First up, I’ve had quite the busy week, and unfortunately I haven’t been able to get to many questions that have come in on the blog and via e-mail. Also though, I’ve been getting quite a few questions that have already been covered in the FAQs. Please please please check there first! And thanks so much to the regular readers who have chimed in with answers to some of these questions — you guys are life-savers.
This week’s You Tell Me is a fun one, and it comes via the Washington Post book blog Short Stack.
What book are you embarrassed not to have read?
As a member in good standing of the publishing industry (well, last time I checked), let me tell you that it’s not possible to have read everything, and yet there’s sometimes an expectation that an agent will have not only heard of every book ever published, but read every book published. Not possible, obviously, but there’s still pressure to be conversant about pretty much every book ever published.
But nevertheless, I’ll still answer. I’ve never read THE LORD OF THE RINGS series and I’m embarrassed.
What about you?
I’m more embarrassed by the ones I started and just couldn’t finish.
Jane Austen.
couldn’t do it.
I’m so embarrassed to tell you that I’ve never read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
Cheers,
JB
To Kill A Mockingbird. Having seen the movie isn’t enough, I remind myself.
I have not read Paradise Lost even though I was supposed to in high school. The teacher challenged that he was an expert on the subject but our final exam was set up to include a choice between answering a question on Paradise Lost or poetry so I only focused on poetry. The entire rest of the class answered his Paradise Lost question and failed so miserably, the teacher had to grade on a curve. I by the way aced the exam!
I wonder though, whether I would have been able to answer him appropriately, so I’m embarrassed.
Any of those Twilight books.
And anything by Ernest Hemingway.
I should really do that, huh?
So sorry for my late arrival on this topic, but I got held up in [blog] traffic! Who in [Middle] Earth would be ashamed not to have read ‘Lord of the Rings’? I would announce such an achievement with pride and commitment, and adopt the sort of condescending tightening of the eyebrow muscles reserved for others who indulge in lemming-like behaviour. I have read ‘The Hobbit’ and that was sufficiently turgid to ensure that I never lifted the cover of anything else with JRR Tolkein on the front. His prose is like a Wainwright’s Walking Guide with none of the incentive of finding a real view at the top. Best thing they did with ‘Lord of the Rings’ was turn it into a film – which I did enjoy!
As for embarrassment, it’s not so much the books as the authors. I have never read Salman Rushdie, and as with Bryan Russell, I have several titles of his on my bookshelves, all of them in pristine condition. Something else always seems to get in the way!
There are many books that I’m embarrassed not to have read, but I think the one a the top of my list is Catcher in the Rye, followed closely by Where the Red Fern grows. I know most people read these in high school as a staple Freshman English read. I, however, did not. I am even in the minority among the others in my graduating class in not having read them! I’m not sure what happened, but I guess the quarter I took English my freshman year of high school, my teacher decided not to have us read either of those books. I guess now would be a good time to pick them up…
Amazing how many times I’ve thumbed through Ulysses (and even integrated it into a big research essay) without having actually read it. I even celebrate Bloomsday. :-/
I am not sure embarrassed is the right word, but I certainly felt out of place when Million Little Pieces came out. You could not ride the subway without being surrounded by copies of that book. It would not warrant mentioning, but that creepy, sprinkle covered hand was disconcerting when seen in volume. Often it seemed as though there were dozens of them, reaching out for me, mocking my ice cream cone’s bald head.