"...When you see the White Whale!"
I am halfway done Moby Dick now. I love it. It is one of the strangest books I have ever read, but it is written extremely well. Herman Melville knew his stuff. You don't meet captain Ahab until about 150 pages into the book, in fact he isn't even mentioned until that point and he is one of the most important figures in the plot of the novel! The Whale itself isnt mentioned until 250 pages in, and doesn't make an appearance until much later in the book, or so I'm told. But somehow it keeps my attention with the plight of Ahab the captain and Ishmael the sailor and Queequeg the savage cannibal harpooner.
My book list is slowly being chipped away at. I wish I could take a month off and just read some of them. I have them around but don't have any time to look at them like I used to over the summer. I've begun to invest in my own personal library so to speak. I've stopped buying paperback books and instead replace them with first edition leather hardcover books. Beautiful. I want to have a huge library of books one day. Mer suggested I get one big enough so that we can put a sliding ladder on the bookcase. That would be pretty sweet. So here's where I am literature-wise.
Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky (own it, haven't read it yet)
We the Living - Rand (own it, haven't read it yet)
The Lucifer Effect - Zimbardo (Bought it but it hasn't come yet...damn you amazon!)
Catch-22 - Heller (haven't read it yet)
A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens (Bought it, haven't read it yet because I'm still on Moby Dick)
The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger (FINISHED: Loved it, it's resting peacefully next to Anthem)
Heart of Darkness - Conrad (FINISHED: Didn't like it at first but looking back I'm starting to appreciate it more)
Paradise Lost - Milton (Haven't read it yet, but am in the process of aquiring it.)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson (Haven't read it yet but again am in the process of getting it.)
Anthem - Rand (FINISHED: Loved it up until the last chapter, it's sitting on my bookshelf)
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky (Haven't started it yet, can't find it anywhere!)
Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut (FINISHED: Good stuff, turned me on to Vonnegut)
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck (Can't find this anywhere in hardcover either!)
The Virgin Suicides - Eugenides (Apparently very creepy, but haven't stumbled upon it yet)
War and Peace - Tolstoy (Huge book, almost bought it but didn't. It's intimidating. Haven't read it yet.)
Moby Dick - Melville (IN PROGRESS: I'd recommend this to anyone with free time and love of the sea.)
Beast - Benchley (FINISHED: I love Peter Benchley. Jaws and Beast are sitting next to Anthem as well on my bookshelf and I'd like to read Jaws again soon.)
The Prince - Machiavelli (Haven't read it yet)
The Jungle - Sinclair (Haven't read it yet)
Wuthering Heights - Bronte (Added this to the list, haven't found a copy yet though)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Verne (I have the book, but haven't started it yet. That damn white whale is taking up all my time. Call me Ahab.)
Who know what I'll start after I finally finish Moby Dick. I may have to take a break due to literary fatigue. The book really is a workout to read sometimes. I just got a copy of the Federalist by Hamilton and the bunch, maybe i'll take a gander at that.
This past week drug on and on and on, and this week appears to be doing the same thing to my distaste. I bought season 4 of House M.D. (size changes for emphasis) and that only occupied me for...three days? I watched the whole damn thing in three days. It was awesome, but I was left wanting more.
And now that I work on Tuesday nights I miss all the new ones. Arg! I don't work this saturday though which is nice. I'll be heading down to Temple to spend Halloween with our beloved fellow blogger Meredith. Perhaps on Saturday we will go get cheesesteaks so we can blog about them. Who knows?
BREAKFAST: Nothing.
LUNCH: Grilled Cheese and a ton of potato chips. Grilled Cheese is fantastic.
DINNER: Pork Chops and Mashed potatoes. MMMMMMMMM I love mashed potatoes.
I hope the Phillies win. My aunt and grandpop are there right now. My mom went with my grandpop yesterday and my uncle the day before that. Lucky...
10 comments:
That was too awesome! Wuthering Heights is tragic and twisted. I want to read Anthem, Vonnegut, Grapes of Wrath and the Virgin Suicdes.
Don't eat anything while reading The Jungle, because it gets grimy at bits. I tried reading The Prince once in like 8th grade and quickly lost interest in the slim volume. Ditto for 20,000 Leagues Under the sea. Which may not be so slim.
Anyways, where do you buy your first-edition hardbacks? I have Emma and A Tale of Two Cities as leatherbound books, but I got them as gifts years ago. They are really beautiful, but I haven't read them yet :D
oh and invite me when this library gets started, it sounds divine.
Wuthering Heights is a great piece of American literature, as Ian would say. Heathcliff is such a badass.
And the Phillies, that was such bullshit tonight. The cruel conditions severely nullified our rowdy crowd and turned to field into a swamp. Innings 3 through 6 were more battling the conditions than actual baseball. That's like playing on 75m or Mario Bros. to decide a Brawl championship! I'm so pissed off.
I get them from Easton Press. You can find them on Ebay, thats really the only way to get them individually, otherwise you have to pay easton press and they make and mail you one book every month for 100 months. It's their "100 Greatest books of all time" series, and I buying up alot of them.
that was the most beautiful website i've ever seen...like no joke I got chills.
i am such a nerd lol
The Easton Press website?
the BOOKS on the easton press website
The Virgin Suicides is awesome!
One of my faves.
do they make gossip girls in hardback?? i'm just into the library for the ladder, sorry.
WOOOO!!! Phillies are the World Champions!!!
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