I haven't lied about reading books, but the one I could never get through was Jane Austen's "Emma", I even made it through Gravity's Rainbow eventually, but not Emma!
I read 10, 7, 6, 4, and 2.
I’ve read Atlas Shrugged and the first three books of The Wealth of Nations.
I own Gravity’s Rainbow (I think I’ve seen it somewhere on the shelf). I haven’t read it, and haven’t bought it. A couple of months ago I found a copy of Mason Dixon by the same author that someone was giving away, and I couldn’t get through two pages of it. Unreadable gibberish, just like the Hairy Potty books that got me in trouble here yesterday with the fanatics of the penny dreadful literature who follow the nation of sheep in their reading choices (ugly personal attacks using tired cliches, just like their beloved semi-literate author - 6 cliches per page of Hairy Potty.) The other day I read somewhere on the Web and interview with some author, I forget his name, I forget where I read it, I only remember that he said he was currently reading Anatole France. Hmmm, I’ll have to check out ole Anatole. I admit, I haven’t read Joyce, but I read James Fenimore Cooper, and attempted to read Louis L’Amour (not his real name, that’s fer shore, Shirley!), and I once saw on the street Sidney Sheldon, when he was still alive, (tried to see him after he was alive, but no luck!) emerging from a very small chain bookstore, Waldenbooks, I think it was, where he had been signing his masterpieces. I recommend John Burnside, and Kent Wascom.
I have “Duty” by Gates languishing on the table. I have yet to finish the first chapter.
From the list I have only read 1984 which I would recommend. I did attempt Ulysses but like many here only got a little bit of the way into it. The book that I did read not on the list that I consider a pretty big accomplishment at the time it was released was the Gulag Archipelago. Very tough slogging especially the first volume. I was just out of high school at the time and was in university when I read it. It was published in 3 volumes at the start. I knew this book was important and it remains imho one of the monumental works of the 20th century. I would recommend it with some caution that it is not for every type of reader.
The last few novels I read were...And yes, I did read them.
THE NAME OF THE ROSE and FOUCALT’S PENDULEM by Umberto Eco
TRUE GRIT
MOBY DICK
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
LONESOME DOVE
THE WALKING DRUM
Several FU MANCHU novels
Short novels of H P LOVECRAFT
THE LOST GOD and other adventure stories by John Russell(Very un-PC language)
I’m going to start on Robert Bloch’s three novels, PSYCHO, PSYCHO II, AND PSYCHO HOUSE.
From ghosties and ghoulies, and long legged beastes and things that go bump in the night, AND ESPECIALLY VICTORIAN ENGLISH NOVELS,Good Lord Protect US!
10. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand:
Read it. Isn’t this like the Bible of the Objectivist cult?
9. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin:
Just selections from it.
8. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo and A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens:
Had to read them for school. *yawn*
7. 1984, George Orwell:
Read it and Animal Farm as well. Eric Arthur Blair, aka George Orwell, must read for a political junkie.
6. Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville:
Read it.
5. The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith:
Read it. But economic history is an interest of mine.
4. Moby Dick, Herman Melville:
Call me Ishmael.
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu:
Nope
2. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli:
Read it. All political junkies should.
1. Ulysses, James Joyce:
Ha. This book is unreadable.
Books I tried to read, but gave up:
The Silmarillion by Tolkien
The City of God by Josephus
and many others I can’t remember
Hard books I made it all the way through by skimming and then claimed I read them. (I repent of doing this.)
Confessions by Augustine
Wars of the Jews by Josephus
5.56mm
There is also the option of deciding for yourself what you are going to read or not read and not lying or apologizing for not reading what other have decided you should read. Do I need a D’uh here?!
I won’t read Pynchon, Clancy, Rowling, Rand or Tom Wolfe’s Three Stooges (of East Coast lit).
(I can recommend great literary writers what I’d bet readers of the above never heard of.) No apologies tour.
And another thing to remember is that most books, and if you’ve ever bought from or through Amazon, they’ll e-mail you feelers, ads and Best Books of the Month lists, all of those containing those most books I’m talking about, which consist of, to borrow a phrase, not so much writing as typing.
