# What book are you proudest to have read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255 "2004-07-09T06:40:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/61 "2004-07-12T07:10:08Z")
Since a couple of people listed things that they had to read for school (I omitted those), let me add a few from my 7th grade English class: _The Hobbit_, which I loved. It made me go out and read the other three in the LOTR trilogy, which I also enjoyed. _Shane_, the cowboy-book. Ugh. What a steaming piece of crap THAT was! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/62 "2004-07-12T08:21:37Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Is **The Crying of Lot 49** considered atypical of his writing. then? I found that book readily accessible…especially compared to **Surfacing** by Margaret Atwood, which I read right after. I’ve never read (or even attempted) anything by Pynchon other than **The Crying of Lot 49** , but I do know it’s a fraction of the length of most of his other works. I think **Gravity’s Rainbow** is about 800 pages long. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/63 "2004-07-12T14:34:08Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > _Foucault’s Pendulum_, by Umberto Eco. I didn’t initially consider this a remarkable accomplishment, until I learned how many people I know had tried and failed. I don’t think anyone else I know has gotten through it, or even made it very far in. Finished it, no probs. In other Eco-trivia, the first sentence of NoTR is the day I was born! ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/64 "2004-07-12T14:45:26Z")
_History of My Life_ by Giacomo Casanova. 12 Volumes of novelistic length. They are well written & provided useful insights to someone of my tender age. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/65 "2004-07-12T16:18:49Z")
I don’t know if proud is the right word – I don’t spend time on books I’m not enjoying, so “getting through a book” isn’t something I do. (Life’s too short.) I guess I’m proud of my little shelf of classics that I’ve enjoyed reading. Most of them are by **Emile Zola**. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/66 "2004-07-12T16:26:14Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > However, I AM proud of the fact that I’ve read all of the Harry Potter books, the ENTIRE Dark Tower series by Stephen King (all six books, anyway) in a four-day span, the complete works of Shakespeare, the complete works of Oscar Wilde (I quote/paraphrase Tom Servo: “Let’s go camping…I’ll dress up like Oscar Wilde and you read the complete works of Noel Coward.”), everything Edgar Allen Poe’s written that I can get my hands on. Oh! And The Princess Bride…by S. Morganstern. No offense, **Superdude** , but if I’d read the complete works of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and E.A. Poe, I don’t think I’d have mentioned _Harry Potter_ and Stephen King in the same sentence. It seems to me that, unless you’re 12 or younger, having read all of _Harry Potter_ is roughly equivalent to eating a whole cheesecake by yourself. Not all that hard, except maybe at the end, and nothing to be especially proud of. (Not that I’m being a snob about it: I’ve read the first three _Harry Potter_s and works by all the authors mentioned, although not the complete works of any of them.) ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/67 "2004-07-12T16:54:06Z")
All of Jane Austen’s books, except “Love and Freindship” (yes, that’s the way she spelled it—she was really young when she wrote that one). I’m also pretty proud of all the books I read in high school: “Gone With the Wind,” “Wuthering Heights,” “Jane Eyre,” “Great Expectations,” to name a few. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/68 "2004-07-12T17:49:29Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > No offense, **Superdude** None taken. > [@](#): > > …but if I’d read the complete works of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and E.A. Poe, I don’t think I’d have mentioned _Harry Potter_ and Stephen King in the same sentence. It seems to me that, unless you’re 12 or younger, having read all of _Harry Potter_ is roughly equivalent to eating a whole cheesecake by yourself. Not all that hard, except maybe at the end, and nothing to be especially proud of. (Not that I’m being a snob about it: I’ve read the first three _Harry Potter_s and works by all the authors mentioned, although not the complete works of any of them.) Well, tomato, tomahto. To me, it’s more then just the books. It’s the…diversity (for lack of a better term) of the subject matter. I enjoyed the HP books in the same manner as masturbation. It gets the job done, but it ain’t exactly like me, S ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/69 "2004-07-12T17:54:16Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > None taken. > > Well, tomato, tomahto. To me, it’s more then just the books. It’s the…diversity (for lack of a better term) of the subject matter. I enjoyed the HP books in the same manner as masturbation. It gets the job done, but it ain’t exactly like me, S Damn computer. That SHOULD read: I enjoyed the HP books in the same manner as masturbation. It gets the job done, but it ain’t exactly me, Alicia Witt, a weekend in an anonymous hotel, and a jar of KY jelly. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/70 "2004-07-12T18:07:16Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > I myself just read that about a year and a half ago. HATED it. In fact, I even started a thread here telling people to convince me to finish it. Ultimately, I DID finish it. And wanted to slap the shit out of Holden Caufield. Perhaps if I’d read it when I was about his age, I would have related to it more. Instead of 30, which I was. Maybe, maybe not. I read it as a senior in college, and everyone in my class liked it, even the grad students. (I don’t know if many colleges do this, but UNH has many split-level senior/grad classes). Some of my classmates were in their late twenties, so…you might have hated it as a teen, too. ---
