Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:none, different culture, different interests.

Seriously? How long have you lived here? If you went to school here how could you possibly avoid many of these books?

This is an asshole comment. Many of the posters here are saying they read the books in high school or college. If the poster you quoted didn't go to high school here and didn't major in English at an American college, there's a good chance she/he didn't read them.

How many works have you read by authors who aren't of European descent? How many Asian, African, or Hispanic classic books have you read?

I'm getting really tired of the "I'm better than Americans and can't be bothered with their literature or schools and I have my own circle of non-American friends (who are starting to ignore me, I wonder why)" poster. Yes, I've read a lot of non-US, non-European literature. Some of it in the original languages, too.

Anonymous wrote:

How many works have you read by authors who aren't of European descent? How many Asian, African, or Hispanic classic books have you read?

I'm not the PP you are referring to. But lots of us have read African and Asian (esp. Indian and Chinese) authors. She could read a few American authors (Twain? Emerson? Thoreau? Fitzgerald?) without it killing her and she might even learn a few things about humanity in the process. Sounds a bit like Britain's Whitbread awards, which deemed US fiction "too parochial" which was code for "we're too snobby to acknowledge it."

I've read almost all of them, including Ulysses and Moby Dick. I liked the hero of Ulysses (Leopold Bloom), but face it, James Joyce is a pretentious bore and so is the Joyce character in Ulysses (Stephen Dedalus) and, let's be honest, Joyce's editor should have had the courage to cut 1/4 of the book which could have been done without doing too much damage to the texture of the whole thing. I read Moby Dick as an adult and actually liked it, and so did DH - you can skip over the whale lore (although we didn't) and Melville had a surprising sense of humor. Maybe the whole obsession thing is more meaningful if you read it as an adult.

I haven't read Captain Corelli's violin, but I've read a lot of other recent fiction, like Cutting for Stone and the Life of Pi. I can't say I've read "the complete works of William Shakespeare" although I've read at least a dozen of his (3 dozen?) plays.

I've read 30, maybe a couple more and I've just forgotten about them. I'm only 25 so I guess I have more time to read ahead of me.

Some of the books are strange--like Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, books by Jane Austin (there are like 5 of them) I'm just not interested in. I've read a decent chunk of the works of Shakespeare (thanks to high school and AP English).

33

I've read at least 20 of them, have heard of the majority of them, and have started at least 20 more but my policy is if I can't get into by the end of the first chapter I don't continue. I've been burned way to many times by sticking with a book that just flat out sucked. (To me.) I'm not interested at all in fantasy or scifi type books so that eliminates Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter right off the bad. Oh and the Narnia books (though I did somewhat enjoy the first movie but not the second.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow I thought my number would be higher, but it's 25 for me.
And I'll go on the record to say that I hate, hate, hate Jane Erye. I read part of it before school, then re-read that part in school, and tried later in life to read it again. I don't know what it is, I just don't like it.

I love, love, love the Brontes and Jane Eyre is my favorite! The story is timeless... and the madwoman in the attic... are you kidding me? "Reader, I married him."... Classic!

I don't know a more eloquent way to say it: Sucks for you that you can't get into it.

I liked Jane Eyre pretty much, but LOVE Wuthering Heights. One of my fave books, probably have read it 5 times.

Love all the Brontes; have you read Villette? The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is also excellent. The sisters were before their time... such strong feminists.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow I thought my number would be higher, but it's 25 for me.
And I'll go on the record to say that I hate, hate, hate Jane Erye. I read part of it before school, then re-read that part in school, and tried later in life to read it again. I don't know what it is, I just don't like it.

I love, love, love the Brontes and Jane Eyre is my favorite! The story is timeless... and the madwoman in the attic... are you kidding me? "Reader, I married him."... Classic!

I don't know a more eloquent way to say it: Sucks for you that you can't get into it.

I liked Jane Eyre pretty much, but LOVE Wuthering Heights. One of my fave books, probably have read it 5 times.

Anonymous wrote:Wow I thought my number would be higher, but it's 25 for me.
And I'll go on the record to say that I hate, hate, hate Jane Erye. I read part of it before school, then re-read that part in school, and tried later in life to read it again. I don't know what it is, I just don't like it.

I love, love, love the Brontes and Jane Eyre is my favorite! The story is timeless... and the madwoman in the attic... are you kidding me? "Reader, I married him."... Classic!

I don't know a more eloquent way to say it: Sucks for you that you can't get into it.

I had forgotten all about Possession...I was an English major and this was one of my favorites. Thank you for posting this -- I am going to dig it out to reread over Christmas!

Anonymous wrote:

And the Bible may be a lot of things, but I'm not exactly convinced it's literature.

Self-help book?

They would seriously put crap like The Time Traveler’s Wife and The DaVinci Code on the list with great works of literature? I find that troubling. How does that belong on a list with books written by Tolstoy?

So no, I haven't read all of them. But I have read a lot of them. ANd I find it funny that they put the complete works of Shakespeare on one line...with some of these others. I like the Potter books, but I'd hardly rank them as great works of literature.

Strange list.

And the Bible may be a lot of things, but I'm not exactly convinced it's literature.

Anonymous wrote:I've read 37 and I read a lot so some of you really read a lot.

I agree with this comment, but then again, I read a lot of bestsellers/non-literary type books - kinda junk food for my brain. My number is really close to yours. I used to be more literate before I had kids. Pure escapism these days.

Anonymous wrote:Re: Confederacy of Dunces... that's one I didn't count, because I just couldn't get into it. What do people like about it? Does it get better after the first few chapters?

Also, I hear a lot of love for Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but have never read any. Can someone tell me what kind of stories they are, and what you love about them?

I don't know if you'll enjoy GGM because I never could get into his books - tried a couple of them - nor could I get into Confederacy of Dunces! I started that one a few times. I'm older, maybe I should try again.

My number is 38, and that doesn't include the above two plus a couple others I just never could get into past the first few chapters.

I am not surprised that six is the average.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:none, different culture, different interests.

Seriously? How long have you lived here? If you went to school here how could you possibly avoid many of these books?

This is an asshole comment. Many of the posters here are saying they read the books in high school or college. If the poster you quoted didn't go to high school here and didn't major in English at an American college, there's a good chance she/he didn't read them.

How many works have you read by authors who aren't of European descent? How many Asian, African, or Hispanic classic books have you read?