I started reading Moby Dick at the same time, and started to get into it, but ultimately found it too long and the language unfamiliar. (Hey—I was 13 and it was both the longest and oldest novel I had yet attempted.) Several years later I found my girlfriend's copy on her shelf when I was visiting, and though I wouldn't have had time to read the whole book in a single overnight visit, I at least found the first few chapters a little easier going. Seven or eight years makes a difference. It's on my reading list for the near future, as is Democracy in America.
Les Misérables I am currently reading and am presently about 200 pages from the end (Jean Valjean just set Javert free at the barricade). It is now the longest novel I have ever read, being approximately as long as the Old Testament.
As for the rest, apart from A Tale of Two Cities, I have no interest.
My daughter’s the only person I’ve ever known who’s actually read the “Divine Comedy” from cover to cover and survived to talk about it as though she really enjoyed it - probably would have made a great English professor if she hadn’t gone into mathematics....
I’ve read every primary work thru 1960
All I can say is God smiled on little boys when he created Classics Illustrated
I never read Origin or Species
Studied Smith.... Tocqueville and Melville ....Machiavelli ....Orwell
Read the other Ulysses.in...Virgil’s works...nice reads....
This a far better lie I tell tonight than I have ever told before....
Really I love 19th century English works....tale of two cities is wonderful
Read this back in the mid-80’s. When I started buying books back in the 70’s, whenever I went to the store, I would see this book. Finally, I purchased and read it back in 85. I thought it was great with the exception of the absence of Christ.
9. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin:
Have not read it.
8. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo and A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens:
Have not read Les Miserables but have read A Tale of Two Cities.
7. 1984, George Orwell:
Read it back in the 70’s. Interesting and depressing.
6. Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville:
Have read a third of this.
5. The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith:
Have not read it.
4. Moby Dick, Herman Melville:
I just finished this one about two months back.
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu:
Read this.
2. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli:
I have it but have not read it.
1. Ulysses, James Joyce:
Have not read it.
Five out of eleven. Not bad.
I have read both #8s (Les Miserables/A Tale of Two Cities), or at least most of each. I always seem to bog down about 2/3 of the way through Les Miserables, put it away, and wind up starting over.
#7 (1984) I read the unabridged version in high school, as well as Animal Farm.
#4 (Moby Dick) I’ve read an abridged version, at the very least, as a “tween”.
#3 (The Art of War) Read it. Or, at least one translation/interpretation of it, for there are many.
I’ve read “1984”. I own copies of two or three of the other titles, and frankly, any novels or other fiction on the list should be struck off. The only Dickens I’ve read was “Great Expectations”, and that was for lit class in high school. I’d rather walk barefoot through broken glass than read any more purportedly classic novels by any novel-writing blowhards past, present, or future.
PJ O’Rourke did a book *about* Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” that I borrowed as an unabridged audiobook, and mp3’d the whole thing for when I do laps. EXCELLENT book, highly recommend it, probably would not say the same about Adam Smith’s original, with the proviso that I’ve never read it (just relatively small excerpts).
Of the 10 on the list, Ive read Atlas Shrugged and Ulysses. I’ve started Moby Dick. I was supposed to read it in college and when I dropped out. I kept a lot of my books, something I don’t regret. One thing that bothers me is their persistence in calling the whale a fish. I know that should t bother me but it does. I was amused when a direct descendant of Melvilles said in an interview that he could have used better editing.
I read Anna Karenina a few years ago but have been having a hard time with War and Peace.
Some so-called old classics are barely readable, IMO. Pilgrims Progress comes to mind.
10. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand: read it twice.
9. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin: read it once in High School.
8. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo - read it twice in High School - one of my all time favorite reads as a young person. Picked it up as an adult years later and was bored to death with it...
7. 1984, George Orwell: Read several times.
6. Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville: A few paragraphs standing in a bookstore...
5. The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith: Read a third of it in high school... never read it again.
4. Moby Dick, Herman Melville: Two chapters...
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu: Flipped through... 10 minutes?
2. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli: read it several times...
1. Ulysses, James Joyce: One paragraph... years ago.