Saturday, July 19, 2014

Catching Up on Classics

Due to my weirdly structured leap into college level literature directly after learning standard writing and grammar, I have found that I missed out on a lot of assigned "classics" that most people have read by the time they graduate high school.


On the one hand, I've dodged some bullets as I watched my peers and siblings grind through some rough material (I'm looking at you, Heart of Darkness). On the other hand, I've missed out on some really great stories, as well as material that is referenced in other novels and contemporary works.


So far, I know off the top of my head that I need to read these ones:
The Grapes of Wrath
Oliver Twist
Of Mice and Men
Wuthering Heights
The Giver
Dante's Inferno
War and Peace
A Tale of Two Cities
ALL THE JANE AUSTEN!!
Great Expectations
Crime and Punishment
Catcher in the Rye
Utopia (Thomas Moore)
Uncle Tom's Cabin
To Kill a Mickingbird
Catch-22
The Crucible
Slaughterhouse-Five
Brave New World
Flowers for Algernon

I currently have The Giver with me, and plan to finish it before I get home. I also have Moby Dick on audiobook for when I'm driving, but I'm a little nervous about getting distracted, so that might have to wait for days when I'm tiling the bathroom again.


I'm not giving myself a time limit on this quest, since that will just add undue pressure, but I am going to litter the flat surfaces in my house with copies of these titles so that no matter where I get stuck at, I can be productive by reading a paragraph or two of something. I'm hoping this will snowball into other quests, like getting back to those other goals I keep fantasizing about. Baby steps though, one day at a time.


Did I miss any gems? Have two cents to share on any of the titles listed? I'd love opinions!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Older Stuff