5.24.2011

Top Ten Tuesday... or not

Today's inspiring Top Ten Tuesday topic is a confessional: Books We've Lied About.

The problem is... I'm honestly not much of a liar. :) If you ask, you'll hear the truth that I've never read Moby Dick or even the cliffnotes. I'll also admit my inability to bear Steinbeck and that I'm afraid to read Wuthering Heights. No shame here.

So I'm sitting out this week. But if you want to read others' confessions, you can do so over at The Broke and the Bookish. It sounds like fun reading.

9 comments:

  1. I don't lie so much about having read books, but I do lie about what I think about them, generally my token "I hated it but don't want to admit it is "wow, it was interesting." Somehow "interesting" seems like less of a lie than "good"..then I just say "hmm" and "yeah" a lot while they bring up parts they liked.

    I Do feel guily about it, just not guilty enough to change..

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  2. You know, Masha, most of the time, if I managed to get all the way through a book, I figure I can at least safely call it "interesting." ;)

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  3. Have you ever read Steinbeck's The Short Reign of Pippin IV? About as different from his other works as possible. It's about a new French revolution in which the republic is overthrown, an amateur astronomer is made king, and gets all his political advice from the Egg King of Petaluma. Very, very funny. And thought-provoking, too. "To be worthy of the cross, a man must be a thief, or a..." That quote isn't quite right, but close

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  4. You really should read Wuthering Heights. It's just like reading Jane Austen...except depressing & populated with unpleasant people. Which is to be expected when one of the main character is the prototype of Severus Snape.

    Still I enjoyed reading the book & I'm glad I read it.

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  5. David, I'd love to give the guy another chance, and have made a note of that piece. I didn't know he'd written anything cheerful!

    George, I'll do my best to take your advice on that one of these days. :)

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  6. George, that's hilarious!

    --Arabella

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  7. Jenna, you should read Moby-Dick! It's secretly very funny-- well, it doesn't stay a very well-kept secret past the first paragraph or so but you know what I mean. People think of it as this ponderous tome full of boring whale details and. . . ok, it is huge and it is full of whale details, but those are good things! It's definitely a book that demands a lot from its readers, but it's really, really worth it-- ambitious, ambiguous, surprising-- it's as much an original today as it was when it first came out and the critics didn't know what to do with it. The Cliff's Notes can't possibly do it justice.

    I try not to lie about books, but when I do, it's usually a Lie of Omission about how I totally understood what was going on, I promise. I don't mind saying I didn't like a book, but I do change my mind a lot.

    However, I will be forever mortified by the fact that I've never actually read Henry James, until the day that I finally face up to and read some Henry James. When will that day come? I'm not sure.

    I came over from Masha's blog. . . hope you don't mind.

    Masha, don't lie to me about things you hated! I want to hear all the hate!

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  8. jam for the ladies, I've never heard someone describe Moby Dick as funny! And till now, I've never heard someone describe it in a way that made me really want to read it. Maybe I'll give it a try one of these days. :)

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  9. Oh, and you're totally welcome here!

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