Saturday, November 03, 2007

Classics I have never read

Over at Big A little a , Indefatigable Kelly commented on a Slate survey of contemporary authors' "gravest literary omissions." Read the comments to see what other omissions bloggers will admit to.

Well, I don't know many folks who have actually read War and Peace or Ulysses or Moby Dick but I have some real omissions to admit to.

I have never read...
oh...
this is really embarrassing...

I have never read:

Huckleberry Finn
I have read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe BUT I have not read any other Narnia books.
I've never read Farmer Boy in the Little House series. I always just skipped that book because I wanted to read more about Laura and her family.
The Phantom Tollbooth
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Bridge to Terabithia


Oh the shame, shame shame.

I am going to remedy the Huckleberry Finn omission soon.
(It wasn't my fault that I missed American Literature in high school. I didn't have to read Billy Budd either.)

9 comments:

Jen Robinson said...

Oh, Camille! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Bridge to Terebithia? That is very sad. I haven't been able to pin down my omissions yet, but I know that they exist. I'll be interested to hear how you like Huck Finn - it's a tough read with the dialect.

tanita✿davis said...

Y'know, I've never read The Phantom Tollbooth either. I have tried!!! It just didn't resonate and I've put it down repeatedly. Dunno why.

tanita✿davis said...

(I didn't read Billy Budd either. But we all suffered through our share of Daniel Defoe and Herman Melville...)

Camille said...

I know, I know, the shame of not having read Terabithia or Charlie. I will, I will.

Kelly said...

Camille: you have to read Huck Finn. Make it your holiday book. You know, the one you read when you're lounging around after a turkey dinner and the house is dark and full of napping teens :)

You'll love it!

Camille said...

Kelly,
That is a brilliant suggestion. We will be a small group this Thanksgiving so that will be perfect.

Ms. Yingling said...

Forget Huck Finn, read The Phantom Tollbooth. Okay, just the first two paragraphs. If I had to memorize any one book (ala Fahrenheit 451), it would be this book, and I don't even like fantasy. Most of the rest aren't horrible omissions!

Lady S. said...

I've read War and Peace, but only because I saw the wonderful BBC adaptation of it in my long-past youth and knew it ended happily for the characters I most liked - yes, impressive reading criteria, those! Proving that there's no reason to feel shame for the classics you haven't read. (I always manage to say sensible things like this, whatever about feeling them myself.)

Phantom Tollbooth was a big favourite around here, and Farmer Boy is fun if you want vicarious pleasure in the most astonishing kind of over-eating. Dahl though? I can happily leave him, the more so after my younger daughter was force-fed vast quantities by the nastiest teacher in her primary school. (If you're not easily shocked, check out the Charlie theory my sweetie came up with and I -- 'helped' with this weekend.)

Michele said...

I adore both Charlie AND The Phantom Tollbooth... I recently re-read TPT for the first time since I read it as a child and it still bowled me over with its imaginative story...