Quote:
Originally posted by robustpuppy
And the winner of today's Who is Oprah, Anyway? Sophisticated Reader award is . . .
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Not me (not to be confused with Not Me, who may well be a Sophistcated Reader). Trying to read anything by Umberto Eco -- despite his cool name -- gives me a headache.
Which leads me to a poll that I was planning to do tomorrow, a poll borrowed from a game played by English professors in the books of David Lodge. What "great book" have you
not read that you should have read, or which you pretended to have read, or which people think that you have read?
My answer -- "Ulysses" by James Joyce (see why I was going to do this poll tomorrow?). I can't do it. I have tried. I want to like it. People I like like it. The concept of the book appeals to me. The whole struggle against censorship aspect of the publishing of it appeals to me. But, no matter how hard I try, I can't get past page 10 or 5 or 20 or whatever. And yet I laugh knowingly at references to "that hottie Molly Bloom." Shame on me.
There is hope. I was supposed to read "A Tale of Two Cities" in middle school, but gave up on page 2, and read the Classic Comics version instead -- and (depite Sister Annuncia's warnings) did not fail the test. Last year, I saw it at my mother-in-law's house, picked it up when waiting for my wife to get back from shopping, and started reading. I loved it.
