Sunday, March 18, 2012

I wanna be more better reading!




I am not a stupid person. I'm fairly logical, I can do all the math that is required of me in my life (it's not a huge amount, but knitting keeps me on my toes...), I ask questions about almost everything, I can usually tell you which one of those things is not like the other, I see through internet scams and I have a college education.

I am, however, very poorly read. I'm not quite sure if this is a result of the Nation's public school system or if I was just supposed to read all the classics on my own at some point. If the latter is true, then I'm in luck because that is exactly what I am planning on doing. A large part of this whole conundrum is that I've never really liked reading. It's not that I don't like it, I just am not that crazy about it. When I finish a book, there's no tangible product. I can't hold something up and say, "Look what I've been working on. Now it's done!" I can't take a bow  and process feedback from my reading performance. I'm also not a particularly good reader. I'm fairly slow, though my SATs and ACTs insisted that my comprehension level is high. That was also a little longer ago than I care to admit and I've recently begun to notice that if you don't do something for a while, you start losing your knack for things.

If I looked this good reading books, I would do it more often. I get pug face when I read though.
I do think reading is very important though. I couldn't tell anyone exactly why I feel that way. I don't dole out respect for people based on their reading list. There are certainly, however, certain books that most everyone has assumed that you've read.

Below is a list of books. Pretty popular books that most everyone I know has read. Books that I plan to choose twelve of and read one a month for the next year. I'm setting the bar low so I will have little excuse not to clear it. I'll advise you to brace yourselves, some of these titles are must-reads on most everyone's list. Just to add to the shock, know that none of them were required reading for me in school. I never didn't read a book that school required.

The Catcher in the Rye
1984
Pride and Prejudice
Moby Dick
A Separate Peace
Slaughterhouse Five
Atlas Shrugged (Confession- my aunt gave this to me when I graduated high school and I didn't ever touch it)
Lord of the Flies
Ulysses (this probably won't make the final reading list, I hear it's a tough read)
The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Grapes of Wrath
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Sun Also Rises
Tropic of Cancer
On the Road
Sophie's Choice
The Bell Jar
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Lolita
The Screwtape Letters
War and Peace (not happening this year, but well-read folks tell me I should read it.)
Madame Bovary
The Bible

That last one, maybe you've heard of it. Obviously I'm not reading this one in one month, but my fundamentalist Christian Uncle has a good point, this book has started more shit and been responsible for more deaths than any other in the world (my words, not his). Probably worth a read. I might try to talk this kid into doing a weird agnostic bible study with me at some point. Plus, the amount of crossword clues I miss because I haven't read it is embarrassing. Granted, it's been pointed out to me that there are very few people in this world (or at the very least, this country) who have actually read the entire book. Why shouldn't I be one of them?

My greatest fear about reading more? I can't knit and read at the same time. Epic fail reading. Epic. Fail.

Also, I may just want an excuse to shop here. It's pretty sweet, but I don't feel like I should wear them if I haven't read them.