If You Like….
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Today’s If You Like is a guest post by Christine (thank you, Christine!) on “Bucket List Books”. Without further ado, the bibliophile’s bucket list, a la Christine:
You know those books that you hear about and you know you absolutely HAVE to read them, but for some reason, you just never get around to it? This is my bucket list of books.
I’m so embarrassed. It’s been 7 months and I STILL haven’t read Ashford Affair. I have no excuse, really. Life happened. But in this coming year, I will read it.
– The River of No Return
Time travel? Secret societies? Why haven’t I read this one either?!
– A People’s History of the United States
I double majored in history and American Studies in college. One of my classmates recommended this book to me in 1999. There’s currently a copy residing on a bookshelf in my house.
– anything by Jane Austen that’s not Pride and Prejudice
Junior year of high school, we spent almost an entire semester reading Gone with the Wind
– The Complete Works of Shakespeare
I once found the Complete Works on sale for $7.99 at Barnes and Noble and grabbed it… in 2001. The number of Shakespeare plays I’ve read hasn’t changed since 1999. My AP English teacher loved Kenneth Branagh, so if Sir Ken made a movie version, we probably read the play so she could then show us the movie “for comparison.” I’ve never read Romeo and Juliet
I absolutely love the PBS Sherlock
Looks like I have a lot of reading to catch up on over the holidays! What’s on your reading bucket list?
Thank you so much for this, Christine! I love this idea. I stumbled upon the Complete Sherlock Holmes fairly young, and, as a Renaissance Studies major (yes, yes, that really was a major!), I can quote you more blank verse than you want to hear. My big blank spot is the Russian novelists and dramatists (with the exception of Tolstoy, who did make it on to my bookshelf). Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov…. I have a basic idea of what their major works were about– enough for cocktail parties– but aside from the one rather irritating Turgenev novel we did in ninth grade English class, I’ve never actually read them and probably should.
Next up there would be mid-twentieth century British authors like Kingsley Amis. Somehow, I’m guessing seeing the PBS adaptation of Lucky Jim
I also have some British crime fiction gaps that need to be filled. As a huge fan of the Peter Wimsey books, I’ve always meant to read Margery Allingham’s Campion
On top of those, I would add the Books That I Read Because I Had To and now wish I’d paid more attention– but that’s the subject of another list.
What are your book gaps?
I LOVE the Books That I Read Because I Had To and wish I’d paid more attention to idea! Mine would probably start with Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare works that Branagh did a movie adaptation of…
HI, this is not a book gap, although goodness knows I have lots of old classics and modern classics I could be reading. But I want to recommend a TV show. That is: Elementary which is an American modern version of Sherlock Holmes and Watson is a female. Wonderful, wonderful series and different than than the English one which is also beyond wonderful. I have read all of Jane Austen though but can’t much get into the Bronte’s. I want to read George Elliot but I can’t say that has happened yet either. And I need to catch up on my Laurie R. King reading. I am saving them for several rainy days as I now when I start the last four I will want to read them all at once. That is how I read most of the first part of the series, all in the same week or so. Something to be said for reading series like that.
Oh, River of No Return is on the list too and finishing up Diana Gabaldon, as I said, I can go on and on…
A People’s History by Zinn is great! My history class is covering it and it is really informative and eye opening.
I have a huge Shakespeare gap as well, I’ve only read Hamlet and his poems like Venus and Adonis. Although I’ve seen many if his adapted plays and films!
Shakespeare for me too. All I read were his tragedies in HS so I have a really negative view of him. It’s all so depressing. I would love to read some of his comedies but never have. Percy Jackson series. My daughters have read them, my friends have read them, they are best sellers and movies. I need to get on that. “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “The Guns of August.” Literary classics of WWI that I feel like I should read but never have. Also Diana Gabaldon. Everyone here recommends her and I have friends who reread them every year.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand has been in my TBR pile for years…..it keeps getting pushed to the side. And I’m ashamed to say I have not yet read The Count of Monte Cristo.
Would like to reread David Copperfield that I read in 9th grade and some more Dickens, but will need a lot of uninterrupted time to do that.
Perhaps some more Shakespeare, although I had a semester “Shakespeare” course in college which covered a lot, and I had already read Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet.
About a year and a half ago, I promised myself to read a classic every two months, but have thus far only managed Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (so depressing), and Dracula. There’s just too many good current authors that have kept me busy reading their latest releases. Plus hearing about books on this site has sidetracked me. Maybe in the New Year?
Oh god, so many things. My amazon wish list grows ever longer. But off the top of my head, more Tim O’Brien, Sherlock Holmes, the rest of Gabaldon’s Outlander series (I got stalled part of the way through book 2), and more Agatha Christie.
Oh! And Susanna Kearsley, from recommendations here.
I really should have read some more Dickens. I did a Christmas Carol, and I’ve watched David Copperfield (with young Daniel Radcliffe!) but apart from that…
I’ve also never read Wuthering Heights and I probably ought too!
I’ve cleared a few off my list this year – including some Daphne Du Maurier – I’ve done Jamaica Inn, My Cousin Rachel and Frenchman’s Creek after having them on my shelf for a while.
I’ve got a few things sitting on the to read shelf that have been there a while – last year I did finally managed to finish the Robert Dallek Kennedy biography – which had a 2007 train ticket as its bookmark.
I can recommend the Albert Campions though – I stumbled across Margery Allingham when I was living in Essex – she was from there and the libraries held a lot of her works. Don’t read in order though – as he starts as a real mickey-take of Wimsey and grows into much more than that. My favourites (although I still haven’t read them all) are Sweet Danger and the Fashion in Shrouds.
Wuthering Heights is one of my favorites. I’ve also been on a Daphne Du Maurier kick. Read Frenchman’s Creek again after having first read it long ago – a real treat. Picked up My Cousin Rachel, but that will have to wait until after Christmas.