My Quest to Read the Top 100 Books of the 20th Century.... Dubliners by James Joyce

Terrible
Awful
No Good
Very Bad
Book!

I. Hate. This. Book.

Ok.... hate may be a little strong, but holy freaking cow, this book was bad. I really have almost no idea why this book is the top book. That's right, folks, it's listed as the top book of the 20th century! SERIOUSLY???

Here are my guesses why it ranked top:
1. Joyce wrote in stream of consciousness.... meaning, there are not clear, linear thoughts... just random stuff. And that was new for Joyce's time. New always gets high acclaim (even if it's not very good).
2. Allusions-- holy cow! Joyce, for all the faults of the novel, was very intelligent! He really knew his Shakespeare, his Homer, and other famous novels of his day as well. So, I can see that Joyce showing off his amazing literary knowledge might win him best book of the century.

Bascially, the book (all 657pgs) was about one day. ONE DAY. UNO.... however you say day in Spanish...
b.o.r.i.n.g.
There were literally about 120 pages of these people arguing which was Shakespeare's best play... JEEZE!... and I even like Shakepseare and I was bored out of my mind. I have to admit that I skimmed about 60 pages of that. I really don't care if King Lear out ranks Triolous and Cressida! I don't! UGH! Luckily, since it didn't make a lot of sense, I spend through it. I'm sure I probably missed some profound literary meanings... but at this point. I DON"T CARE! I'm just glad to be done with the book! So currently, of the top 100 books of the century, I've read the following:




1. ULYSSES
by James Joyce

2. THE GREAT GATSBY
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
by James Joyce

4. LOLITA
by Vladimir Nabokov

5. BRAVE NEW WORLD
by Aldous Huxley

6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY
by William Faulkner

7. CATCH-22
by Joseph Heller

8. DARKNESS AT NOON
by Arthur Koestler

10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH
by John Steinbeck

13. 1984
by George Orwell

15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
by Virginia Woolf

16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY
by Theodore Dreiser

17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
by Carson McCullers

18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
by Kurt Vonnegut

19. INVISIBLE MAN
by Ralph Ellison

20. NATIVE SON
by Richard Wright

24. WINESBURG, OHIO
by Sherwood Anderson

25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA
by E.M. Forster

28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

31. ANIMAL FARM
by George Orwell

33. SISTER CARRIE
by Theodore Dreiser

35. AS I LAY DYING
by William Faulkner

36. ALL THE KING’S MEN
by Robert Penn Warren

39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
by James Baldwin

41. LORD OF THE FLIES
by William Golding

45. THE SUN ALSO RISES
by Ernest Hemingway

49. WOMEN IN LOVE
by D.H. Lawrence

54. LIGHT IN AUGUST
by William Faulkner

55. ON THE ROAD
by Jack Kerouac

58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
by Edith Wharton

64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
by J.D. Salinger

65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
by Anthony Burgess

67. HEART OF DARKNESS
by Joseph Conrad

68. MAIN STREET
by Sinclair Lewis

69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
by Edith Wharton

74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS
by Ernest Hemingway

79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW
by E.M. Forster

88. THE CALL OF THE WILD
by Jack London

91. TOBACCO ROAD

Not too shabby... but I've got a LONG way until I read all of them! Next on the list, #9: Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence! 

THE READER’S LIST

My Brain Candy for the Summer

Usually during the course of a summer I allow myself one or two books that I classify as "brain candy"-- basically they have no literary merit and were usually written for only entertainment value, not great writing skill. Last summer I brushed up on my Harry Potter, and the summer before that I stooped as low as the Twilight series (don't judge me, my boss at Barnes and Noble asked me to lead a teen reading group). This summer's brain candy was The Hunger Games. Though not literary genius, it was a very good book. I compare it to The Handmaid's Tale that we read last year in AP. It's a futuristic society were the government controls everything. It's a series and I may pick up the other two at some point this summer, but I'm not really sure if it's worth my time. I read the almost 350 pages in about three days, and I'm a slow reader-- so it must be a pretty basic book.. I am interested in what happens to the protagonists, though.
One thing I really don't like is the names of the characters... really?  Katniss? Peeta? All I can think about is having a pita sandwich when I read that guy's name, and Katniss makes me think of catnip. :) Have any of you read this book? I'd be interested in what you think of the following books in the series--- are the worth the money?

The Help- a MUST read!

Wow! I know I said that already-- but wow!
I'm seriously impressed with this book! I love almost everything about it. The ending was less than I wanted, only because I wanted more information about what happened to the characters. The book just kind of turns off. It's not a cliff-hanger, but you are left wondering.

