I went to the Thrall Library Used Book Store again this afternoon, as is my tradition when I get home from MD. Last year, you might remember, I collected these 18 classics. Thus far, I have read items 14 (man, that was a haul – it’s 850 pages and built like the Bible), 15 (read it before buying it) and 16 (which is now my car’s emergency book, for when I get stuck places for long periods of time). I took a chunk out of 17 before I decided it was stupid. So, I still have almost all of them to go.
That didn’t stop me from buying another 16 selections, this time totaling $10. It’s literally almost free! I shiver with delight.
1) “Photographer’s Market 2004” – An enormous book cataloguing 2000 places that buy photos from people such as myself. Just in case I decide to try to make money selling photos that people don’t even buy for free now.
2) “Pere Goriot” by Honore de Balzac (paperback 1962) – I’m not familiar with the title, but I liked Balzac in the Short Story book. He earns another book purchase, even if I’ll never read it. I’m not going to say that again, we’ll take it as a given from here on out. I read about 6 pages of book a night on average, and I’m backlogged by about 19,000 pages.
3) “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte (paperback 1960) – Apparently this is one of the classic classics. Plus, I read that there was a movie of this book starring Elle Macpherson, who I had a crush on in 8th grade. I was going to link a picture, but there are surprisingly few pictures that are appropriate for this website of her. It’s tough to be a bikini model.
4) “The Portable Sherwood Anderson” (hardcover, no date, but it was checked out from a library in 1960) – I remembered him, if not what exactly he had written, positively from my short story book, so I got more of him. He’s simple and American-ish, which is good for counter balancing the depressed euros that I like more. Speaking of the short story book, I currently have, tucked away in the front cover, a present from Lara – my art love Joan of Arc. I’ve mentioned her before here. Seamus commented at the time, which leads me to believe he’s silently scheming to ask her to the prom before I can. He’s filthy like that. I’m on to you.
5) “Jude the Obscure” by Thomas Hardy (paperback 1969) – I got this from the “How to Look like a Genuis” book that Bess gave me last weekend and that I have already finished, due to a miscalculation in how much time I had left in the Short Stories book. I brought it on the Indy trip as a backup plan, and was thankful I did. Though I was sufficiently embarrassed to be reading a book like that (it’s witty, though not at witty as the first one, and I love easily digestable knowledge from various sources) on the plane that I made it a point to cover the title.
6) “Modern Italian Short Stories” (hardcover 1954, mint condition) – I love those Euros. Plus, Italy has a pretty crappy history (post 200 AD at least), and the sort of cynicism that such a spotted past produces is interesting to me.
7) “The Last Tycoon” by F.Scott Fitzgerald – I knew that this was an unfinished novel, so I was surprised to see it on the shelf. I flipped through and they actually have the whole book, it’s just that only part of it is written, the rest is in brief notes. I want to see how a real author (one whose use of the English language is beyond reproach) grows his work. I’m interested to see the uneditted “finished” portion, and also how he builds up the unfinished portions.
8) “Anton Chekhov, Select Short Stories” – I liked him from the short stories book I read, and I generally like the Russians. Mostly because I like dark books. You know what though? Most good books are dark. That’s what makes them good, you read them and feel bad.
9) “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift – I figured it was something to have. Speaking of which…
10) “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes – I never took spanish in High School.
11) “Faust I, II” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (paperback 1965) – I’ve heard of it, but don’t know what it’s about. I didn’t even know it was a play. I recently read a handful of Ibsen’s plays, so it’s not unheard of for me to read such things. Except that this one is extraordinarily long.
12) “The Complete Works of O’Henry” (hardcover 1953) – I know him to be prolific in his production, but know little of said production, apart from that which I read in my short story collection. I neither liked nor disliked it, so that’s good. Maybe I’ll raise a voracious little reader one day. Make him read all of the books, then he can write the books that I don’t get around to writing. I knew a girl that read a lot of books in middle school. She also liked horses. Don’t know how that worked out for her.
13) “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoyevsky (hardcover and old, but not dated) – Someone wrote in pencil under the title on the title page “Out of what type minds do these books come from”. Not out of yours, my dear. Thankfully so, a world full of Dostoyesky’s would be a depressing place indeed.
14) “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte – I think I own this already. But this one is a hardcover. Since I’ve already read it, I doubt I will be reading it again any time soon. Speaking of which, today I started my next project, Gibbon’s “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” It is a seminal historical work, whose scholarship still stands today – at the time when it was written, it was a hugely important book. I have seen it mentioned several times, it seems like something worth reading. Plus, I am a Roman history buff; I love the stuff (OK, enough). I have a man-crush on Caesar Augustus, but comparatively little information on the fall of Rome, as it was always so depressing to me.
15) “Selected Letter of John Keats” (hardcover 1951) – Who is this guy again? Poet, yes? Is this the guy that Fantauzzo loves? I can’t remember. By the way, I hope everyone is saving all of my email correspondences. I need a posthumous publication of said articles, preferrably after I do something important enough to warrant a posthumous publication, but they can stand on their own in a pinch. Please donate a portion of the proceedings to something of your choosing.
16) “The Odyssey” by Homer (hardcover, mint 1961) – This is in really good shape, and it’s something that I need to have. Do I see myself blasting through this stuff? Not unless I find myself stuck in Ancient Greek Literature classes. But maybe that pale book worm kid of mine will enjoy it. I’m going to name him Poindexter preemptively, then shine flashlights in his eyes so he needs big fat glasses. I hereby renounce my jock tendencies, all nancyboys for me.
I think I had some kind of conclusion when I started writing this. But I have no concept of what it was. So it ends thusly.
Just to clarify, Elle Macpherson plays Blanche Ingram (a minor character, Rochester’s pretend hoochie faux love interest) in that movie version of Jane Eyre.
I’m surprised you never read “The Odyssey.” I think you’ll like it. I just read Jane Eyre last month. We can chat about it after you read it if you like.
I think maybe I did read it, either that or the Iliad, in high school with Uncle Eisenhardt.
Don’t hold your breath on Jane Eyre. Women authors and I don’t often see eye to eye, and I don’t relate well to heroins. Is that the word for it? Hmmm.
I love that we’ve all recently undergone the allotted (re)reading of Jane Eyre that is required at some point in everygirl’s twenties! Lara recently read it, too.
Furstie, to be absolutely frank, I can’t imagine you’ll make it all the way through.