5/10/2006

Your Input Here

Hey. I wanted you guys to add to my "must read" list. It is not like I don't have enough books to read already, but I really really love to have a list of books to start from (besides my own). And you have to do it because I will be shamed by the number of "no comments" and I will really know how many people really read my blog---NONE.

But that is ok. It's not like my life is that interesting. It is pretty much the same stuff: poop, kids, the fact that I am getting old, plungers, Dear Sir, and you know the rest if you don't skim this thing.

So---

I have a lot of Wilkie Collins on my list. To name a few: 1. Basil 2. The Haunted Hotel
I also have a date to actually read the Chronicles of Narnia. I am one of the very few people that has only read The Silver Chair and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I know, I am pathetic. I was too busy reading Judy Blume or something. Freckles, Superfudge, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. What was I thinking?

Keep in mind that I love classics but I am open. And I am mostly talking fiction unless you think something else would really benefit me. I know, I keep getting pickier. My comments are already slimming down before this thing is posted. Oh well.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Rachel. It's me, L's sister who is currently residing in England. I just wanted to let you know that I read your blog but I never comment. On the reading list thing, I've read C of N but never read any Jane Austen (missed out on a Judy Blume phase but sure did love those Harlequin romances!)so I am enjoying my first, Persuasion, at this moment. (Well at this moment I'm typing in a comment, but you know what I mean.)
I have to say that I've not read much fiction the last 15 years or so and am wanting to get back into it. So, maybe you could share your complete list?

Emily

R said...

Ha! I didn't know you *actually* read this blog! Funny! I like Jane Austen ok--she really is not my favorite. I find her flighty and ridiculous, but many people disagree with me. I have read Persuasion and it is one of my favorites by her by far. I also enjoyed Mansfield Park and Pride and Prejudice, but the others I am not too keen on. I actually tried to read Emma about a year ago and I could not bring myself to finish it. That is bad. It had nothing to do with the writing style (which I don't really like all that much) but had everything to do with elitism (which I don't know much about either) but it made me sick. I have read other books of hers, I am sure, but I can not come up with the titles from the top of my head (and that is bad too because I am usually good at that).

I did not know you were in England. Wait. Maybe I did. L keeps me posted on family stuff. I am jealous, to say the least. I want to live there. I want to spend all of my money there. ARGHHHHH!!!!

I will have to think of a list to put out there of books that I really enjoyed.

Sorry you are just now getting into fiction again. That really is too bad! I adore it. And, yes, I did read those stupid romance novels too. One of my goals in high school was to one day be a romance novelist. I know all of the flowery language and everything. The romance world really lost a winner, I tell you.

Don't be afraid to comment.

:)

Anonymous said...

Books to read:

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

I'll try to think of some more...

Miriam

R said...

Thanks for the list. I will add them posthaste.

I have seen the Daniel Deronda movie put out by Mobile Masterpiece Theatre---it was good---a little dramatic and over the top. I am sure it reads better than it plays out in a movie. I felt the same for The Mill on the Floss. The ending in that book was so ridiculous I thought that the movie would be even more so. I don't even think I saw the whole movie, it was so silly. It was a pretty good book though.

I need to look up those books by Maugham and by Waugh. I have heard of them but you know how it goes, you hear something and then it leaves you faster than anything. I am excited! Keep them coming!

Anonymous said...

Yah we are here until end of July, having arrived on 01/04/06 as they do it here. So far it's just lovely mate.

I totally did the Thomas Hardy thing in high school, or at least I have some kind of foggy memory of reading through all that stuff, the heath, the moor, whatever. Tess of the D'urbivilles. We actually went to a Real Live Moor and climbed a Tor (lots of room there for childish babble & rhyme with that!)a bit ago. Totally loved it. As we were climbing, me with camera in hand, snapping away frantically, (ok I mean snapping the camera, not snapping my fingers as your son does) my family waaaayyy ahead of me on top of the tor, I am saying incoherently out loud to myself (there was noone else around to hear), "who put this here!? this is so cool! this is so cool! who made this?! who put this here?!"

It was one of the most coolest things I've done.

So I totally just went off on a tangent that has nothing to do with reading lists. Sorry.

Emily