swiped book meme

Totally swiped the below meme. From Res Ipsa - http://yum.typepad.com/resipsa/ - via Jenn at Needleful Things - http://www.needleful-things.com/xsblog/

Will confess to being an English major - be prepared.

Earlier today, I came across the list of "30 Classics" selected in 1984 by William Bennett, then Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The author of the blog where I saw the list had noted beside each title whether and when she’d read it, which seemed like a great idea for a blog post. So here ya go:

(1) The Works of Shakespeare: Only plays I can say for certain I haven't read - Othello and Titus Andronicus. Also read many, many sonnets.

(2) Declaration of Independence: Most certainly. And the Constitution, too.

(4) Poems of Emily Dickinson: Collected Poems of Emily still on my bookshelf. Love her.

(5) Poems of Robert Frost: Collected Poems of Robert Frost still on my bookshelf. Bobbo, you rock.

(6) Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter: Yup. On my own from the town library. Was what - 10?

(7) F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby: High school or college? Can't remember. Read it first on my own.

(8) George Orwell, 1984: High School - Anyone for a chorus of "Sex Crimes?"

(9) Homer, The Odyssey and The Iliad: Odyssey, yes. Iliad, no.

(10) Charles Dickens, Great Expectations & Tale of Two Cities: GE - 8th grade. What was the teacher thinking? AToTC - nope.

(11) Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: College. Do I get extra points for having read Boccacia's Decameron also?

(12) J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye: Never in school. But have read this many times.

(13) The Bible: Brought up Catholic and they didn't encourage reading this on your own. No longer consider myself Christian - am a UU - and have read quite a bit of it on my own.

(14) Henry David Thoreau, Walden: For sure. On my own.

(15) Sophocles, Oedipus: Yes. Read all the Greek plays.

(16) John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath: Yes. Can't remember if high school or college. This book reads like poetry.

(17) Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays and poems: Yup.

(18) Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass: Walt, my man. Even quoted him in my high school yearbook. Collected poems and essays still on my bookshelf.

(19) Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice: Love this book. Probably have read it a dozen times.

(20) Herman Melville, Moby Dick: Okay. Now as an English major I had successfully avoided this book. Billy Budd had bored the pants off me in high school. But there was this UU minister who would preach a sermon based on Moby Dick every year who inspired me to read this book. Terrific. I love it. Melville can even be funny sometimes.

(21) Anything by William Faulkner: Ah you twisted man. Read the Sound and the Fury in college and then promptly read everything else of his I could get my hands on.

(22) John Milton, Paradise Lost. No.

(23) Vergil, The Aeneid. No.

(24) Plato, The Republic. I have this on my bookshelf, too.

(25) Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto. Dabbled in this one on my own. Haven't read the entire thing.

(26) Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince: Pieces of it. Not the entire thing.

(27) Alexis DeTocqueville, Democracy in America: On the bookshelf in the future read pile.

(28) Feodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment: Yes. In high school. Prompted me to go read more of him and all the other Russians.

(29) Aristotle, Politics. No, just excerpts.

(30) Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: First book I didn't finish reading ever. I remember being at page 125 and being pissed off that I hadn't seen the same characters again. He was still introducing the darn people. And I loved Anna Kareninia.