:eek:
Walden is one of my favorite books. Much like the cabin Thoreau built for himself, its simply crafted prose harbors a timeless message.
Just thought I’d offer that as a balance.
You know the manservant’s wedding has all the good booze, all the hot chicks, and the dancing is off the hook. I went there in disguise, and met a lovely woman from the underclasses… only she turned out to be a duchess, so far above my station that her lie to me (and our liaison under the impression that I had lied to her) caused us both to be shunned from the summer party at Lord Buggery’s manor.
:o Instantly dies of shame :rolleyes:
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that given your attitude, nothing good will come out of this project. You are basically wasting your time.
If all you want to become is a more well-rounded person who can perhaps speak a little more knowledgeably about the western literary canon, then do yourself a favor and just read the cliff notes.
If really you want to enjoy what you are reading and possibly get some lasting benefit from it, I suggest a different tactic.
Compiling a slapdash list of “great books” and reading them to get them under your belt is like an ignorant and underactive person who goes to the gym and quits after half a dozen sessions. He grabs the heaviest free weights he can find, improvises a weight training regimen, and wears himself out immediately. Naturally he hates it, stops going to the gym, and derives no lasting benefit from his painful exercise whatsoever.
Well-rounded people are not made simply by reading books but by what they do with the knowledge they find. If you are serious about approaching literature, don’t grab heavy weights at random off the rack. First, you have to learn how to read. Then start light, with approachable works of short fiction. When you start training your ear for good prose and your brain to incorporate what you read, then move on to the heavyweights. It takes time even for the best readers to work up to Dostoyevsky, and the pain you feel is your brain thinking. It’s supposed to feel like that. The taste for it must be acquired.
Your progress won’t be swift or painless, but like weight training, it definitely yields results over time. But you have to do the groundwork, and you need to figure out what training exercises you enjoy.
Start with a book like this. Don’t read it cover to cover; just skim a few parts at a time to get an idea of what might interest you. Find something that appeals and looks approachable and dive right in. Perhaps you find an author, a style, or an era that intrigues you. Follow your curiosity and your heart, not an arbitrary list.
Good luck and happy reading.
Maeglin, there’s some truth in what you say, but you make it sound like all Great Books are hard to read, for serious thinkers only. Not so. As has been pointed out in this thread and in the related pit thread, some classics are classics because many people (including those of merely ordinary reading ability) have read and enjoyed them. Alice in Wonderland and Gulliver’s Travels are unquestionably great books, yet they can be read and enjoyed by children (even though they probably won’t get everything out of them that an adult reader would).
One flaw in your weightlifting analogy is that not everyone will agree on which books are the hard-to-read ones. No matter who you are, a 20-pound weight is harder to lift than a 10-pound one, but there are wide differences of opinion about how easy a given book is to read and enjoy. And it’s not just experience in reading that fits us to handle the classics; it’s also experience in life. I’ve had the experience (as have many others) of reading the same book more than once in my life, and enjoying, “getting,” or appreciating it more on later readings—not just because I was a better reader, but also because I was older, and had more life experience and appreciation for the themes and issues the book addresses.
I might have been unclear.
I do not think “great books” are all hard to read. But it is better to start with those that pretty clearly aren’t. While there is plenty of room to disagree about which ones are easy and which are difficult, it is fair to say that there is a general consensus that Moby Dick is a not especially easy to read.
A 20-pound weight is certainly harder to lift than a 10-pound weight. But consider that when people begin a training regimen, certain exercises may be easier or more difficult depending on past activity. It may be easier for a beginner to do arm curls than chest presses for whatever reason. After a little feeling about you find what comes easily. Get your foothold and move on from there.
No disagreement whatsoever about the value of life experience and reading.