I haven’t yet read.
Carrie recently posted a list of ten classics she’s going to get to eventually (following Bluerose’s example).
I figured I might as well throw my hat into the towel. (Oh my, I’m rather tired. State, you know!)
1. Les Miserables
I’ve seen the recent movie, listen to the musical incessantly, and just can’t get myself to open the book. It’s so enormous and absolutely intimidating.
2. War and Peace
I’ve read all of the “little pieces” my library has by Tolstoy. I’ve enjoyed them all. But I have a mental block when it comes to War and Peace and Anna Karenina. They just have to be difficult to get through, right?
3. Don Quixote
It’s in Susan Wise Bauer’s A Well-Trained Mind as an easy book to get through. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a long book to get through. I’ve started half a dozen times and never gotten past the first couple of chapters.
There ends my burning list, the list that immediately pops into my head when I think of classics I intend to read but just haven’t.
After those come a slew of slightly less hefty titles:
4. Institutes of the Christian Religion
Okay, maybe less-hefty wasn’t the best way to describe my tier-two classics.
5. 1984
6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
7. Walden
8. Of Mice and Men
9. Where the Red Fern Grows
10. Harry Potter
Okay, that last one isn’t for real. IMHO, a decade and a half does not a classic make (no matter how bestselling a book was from the get-go).
So, there’s part of my list. What about yours?
Six of these books are on the list that you posted last year “more than six?” So they are on my list. I have even purchased some from a book store that was going out of business. I have read the first Harry Potter (don’t think I will continue with the series) and Where the Red Fern Grows…that is all. I keep plugging along though
I’ve read 6 of these and reflect again on how “classics” are not very often “favorites.” Oh to have more high-brow tastes! :-)
I’ve only read Uncle Tom’s Cabin out of your list, though I have started Les Miserables (yes, it is huge). I love Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I read it in high school while I was studying pre-Civil War happenings. It is very intriguing.
Skip all the rest and read Red Fern!! Seriously!
I attempted Les Miserables a couple of years ago (unabridged, no less), but lacked the discipline to get through it. I really liked what I read, though. :-)
Loved Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I was never interested in it until a former pastor described Uncle Tom as the kind of Christian everyone should want to be — I hadn’t known the book was from a Christian perspective before that.
I did read the unabridged Les Mis, and though I usually prefer unabridged, this one is abridged for good reason. I don’t think you’d miss anything by reading the abridged version except for long side discourses about sewer systems and convents (my review is here: http://barbarah.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/book-review-les-miserables/)
I read 1984 way back in college but don’t remember much about it. Other than that I haven’t read any of the others on your list. War and Peace is one I should read some day but I haven’t really been motivated.
Looks like you might have an italics tag that isn’t closed…
Whoops. I restarted Uncle Tom’s Cabin earlier this year, put a bookmark in it, put it on the shelf when I was reorganizing books and PROMPTLY FORGOT ABOUT IT! I should pick it back up while I still remember what’s happening. =X
It was fun reading through your list. I think you’d really like Les Mis. =)
I agree with Barbara about Les Mis. I read the unabridged version, probably when I was in high school and was dating a guy who introduced me to the musical. Maybe I thought I’d impress him by reading the unabridged version – ha! :)
I will admit, however, to skimming through some of the sections. Abridged would really be the way to go, I believe.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – yes, you should read this! I don’t think you would find it difficult.
I’ve startes Les Miserables several times . . . and never made it through. It’s on my list of classics that I want to read one day.
I have read Institutes of the Christian Religion though. It was a school assignment . . . but I thoroughly enjoyed the Institutes.
I read an abridged Les Mis…and still found it a few hundred pages too long! :) Too many political rants for me though it’s the favorite (even unabridged) of many friends I respect.
I’ve never read Red Fern nor Uncle Tom. Perhaps I will add those to my list soon!