I'm going to go ahead and tempt fate by saying, it's not the length I'm worried about, but the complexity and the effort to balance this book with the other stuff I'm reading. Long books and I, we have a history. You don't become the kind of pretentious person who lists ANNA KARENINA as a favorite book overnight, oh no! (WAR AND PEACE isn't even close, just sayin'.)
A short list of long books I also haven't read:
DON QUIXOTE. I carried a sunny yellow paperback two-volume set back from Spain, only to have it sit on my shelf through 4 moves unopened. I read an abridged English version for a school project, but that doesn't count.
ATLAS SHRUGGED. I didn't skip it deliberately because of the hordes of people who love and hate this book, but that certainly didn't help. I liked THE FOUNTAINHEAD all right. I imagine once I get around to it I will suggest it for the most commented on ever Better Late Than Never entry (title currently held by WATCHMEN).
REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST. I imagine if I were in some kind of work situation where I was going to be posted somewhere remote, Afghanistan or Antarctica or Archangel, I would take these with me and Discover Many Things About Myself. (Then, I would naturally write a memoir about how Marcel and I became best friends forever. Possible title: MY YEAR IN SWANN'S WAY.)
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME. This one's on the Modern Library list, so I will have to get there someday, although I have read the first volume, A QUESTION OF UPBRINGING. (Do I think it's cheating to list a 12-volume cycle of novels as one entry on that list? Yes, yes I do.)
FINNEGANS WAKE. And if I want to finish the Modern Library list, I have to tackle this bad boy -- I imagine with much scholarly assistance.
1 comment:
I really enjoyed Swann's Way, but haven't read any of the other novels of A Remembrance of Things Past. For some reason, Swann's Way is regarded as its own novel to a greater extent than any of the twelve novels of A Dance To the Music of Time; I can't think of the title of any of those books. Jake Taylor read A Dance to the Music of Time in high school and didn't seem to care for it very much. Can you really like ANYTHING that's that long?
The two long novels that have been on my must-read list for years are Moby Dick and Bleak House (which old-school lawyers will tell you is one of the novels every attorney should read.)
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