The First Choice – Or What I Am Stuck With

Okay, so I have my list. That has been decided. There could be lots of debate of the merits of some of the books on the list, but let’s just forego that, shall we? It’s THE LIST. We can debate it later perhaps.

After studying the list, I decided to mark the ones that I already had. I used to be an English major, so I had quite a few of them. (I DID buy them. I just didn’t read them.) In fact, I had 30 of the books on the list. In order to save some money in case this project went seriously wrong, I decided that I should read the ones already in my house first. I thought that was very responsible of me. Plus out of the 100 on the list, the ones in my house would have been the ones I was assigned in college and thus the reason for this project.

Even though I had narrowed the list down somewhat (to the ones I already owned), I couldn’t decide which book to start with. Subconsciously, there must have been a reason why I didn’t want to read it. Okay, there was the fact that I didn’t have time, but let’s face it people. Some of the books on this list are snorers!! If I was going to do this, I needed success. I needed to be able to finish the book I chose and not give up because it did not hold my interest as I suspect some of these books are going to do. I still couldn’t decide.

This is where my husband comes in, wonderful, encouraging man that he is!!! God love him! I told my husband of my intention, to read every book on the “100 List,” and he asked me: “Are you doing this because you want to or out of a sense of guilt?”

Wow! Loaded question. I sat for a minute and thought about it. It’s a little of both, I guess. I do feel the guilt of skating through Grad School, but do wish that I was more well read. I am an English Major, for Heaven’s sake. Everyone expects me to have read EVERYTHING.

Because I couldn’t decide, I asked him to pick out a novel for me to read. What does he pick??

War and Peace. I guess he wanted to find out if I was serious or not. WHATEVER!!!!
“I don’t own War and Peace,” I told him. “Pick one from the books that are starred. Those are books I already have!”
“I will buy it for you!” He says
“NO!!!! I want you to pick one from my list. Better yet, pick three and then I will pick one from those three.” I had him there. This way he couldn’t stick me with all the big ones right up front. Remember? I said I needed success right out of the starting blocks! So we went to the bookshelf where I keep all my college books (and his) and he started to peruse books for me. I, however, do not think he was looking at the covers or reading the backs. He was looking at the size. Darn him!

He choose:
--Native Son by Richard Wright
--Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
--An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.

He did try and choose a whole bunch of weird things off our bookshelf, like About Behaviorism by B.F. Skinner, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Kant and a Quantum Chemistry book, none of which were mine or were literary by any means.

I chose Native Son.

The List, The Scary, Scary, Long List

When I decided to attempt this feat of reading, I already had in my possession, a list from Time Magazine of the "All Time 100 Novels." I had printed it some time ago and kept it in a file thinking one of these days . . .

So I started with this list. I looked it over and was shocked and horrified to find out that Pride and Prejudice (one of the greats! Don't test me on this one) was not on the list. How in the world could that be?? What kind of list was this that P&P was not there! I decided I needed to hunt on the internet for a better list.

I was surprised to see that several lists existed when I did a google search. There was the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, of which P&P was included. I figured this was a good list, warranting serious consideration. Then there was the list on www.best100novels.com, which coincidentally also included P&P. Must be good. However, this site was voted on by "regular people" according to the front page of the site. Hmmm . . .

Then I found the humdinger of all lists. Neil Bowers is my new hero. He took lists from the US, UK, Canada and Australia and combined them. Read the method to his madness HERE. This list is a compilation and includes not only literary greats like P&P (you knew I was going to say that, didn't you?), but also includes some questionable picks in my opinion that only appear on the list due to popularity (i.e. The Harry Potter Series, The DaVinci Code, Gone With the Wind). However right or wrong this list is or whether you agree with it or not . . . This is the list I have chosen to use. See it below. Take a gander at it and see if some of your favs are on it. P&P is there!

A Very Bad English Major

To be an English Major in college, you need to be able to read, write, listen and discuss. In High School I was good at all of these which is why I decided to become an English major when I got to college. It was the only thing I was good at.

However in College, I was only good at 2 of those. I was good at writing and good at listening. I was also really, REALLY good at taking notes. You see in my college days, I was busy! REALLY BUSY!!! I was married, had a small child and a full time job working graveyard at night. Prior to that, I worked 3 jobs to pay for school so I didn't have any free time. Consequently, I got in the habit of NOT READING any of the assignments for my English classes (unless they were short. I read lots of poetry and short stories because I could fit those in to my hectic life). I went to class. I listened. I took detailed notes (I wrote down everything that was said in class). I even wrote long papers on these books I never read. I even got decent grades on these papers. I figured why read the books to get an A on a paper when I could not read them and get a B? I would like to think that if I had the time, I would have read the novels that were assigned, but as a young mother, wife and breadwinner, I was just tooo busy.

Believe it or not, I actually graduated and decided (because I had nothing better to do and wasn't ready or able to pay off my student loans yet) to go to graduate school in English. How in the world was I going to get into grad school having skated through undergraduate school not having read much?? Well, I found a school that didn't require the GRE (I would not have passed that!) or the foreign language requirement (I didn't do that as an Undergrad either).

It didn't get any better in Grad school. Although the papers and the BS I needed to sling were longer, my life wasn't any less busy. During grad school I ended up pregnant with Twins AND went through a divorce. Suffice it to say, I didn't read much then either.

I did eventually graduate with a Master's Degree in English Literature which I feel like I don't deserve. I have long felt like, I should go back and re-read (okay, I can't even say that. I didn't read it in the first place), I mean READ the novels that were assigned to me in school.

As I approach my big 4-0 birthday, I decided that I needed a goal and now was time. It was time to READ, even if the stuff I was reading was something I didn't want to read (think War and Peace. It's on the list.)

And so begins my trek. I am going to read 100 of the best novels ever written. (I can't remember all the things I was assigned so I needed some help for a list).

Here I go! Wish me luck or read along with me.