At 27 years old, J.K. Rowling, reminded me that reading can not only be enjoyable but also incredibly meaningful. Every now and then with the right book, you stumble upon something that influences large parts of your life and can change the way you look at...everything. Every book is different for every person. Each of us pulls from different experiences, backgrounds, and beliefs then interprets the words in ways that are meaningful (or not) to us. I read Half-Blood Prince only a few months after my grandfather died so you can just guess how hard I cried on page 596.
The power of paper, you guys. Of course, not all books do this. Most don't. And sometimes, I let that discourage me. I have attempted many a book on a trusted friend's recommendation, randomly plucked a cute cover off a clearance shelf, and borrowed the occasional best seller from the public library only to be sorely disappointed that it just wasn't for me. It's kind of like I'm Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride and I have no idea how I like my eggs. How can I be thirty and have no idea what kind of books I like? I loved HP but am well aware that typical fantasy fare is not my jam. I have a feeling that genres are not going to be my thing and this is a scour-the-world-one-book-at-a-time type search. Goodie. *eye roll* (I'm even lazy when it comes to discovering my recreational preferences.)
I want to stop being that girl that when asked if she's read a good book lately suggests a book she read in the 9th grade that wasn't really that good so she doesn't seem like a dope who doesn't really read. These books I've selected are some most literary authorities consider to be 'great' or 'classic' so it seems like as good a place as any to start. I tried to include one from each of the quintessential authors that I have not yet attempted and I think I might actually enjoy. (Anything by Hemingway or Dickens is just a no-go.) I am starting with these six which I feel is most definitely an ambitious number to tackle in a 12 month span:
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Will I force myself to read all of these books for the sake of finishing my list? Most certainly not. Life is too short to read something you don't enjoy. Reading Twilight three times because you think you just aren't getting it? Put it down. It's not your thing. (Or it's just bad.)
There are zillions of books out there and once you find one that 'fits'?
There's nothing that can compare.
Here goes.
Previous Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment