Jul 7, 2008
Books I’ve Never Finished Reading
In the spirit of the last post on procrastination. What can I say, I’m a slow reader, and lose focus easily. Some of these required multiple renews, and still weren’t finished. Which failure is the most lamentable? Which one should I return to first?
Letters to a Young Poet (Ranier Maria Rilke)
The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie)
Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Gödel Escher Bach (Douglas Hofstadter)
Women in Love (D.H. Lawrence)
grapes of wrath – it’s worth it for the ending.
none of the above. i think you/me/people/whoever should stop trying to prove to ourselves/each other/everyone that we’re highly intellectual, well-read individuals by reading so-called “classics”. instead of wasting our time on outdated, impertinent, and–most importantly–terrible books deemed highbrow by some dead, white guy, we should be spending our time reading books that are actually good. right now i’m reading running with scissors, and i’m probably learning more from it than i ever learned from heart of darkness.
[...] this is what she was saying, but this is the question that pops into mind after seeing Ty’s comment on my list of “Books I’ve Never Finished [...]
It may be a bad sign that several of these books I specifically suggested you read as they are some of my favorites…
“Finish what you start, human.” – Spirited Away