Monday, July 13, 2009

War of the Pages

Some of you may be aware that I have been posting reviews/guides to commonly assigned summer reading books. (Whew! That's a mouthful!) And actually, none of those books are ones that I have been assigned this summer. A new school means new books and new focus. So while most of my old classmates are reading Beowulf and other British classics I am reading a motley assortment of craziness (literally!) and global classics.

Also, I had to go on the hunt via Amazon.com for specific editions with loooong forwards by other authors, etc.

Assigned to me (in my intended reading order):

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (American, pub. 1962)
Status: Completely Finished
Enjoyment: Mild- good book, tough topics, want to see the film
Dubliners by James Joyce (Irish topics/published in London, pub. 1914)
Status: Finished Preface, Midway in Intro, yet to see author's work
Enjoyment: Wish the boring stuff was shorter, looking forward to the stories
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (American, pub. 1920)
Status: Unstarted
Enjoyment: No intell to influence opinion, mostly curious
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (American, pub. 1947)
Status: Unstarted
Enjoyment: Looking forward to it- was meant to be in the curriculum last year
How Good People make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living by Rushworth Kidder
Status: Unstarted
Enjoyment: Facing the reading with great dread- luckily, it's short

And just a disclaimer: I know that summer is not forever and have a plan to reduce the pile of looming pages. I have a plan, I have time to implement it, and am resigned to my fate.

So have any of you read any of these? Opinions?

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like quite a list! And I know Cuckoo's Nest was one of my favorite books that I read for school!

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  2. For awhile, I tried alternating a classic with contemporary book .. but found the classics bored me.

    Guess I'm just a troll.

    Norm

    http://fangplace.blogspot.com

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