Possibly the thing I enjoy the most with this book is how it incorporates history-- the killing of Medger Evers, the assassination of JFK, the Jim Crowe laws, the burning of the church in Birmingham, etc. I think it gives to story "credibility"-- which is strange, because it's fiction. But the whole point of the book was that it wasn't fiction. Though it wasn't a specific story about a specific place with these exact people doing these exact things... this book could have happened anywhere... and did.

It makes me hope that I would be like Skeeter-- willing to stand up for what I believe in at any cost. I strive to live that way, but I'm sure that I fall short too often.

I strongly recommend that you read this! I'll let any of you borrow my copy if you'd like-- unfortunately  it wouldn't count for your 4 you have to read this summer! :)

The Help-- possibly a classic in the making

Wow.
All I can say is: WOW!


Ok... I'll say a little more than that.

This book was recommended to me a year ago, but being the skeptic, cynical, literature snob. I told the person that "brain candy" is not my thing. I am a bit snobbish... ok... let's be honest... I'm a HUGE snob when it comes to what I classify as literature. Very few things written in the last 40 years would I consider with my academic time. Yes, there is a time and a place for brain candy books-- but I don't usually "waste" my time on it because I'm an English teacher for Pete's sake. I should be reading quality literature off of the AP list at all times, right? :)

However, when I heard that NPR (yes... I'm a total dork) said that the book was the next greatest book since To Kill a Mockingbird, I thought, "hmm... maybe I should give it a shot."

So, I took my cynical self to Barnes and Noble, looked around to make sure no one was watching as a pulled something off of the New Bestseller display... I didn't want to tarnish my reputation, after all. And I started reading it Monday.... and I have a REALLY difficult time putting it down!

NPR wasn't kidding... I foresee teenagers hating their English teachers for assigning this book to them, but in the end coming away truly learning something (if they let themselves), just like I did with To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in high school. WOW!

The book takes place in the 1960's in Mississippi-- right smack dab in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. It is political, it is racial, but it is also hysterical! It's told from different perspectives of women in this town-- two black maids, and one white socialite. All three women exhibit some type of humor, but Miss Skeeter (the white woman) has a very dry sense of humor -- I love that! At one point in the novel she is describing what her friend's husband does for a living-- he's an accountant. Apparently things are going well and she says, "I hear Raleigh's new accounting business isn't doing well. Maybe up in New York or somewhere it's a good thing, but in  Jackson, Mississippi, people just don't care to do business with a rude, condescending a**hole." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And that is the only time she ever reveals her opinion of the man. I love it! :)

The book is also heartbreaking and very suspenseful. If it lacks anything I would say that it lacks symbolism, which is often present in "classics"-- but this book is BY FAR the best modern piece of fiction I've read in a LONG time-- another one would be The Secret Life of Bees.

If you have time this summer after all of your AP reading... I HIGHLY suggest this book! WOW! A-freaking-MAZING!

Robinson Crusoe Part 2-- Really, Defoe?

Oh man! I am so mad at how this book ended! I loved the beginning of it, but the end way too abrupt. It was almost like Defoe's wife was getting really mad at him for spending too much time in the den, and was nagging him so he just wrapped it up with, "All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I amy perhaps give a further account of hereafter."
Seriously... that's the last sentence! Really, Defoe? Really? That's how you're going to end a book that you painstakingly went through every detail of survival... then end it with... "and a whole bunch of other stuff happened that I might tell you about later." Really? Really!
Oh well... it was worth the read. I was just a bit mad that he just stopped. Sometimes I want to just punch authors in the face when they do that. But he's dead, so whatevs, yo.

Robinson Crusoe

So... I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've never read this before. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I wasn't really expecting to like it... which is probably why I put off reading it for so long. I'm really not into the survival-manly books like this. However, as I said before, I really am enjoying the read.

Defoe goes into a lot of detail about how Crusoe takes care of himself. And there is a certain suspension of disbelief that has to happen because it is a bit far fetched that all of those things just fell into place so that he could live for 20+ years all alone.  I kind of thought I would have met Friday by now. I know enough about the book to know that he get a friend named Friday who is a native. But I'm almost done with the book and no Friday yet. I'm figuring he's probably one of the cannibals that comes to the island. I'm just trying to figure out how they become friends.

I'm also surprised at how religious the book is. Crusoe has the religious epiphany, and though he was never a Christian in his "normal" life, he begins reading the Bible and converts. It makes me want to read up on the author and figure out what his background with religion is.