Dishing Junk – The act of dispensing ideas of little value in a casual or silly manner.
So as a book reviewer and English teacher and self-proclaimed book geek, I am some what of a fraud. There are classics, you know the books everyone should have read, that I simply haven’t read and for the most part don’t want to read. So I thought I’d own it here and now. What do you think? Should we still read the classics? Are they necessary to make a well rounded reader? When I think about the power of reference, I can acknowledge that there is a certain necessity in reading the classics. So here is my list o’shame. The books I haven’t read, and to redeem myself, some classics I have read. How about you? Are you Team Classics? Or Team Meh? Do you have that one book you should have read, and you were like “nope!”?
I, Sabrina the Geeky Junkee, have not read:
- Of Mice and Men
- The Catcher in the Rye
- Fahrenheit 451
- 1984
- Jane Eyre
- Lord of the Flies
- The Call of the Wild
- The Scarlett Letter
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Great Expectations (I read like 4 chapters and hated it as a teen. Maybe I should give it another try)
- Moby Dick
- Dracula (Ok this one I’m ashamed of. I’ll probably read it)
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Robinson Crusoe
- Atonement
- Emma (Another one I actually want to read)
- Charlotte’s Web
- Animal Farm
- The Grapes of Wrath
- The Sun Also Rises
Redemption! I have read:
- The Sound and the Fury
- The Odyssey
- Don Quixote
- Gulliver’s Travels
- Frankenstein
- Little Women
- Madame Bovary
- Lord of the Rings
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Is that a classic yet?)
- The Great Gatsby
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Wuthering Heights
- Pride and Prejudice
- Crime and Punishment
If you really feel like being judged, take this quiz. I scored 17/99!
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Oh I got a poor 24/99, but that’s not to say that many of the books I havent read yet (like Wharton and Dickens) are not sitting on my bookshelves waiting a time when I’ve got rid of all the other books that have been lurking on my shelves, waiting to be read.
Quiz Result: 9 out of 99. Clearly, Team Meh. And those 9 include some that I HATED. On the other hand, there’s several I actually want to try reading someday(tm). But assigned reading in school was hated by everyone, including me so it’s no wonder I feel this way.
It’s so true. Required reading in school can be pretty awful. That includes when you’re the one having to require the reading. It’s torture trying to get 9th graders to want to read To Kill A Mockingbird. It’d be so much easier if we were allowed to teach high interest reading.
I used the BBC’s classic list and have it somewhere on my blog (I think). I should go update it. As for Great Expectations, I tried re-reading it as an adult and just could not do it. I got through about 1/5 of the book and had to DNF.
Right?! Isn’t it awful? Glad to know that I’m not alone in the struggle! lol.
Okay, I’ve read a few on your list and some that are not. Many I read as a child. Some I read because I was forced to in school. Others I read because I wanted to. I think Shakespeare and The Catcher in the Rye are really the only things I would really turn my nose up to read again. I was also not a fan of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I really loved Dante’s Divine Comedy, though I didn’t like the third part, Paradiso.
I completely agree that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Interview with a Vampire could be considered “modern classics”. These two books will be talked about long after we are dead and gone. I’m sure there are some Stephen King books you could add to that list as well. Harry Potter will be there at some point too, but it is probably a little too soon to call it that now. Great post. I had a fun time going back and looking at a list of classics to see how many I’ve read. More than i would’ve thought.
If I’m completely honest, of the classics I’ve read I’d say 60% were due to a class reading requirement or because I had to teach the book. I didn’t read To Kill A Mockingbird until two years ago because I had to teach it. I actually liked it. Now that I have taught so many of Shakespeare’s plays, I actually like reading Shakespeare. Other than Much Ado About Nothing, I really like the supernatural elements and creepiness of Macbeth.
I scored 44 of 99, but then I’m older than you and have had more reading time. You really should read Fahrenheit 451–when my son, the readaholic. read it, he called it the best book he’d ever read. Considering how well-read he is, that’s going some! Bradbury is so damn prescient, what with TV being omnipotent, and the narrator’s wife complaining that he’s only replaced 3 of the walls of their “living room” with wall-to-wall screens, not all 4. She writes in to her favorite show, and they send her lines to say, so she can “interact” with the characters, as if she’s a part of the show. Virtual friends, to go with a virtual life, anyone? And this book was written in the 50s!
I didn’t read The Scarlet Letter until I was in college, and I’m so glad I didn’t have to at a younger age. As an English major, I loved it…but as a younger person, I would have hated it. Hawthorne was actually paid by the word, so there is a whole lot of extraneous verbiage that you have to sift through, but the story is good. I’ve always meant to read more Dickens. In fact, I own some of his books, bought through the years at used book sales. I guess I assuage my conscience by buying the books, then convincing myself I’ll read them…someday. But I work 2 jobs and try to carve out time to write my own books, along with doing minimal promoting. So that someday is a long way off!
I would say that if Interview With a Vampire is on the classics list (and it is, for the link you sent). then certainly Hitchhiker’s Guide should be on there. But sci-fi seldom gets credit for being as prescient and as ground-breaking as it is. Fun post!
Thank you! I really like Bradbury’s short stories, so I bet I would like Fahrenheit 451. Funny enough I made it out of my English major without reading The Scarlett Letter. I did however read Pilgrim’s Progress, Paradise Lost, and Rape of a Lock. I just remembered those!
You really should read The Scarlet Letter. It was one of my favorites in school. Maybe I should read it again. I’ve hardly read any Shakespeare. Just Romeo and Juliet. My shame runs deep. Fun post!
Thanks! Yeah I think that’s one that I would enjoy. No judgment here! My favorite Shakespeare is Much Ado About Nothing. 🙂