New Thing #9- August 2010- Reading the Classics

Me in front of a book-adorned parking garage near the library

This month my New Thing isn't dangerous, bada$$, or hardcore in any way. You may not even think it's interesting, but bare with me... I'm broadening my cultural horizons.

I'm reading the classics this month and I'll tell you why.

I love to read, so that part doesn't necessarily make this activity qualify for a New Thing. However, I generally like the "chick lit" kind of books. I love anything by Sophia Kinsella and Marian Keyes and will sometimes even judge a book by its cover. If the graphics are cute and the tagline sounds interesting, I'll give it a whirl.

Using that cute graphics/ catchy tagline philosophy, I recently read two Candace Bushnell books back to back. Bushnell is best known for her book that turned into a little series called Sex and the City. I haven't actually read that one, but I did read One Fifth Avenue and Trading Up. Both were fairly entertaining, though Bushnell seemed to recycle some of her ideas and used the same brooding author character in both books. In One Fifth Avenue his name was James. In Trading Up his name was Craig and both were described as a modern day Tolstoy. There was a good amount of detail around describing the similarities around these characters and Tolstoy, so I thought maybe I should know who this Tolstoy guy is.

Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

I googled it and it turns out that Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is widely regarded as the greatest of novelists. In researching other authors and literature that topped a Greatest Classics list, it became apparent that I hadn't read many of them. I had only read a handful on the list. I loved most of the ones I had read- Huckleberry Finn, Tale of Two Cities, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scarlett Pimpernel. However, I thought Catcher in the Rye was odd. No one ever says that, but I'll admit it. 

As there are so many classics that I have never read, my first thought in reviewing the list was to displace blame with, "What the h, Bucklin High School?! How dare you let me out in the world like this!"

I thought it was time to rectify the situation. Later that day, I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up a few classics that I will be reading between now and the end of my New Things project. (There is just absolutely no way I can get through all of them this month. Have you seen the size of some of these books)?!


Here's my reading list:
War and Peace by L. Tolstoy
Anna Karenina by L. Tolstoy
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Emma by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I'll keep you posted on my progress and what I think about each of the books. I'm currently working on War and Peace and I have to admit, this is taking longer than I expected. I can usually whip through a 400 page chick lit book in a few hours. It turns out I'm a slower reader if there's more depth to the story.

I just know that at the end of this project I'll feel much more cultured and well-read. If nothing else, I'll be able to throw out Tolstoy references at dinner parties, just because I can.