Thursday, September 18, 2008

Pardon me, sir ...

... 10 Books Not To Read Before You Die. (Hat tip, Judith Fitzgerald."

Well, I've already a number of them and rather liked them. Yeah, War and Peace is too long, but not if you skip Tolstoy's essays. Ulysses' has its longueurs, but its difficulty is exaggerated and it has some incomparably wonderful moments. But Hunter Thompson surely was one of the most overrated authors ever to publish.

Haven't done Proust, I'm afraid.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:48 PM

    Luckily you don't have to have read Proust to enjoy this comment: "Yes, yes, he tasted a biscuit that made him think of childhood, we’ve all done that. If I want to remember my childhood I look at some photographs"

    Still, despite being a prodigious list-maker myself, I will always agree with anyone who rails against people who tell you what you 'should' have read. It is a far far greater thing to have read a decent book properly than a 'classic' book shoddily

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  2. Based on what I've gleaned of your reading tastes from your blog (and your reviews), Frank, I think Proust probably isn't your cup of tea. But, oh, is he mine--what fun.

    I'm with you on _War and Peace_, and, having just read _Ulysses_ for the first time last weekend, I'm in total agreement: it's disorienting, and even a bit off-putting early on, but by the time I got to the catechism chapter I was reading so intently I might as well have been panting.

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