10 Books Not To Read Before You Die.

[Gingersnap]

I don't care what language it's in...the damn thing sucked!!! Although apparently I was the only one in senior lit that preferred more of Shakespeare's sonnets. Or at least something uplifting like Emily Dickinson.

You think Emily Dickinson was uplifting?

Dickinson was about as uplifting as Poe. Now, I like Poe but he wasn't a real barrel of laughs.

[Phillygirl]

You think Emily Dickinson was uplifting?

Hey, what can I tell you? Shannon likes Whiny Zone threads. I like Emily Dickinson.

Dickinson was about as uplifting as Poe. Now, I like Poe but he wasn't a real barrel of laughs.

Another of my favorites.

[linda22003]

The best thing about Emily Dickinson poems, of course, is that they can all be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas".

[Cold Warrior]

I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings and the Iliad and the Odyssey.

I also really like Hunter Thompson.

I agree. I also, as I've said here many times, think Heminway and Fitzgerald were the two greatest novelists of the 20th century. A few of these I've never read (The Beauty Myth, War and Peace) and one I've never heard of (Reinhart?). Personally, I'd add Moby Dick to the list.

Finally, the only Proust I've read is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8rhIw_9ucA

[noonwitch]

I tried to read Ulysses, and got about 20 pages into it. I couldn't make sense of it at all. Same with Proust.

I also disagree about the Illiad. I read it and the Odessey in college, and both were worth reading. Also, reading some greek tragic plays is appropriate college level, or advanced high school reading.

I'd add Gravity's Rainbow to the list. I also tried to read that and didn't get very far before I was bored to tears.

[linda22003]

Personally, I'd add Moby Dick to the list.

I couldn't disagree more. If you haven't read it since you were forced to in school, try it again, preferably on a rainy winter day, when you are in the same funk as our narrator:

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. "

Hint: the book isn't about whales. :) I reread it every few years, and I think I'm due again this winter.

[GrumpyOldLady]

Lord of the Rings ... BAH! I still can't follow it.
I gave up trying.
Even the movies - although visually wonderful - confuse the heck out of me.

[LibraryLady]

I have said for years that a lot of required reading lists are formatted to make people hate books for the rest of their lives.

LOTR was gibberish to me, sorry.

[DarkScribe]

Pretty much anything by Bill Shakespeare. Yuck.

Oh...I loved Homer's The Odyssey. One of my favorites.

[Phillygirl]

Pretty much anything by Bill Shakespeare. Yuck.

Oh...I loved Homer's The Odyssey. One of my favorites.

I liked both of them as well. The Aeneid, however, was a cheap rip off.