I had considered myself well-read until.....

[moongirlk]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Aberforth's Goat" 
<Aberforths_Goat at Y...> wrote:
> Catherine wrote,
> 
> > OK - I'm upping the ante with 52 (but I was am an English
> graduate
> > and did a lot of 20th Century literature), but some of this
> really is
> > stupid, as To Kill a Mockingbird is in there three times.
> 
> Stupid perhaps - but very kind in my case! 

Me too - can I count it multiple times for all the times I've read it 
too?  Then I might approach the big numbers some of you guys are 
posting.

> James isn't as bad as Kafka, either. I started The Castle three
> times, Metamorphosis once and never finished the first chapter of
> either. Perhaps I ought to try it in translation. I have a
> greater tolerance for masochism in English.

Maybe it's because I never tried to read it in anything but English, 
but I quite liked Metamorphosis.  Of course I was in angsty teenager 
mode at the time, which may have had something to do with the way I 
responded to it.  

>(And is Proust good or another of the illegible classics?)

Well, for me any time I'm forced to even think about Proust I feel 
oppressed.  Possibly a former French lit major problem, but the idea 
of someone writing great volumes of material on nothing but himself 
and things like his unhealthy attachment to his mother, well that's 
fine, but it just doesn't seem fair that I should be forced to read 
about it.  I'd rather be locked in a room with Baudelaire.  Blech!

Perhaps if it hadn't been required reading... no, I don't think that 
would do either.  Maybe if they put out a Reader's Digest condensed 
version - took all the schlock and melted it down to a couple of 
hundred pages (imagine me rubbing my hands together in maniacal glee 
right now!).  I think he's the only author I'd ever wish that on.

But don't let me discourage you - try a page or two for yourself and 
see what you think, maybe I'm just weird.

kimberly
possibly weird, but happily Proust-free for years now