perhaps I will take C&P next time I go to the beach or something. That's where I do best with the classics.

lasultrix October 1 2007, 19:55:27 UTC

Given the size of that bloody tome, I don't feel inclined to give it a go on that description. Also, I'm annoyed with Margaret Atwood's claim that SF sucks, and she doesn't write SF - just hypothetical novels about possible futures. AHEM.

se_parsons October 1 2007, 18:26:54 UTC

Next time you feel really overwhelmed and sorry for yourself, read "Jane Eyre". It totally feeds the virtuous pity party need in your soul. "Villette" does it even better.

And I loathe almost all Hardy, so I share your Tess hate. I wrote a portion of my Master's Thesis on "Jude the Obscure" because it fit the theme. It is a very painful read as well. You just want to give everyone a good kicking for utter stupidity. When infinitemonkeys and I drove by his house on our way to Maiden Castle, we flipped it off to great glee.

vaznetti October 1 2007, 19:49:10 UTC

I used to read Phineas Finn or Phineas Redux for the pity party, although things tend to turn out ok for Phineas in the end -- but I think that's what you want in these moments. I will keep Jane Eyre in mind -- I think I may have started it once and then put it down, and that was that.