**Author:** ![ouisey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@ouisey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouisey)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/71 "2004-07-12T18:23:08Z")
I remember being proud to have finished Le Petit Prince when I was a young **ouisey**. As for a book that I loved and made me proud of the insight it gave me: Wild Swans by Jung Chang. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/72 "2004-07-12T19:04:01Z")
I’ll second **twicksters** “Remembrance of Things Past,” by Marcel Proust . I’ve read the first five volumes, (and the Letters), which interested me most anyway. The remaining two, Sodom and Gomorra I and II, are mainly about the 1880’s Paris’ gay scene, and not really my cup of tea. But what I’m really proud of, is how much I _enjoyed_ reading Proust. The guy is _fun_. And he is capable of putting thoughts into words that you never knew you had untill you raed him. I don’t know why “Remembrance” has such a heavy philosophical reputation. My biggest shame is that I never got more then five pages into James Joyce. All form, no content, Joyce. Proust on the other hand is all content (psychology and sociology), perfectly worded. His only drawback is form: the halfpage-long sentences. Mmh… maybe there are Proust-fans and Joyce-fans, in the same way you have cat-persons and dog-persons? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/73 "2004-07-12T22:48:57Z")
**Godel, Escher, Bach** by Douglas Hofstadter ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/74 "2004-07-12T23:00:22Z")
I, too, got all the way through _Foucault’s Pendulum_ and _The Name of the Rose_ one summer, and succeeded in doing so only because of a particular history course I had just finished taking that put everything into context beautifully. Other length or esoteric volumes I managed to get through: _ **Das Boot** _ – Translated into English, of course. Kind of awkward to read from the outset since it’s one of the only books I’ve ever read in first person, present tense. Dull, ponderous, repetitive…and someone, when I finally closed it, I couldn’t help but declare it to be magnificent. _ **Papillion** _ – It’s not really remarkable that I got through this book, it’s that I first read it in sixth grade. Quite a departure for me, and I have no idea what prompted me to pick it up in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/75 "2004-07-13T00:17:42Z")
The major works of Solzhenitsyn: Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, Cancer Ward, First Circle, The Gulag Archipelago, August 1914 and a couple of the other “month, year” books (don’t remember which ones exactly)…and I LIKED them. But I guess the reading feat I was most proud of was reading the Lord of the Rings as a little kid. It really felt like an achievement back then. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/76 "2004-07-13T00:29:30Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Mmh… maybe there are Proust-fans and Joyce-fans, in the same way you have cat-persons and dog-persons? Can’t disagree – although I liked **Dubliners** and **Portrait** , I went belly-up about a third of the way through **Ulysses**. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/77 "2004-07-13T01:05:48Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > _Foucault’s Pendulum_, by Umberto Eco. I didn’t initially consider this a remarkable accomplishment, until I learned how many people I know had tried and failed. I don’t think anyone else I know has gotten through it, or even made it very far in. [sheepishly raises hand] I finished it. What a waste. I thought I had a pretty big vocabulary but I remember reading it with a dictionary nearby. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/78 "2004-07-13T05:48:30Z")
> [@lambchops](#): > > Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch I read that one senior year I think. It really hit me when I thought about what he considered a good day: He got a care package and didn’t have all of it eaten by the guards, no one stole the crust of bread he saved from breakfast, he got a bit more watery gruel to eat, he got a cushy job laying brick in the snow… ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/79 "2004-07-13T06:52:38Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#): > > I read that one senior year I think. It really hit me when I thought about what he considered a good day What, you don’t call that a good day? Damn spoilt capitalist with your portable gramophones and Coca Cola… ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255/80 "2004-07-13T12:12:35Z")
Well, at least I know which one I’m least proud of reading… I read the entire _A confederacy of dunces_ - a great book - at the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. OK, I was a student, and broke, but still… I should have forked out those few bucks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-are-you-proudest-to-have-read/254255.md?page=3)