Thursday, April 15, 2010

Coming Clean

You, dear blog reader, are just about to read one of my deepest, darkest, most disturbing secrets:



I have never read Wuthering Heights.



I've spent many years evading convos about its gothic charm, nodding when my friends discussed Heathcliff's obsession--I'm not proud of my prevarication. What's worse is I even specialized in the 19th Century British novel in grad school. Uh-huh.

I've happily dug into books by Eliot, Austen, Collins, Dickens, and even Charlotte Bronte. Why one sister and not the other? I don't know. It's one of those books, the ones you pick up at the bookstore, walk around with it for a while and then say, Ah, I don't think so before you make it to the register. I have a list of these books.

If you're brave enough, post one one title from your "never read" list in the comments box. Come on--it feels good to get it out in the open.

13 comments:

  1. I've never read Wuthering Heights either. I've just never been that interested. Plus, two of my friends who have read it kind of hate it. One of them finds all of the characters insufferable. So there's very little motivation for me to read it...

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  2. GASP! Wuthering Heights one of my favorite books. In fact, it's been awhile since I've read it, so this post has inspired me to pick it up again. (thank you!)

    There are a lot of classics I haven't read, but I'll tell you the ones I read and didn't particularly enjoy, instead. That seems more scandalous in a way.

    The Great Gatspy. A Tale of Two Cities. Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath.

    Of course, I read these as required reading in high school, so I'm a little curious as to what my impression of them would be nearly 20 years later. Hmmm . . .

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  3. When I read Wuthering Heights in college I found it deeply frightening. Recently instead of re-reading it I switched to Jane Eyre instead. So much saner.
    Book I've never read: Crime and Punishment. I skimmed the first hundred pages in Senior English and faked the rest. Never had the urge to go back to it, either.

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  4. I've read them all. Every single one. I've even read the classics that haven't been written yet. I have book esp. ;)

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  5. I haven't read Wuthering Heights in many years, and I might be put off by it now, but it will stand the test of time because it is such a bizarre love story. Heathcliff must be the original Bad Boy who fascinates the girl despite his horrid behavior. And then there's Kate Bush's rendition, which plays with the eerie, craziness. Yeah, that's a story for the ages.
    As for what I haven't read....the list is embarrasingly long, even though I went through a period of reading Bronte, Hardy, Dickens, Shakespeare,etc.

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  6. I haven't read Twilight, and..and....

    *cowers* Lord of the Flies.

    The cat's outta the bag now.

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  7. Um, I might get in called out for admitting this, but I haven't read Catcher in the Rye. :-o

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  8. Wow, prevarication in a blog post? I think someone's overcompensating...

    And this is totally humiliating, but I never finished The Harry Potter series. I think I got through the first four books and really liked them, but I just sort of lost interest.

    And I've never read any Dickens. And I started Lord of the Rings, but I needed some kind of decoder to read it. Why doesn't anyone ever talk about the fact that it's in a MADE UP LANGUAGE.

    Don't hate me.

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  9. That makes me feel a little better, Krispy!

    And that makes me feel worse, Melissa! It'sone of your favorites? OK, I am going to read it this summer! Promise!

    I read Crime and Punishment, Laura, but I don't remember any of it. Undergrad years. Uh-huh.

    Suzy, with you, I believe it!

    Just reading the word "bad boy" makes me feel I need to just pick up a copy of WH, Tricia!

    Amy, someone is going to put you in the Smithsonian as the only woman under 25 who hasn't read Twilight. Wow. I kind of admire that, but then I kind of want to send you the series ASAP.

    Shelby! We just read Catcher in my book club. Most of the women hadn't read it!

    LiLa-I won't do Lord of the Rings either. No way.

    But we'll just pretend you didn't type that about my Harry...

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  10. Oh, dude. I've never read ANYTHING written by Jane Austen or a Bronte. Nothing. I'm not what you would call a classics kind of gal.

    So I haven't read any. I was supposed to read Huck Finn and Tale of Two Cities for a club I was in in high school. Yeah, I didn't. Oops!

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  11. I've never read anything by Dickens. And I never finished Wuthering Heights. I enjoyed it, but stopped reading it to read something I'd been dying to read (a newly released book, I think). When I went back to WH, I got lost. I couldn't remember who all the characters where.

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  12. Wuthering Heights is an old favorite of mine.
    I've read nearly all the classics...and I loved LOTR.
    I did read the Twilight series, because at the time they came out, my daughter wanted to read them, and she was 10. I wanted to make sure they were (age) appropriate. They were, and she has since read them all, many times, and has long moved on from them. (she is now 14 and reads anything she can get her hands on).

    But here is my guilty confession: While my daughter and even husband have read them all, I have still not read one single Harry Potter book. There are always so many books in my TBR stack with a much higher priority. And, I've seen all the movies (with the husband and child), so doesn't that count?

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  13. I have never, ever read...Pride & Prejudice. Seriously. I've read Emma though (loved it!) and even Sense & Sensibility (liked it ok), but never P&P. And it's at the point where I've seen so many P&P movies, retellings, spin offs, etc, that I even freaking KNOW the story. Like pretty damn well.

    I recently admitted this to Dee, when we were visiting the Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Museum. She stared at me in shock. Ah well. One day.

    I've also never gotten through The Great Gatsby, but I'm not ashamed to say that. That makes me snore every time (and it's so many people's fave! What am I not seeing??)

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