I'm honestly impressed with myself for how quickly this list is going. I'm getting that "what am I going to do with myself when this is over?" feeing, even though I'm not even halfway done... I'm a weirdo.
Anyway... here's more thoughts on the books on this list, and as always, there are spoilers:
Pride and Prejudice - I always love books where the bad boy wants the good girl but she doesn't want him (see Gone With the Wind below...), but this one was especially good because he turned out to be good in the end. This was an easy, fun read, but it wasn't my favorite by any means.
Little Women - Boooo. This book was so boring. And Friends ruined the only interesting part of the book - when Beth dies - because of the episode where Joey's reading it and is sad so he puts the book in the freezer.
Fahrenheit 451 - This book had so much promise. I was looking forward to this one for a while, because I love dystopian novels. But I was let down by this one. It's incredibly short; I feel like the underlying premise is great but it isn't used to its full potential. So disappointing.
Gone With the Wind - I expected to absolutely hate this book. I watched the movie (which consisted of two separate VHS tapes...) when I was in high school, and I made it all the way to the end without really knowing what it was even about. I was so mad at my mom for telling me to watch it because it was "so great". However, the book IS great. I loved it so much. I love the historical fiction aspect, but most of all, I love Rhett Butler. I love that everyone hates him and he doesn't give a damn. (See what I did there???)
A Tale of Two Cities - I was incredibly confused about this one right up until the very end, but Dickens does a great job of tying it all together. This book absolutely validates a philosophy I have about reading - until I have finished a book, I cannot form an opinion on it; therefore, I have to read every book to the end, no matter how much I dislike it along the way. If I had given up on this one, I wouldn't have known that it's actually a very good love story!
Memoirs of a Geisha - My grandma bought me this book because she loves it, and that immediately made me dread reading it. (Yes I'm terrible... sue me.) I was SO wrong. I could not put this book down. Again, the historical fiction aspect was great, and so was the love story.
The Old Man and the Sea - Ummm, what?! This book served no purpose whatsoever. The character arc is non-existent - the protagonist (if you can call it that...) is literally in the exact same (sad) position in life as when it started, and it doesn't appear that he learned anything or changed in any way at all. I'm so glad it was only 120 pages, because I would have been furious if I'd wasted any more time on it than I did. The internet tells me it's supposed to be symbolic of... something or other. I have no idea, but I didn't get it at all. I guess I'm too literal.
A Game of Thrones - I have been actively resisting watching this series, mostly because I hate doing things that are trendy when they're trendy. When I saw this book on the list, I was not pleased. I didn't think I was going to like it at all, and I thought it was going to be hard to read. Once again, I was so wrong. I freaking loved this book, and I was so upset I didn't own the series so I could read them all in a row. And now I finally understand all the "Winter is Coming" memes on facebook! Sort of.
The Scarlet Letter - Three things: 1) Did you know that the author NEVER explicitly names Hester's crime? You just assume it's adultery, but it could totally be something darker, like incest. The intro to the book points that out, and it blew my mind. 2) Hester should not have waited 7 years to run away with her baby daddy, because then maybe he wouldn't have gotten all old and sick in the meantime and they could have spent their good years together. She didn't even like her husband. 3) Pearl scared the hell out of me, and I think she scared the hell out of Hester too.
The Odyssey - Yet again, I judged a book by its cover... or rather, by the things I thought I knew about it. I read excerpts of this during my freshman year of high school, and I was terrified this was going to take me months to read. I was completely wrong; it took me less than a week. It was really good! The things I knew took place in the story though (for example, the run-in with the Sirens) were such small pieces of the plot, it makes me wonder why they are the things modern students are taught about when discussing the poem.
At the end of my last blog post regarding this dream, I referenced Don Quixote being my next book from this list, but that was a mistake. It was the next book to read on my bookshelf, but it's not even on this list!!! I read it entirely as some kind of punishment to myself, I guess. And punishment it was. When I began reading it, the guy who sat next to me at work mentioned that it's his favorite book. That made it all the more frustrating when I got to the very end and asked myself what the hell I had just read. Don Quixote is a crazy person who everyone besides him knows is a crazy person, and in the last 3 pages of a 1000 page book he realizes it and just... stops being crazy. What a waste of my time!!! However, tons of other literary works allude to this book, so at least I understand what they're talking about now...
My next book from this list (for real this time) is the New King James version of The Holy Bible. The same guy who told me Don Quixote is his favorite book told me there was no way I could read The Bible in a month, so I bet him $100 I could do it. I would have done it for free, but he threw out the number so I went with it. Yes, The Bible is a large book with lots of words and lots of pages. But I've read those before (see Don Quixote...). I am determined to do it, and I'm going to begin reading it on March 1. Check my next blog post about this dream to see if I made it through in just one month or if I had to put my money where my mouth was!
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