Valentine's? Bah! Humbug!

It's just a regular Saturday here for me. I really wanted to settle on a longterm reading material (i.e. book!) before school starts, so that I can squish in some reading time whenever I get the chance. So far I have been meandering; everytime I get a chance and a will to read a book, I find myself spending too much time trying to decide what to read without ever deciding! Should I go back and re-read the dreaded One Hundred Years of Solitude? Should I finish Dante's Inferno? So I concocted a list. It was drawn up by various searches for an English Major's reading list: something every English Major should read. More than several Universities have a reading list for those pursuing a major in English, and I drew up a survey of those. I also found a library's website (whose address is now obscured into the bleak hypothalamus where my memory is stored) where they had a suggested reading list for H.S. students moving on to College. I selected a few from the list, and although I am quite sure that there are plenty more qualified reads out there (which I will add as I go along) and here it is.

But besides getting a list together, there was a more eminent question to be answered: Which of these would I tackle first?

I did some more searching, and found that since most of these authors are long dead, much of their works are available on-line. One of the first that came into vision was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I remember trying to read this once then getting bored -- or perhaps I was bored by the movie, but I had the impression that most of Austen's novels contained silly romantic stories about whimsical gals playing the game of love with wealthy, well-bred, well-mannered gentlemen, and eventually scoring marriage. Tone of these novels would be frivolous and light, and that didn't (still doesn't) appeal to me. I often like grim and dark tales like Les Miserables, but Austen is English, and her work frequently topped these lists, so I gave it a try. It's a easy breezy read. Not too heavily immersed in a historical era, although I haven't read too much yet. I am on chapter 5 or something, but each chapters are very brief.

So that is what I did today -- I started on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice -- I daresay that her work would be as appealing as the other English women writers -- namely the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, whose work I admire, mostly for the drama. You have to have some sort of story, then a conflict, and a climax, and a resolution. Some intensity! I don't know, but I am willing to give Jane a try. When I think of Jane Austen, Gwyneth (sp?) Paltrow (the actress) frolicking around in a babydoll dress comes to mind. I don't like Ms. Paltrow -- she seems inhuman. Not inhumane, but just un-human-like. No feelings. No emotions. Eh. I'm drifting away from the focus again...

So that's what I'm reading now.