Your favorite books of all time. . . and a request for advice.

[Aprilshowers]

I used to love the classics. And I appreciate that season of my life that I devoted to reading them. I think every person needs that foundation of - what my 10th grade English teacher would call - "good, worthwhile" literature. If it wasn't penned by "one of the greats," she considered the effort of reading it a complete waste of time. She was, of course, a literary snob. Her instructions for "getting into" reading the classics was to look for techniques such as parallel plots and symbolism. Evidently these were great suggestions because she loved my papers on Dickens A Tale of Two Cities and Camus' The Plague.

Today I am much more focused on nonfiction works that teach me something new or make me think. Tim Chaffey's new book just arrived for me from Amazon: Fallen, The Sons of God and the Nephilim. My favorite book (don't laugh) is a children's book by Margery Williams called The Velveteen Rabbit - and it must be one with glorious illustrations.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

Don't force yourself into reading anything.
When I was a teen, my dad had Nietzsche in the bookcase, and I happened to be a major nerd with nothing else to do, so I read it. But in more recent years, I tried to read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and for the life of me I can't get further than page 2.

That's fine, you know. Your heart wants to read, what it wants to read. Ask yourself why you want to get into the classics, and whether this is aligned with your heart, or you're doing it to please someone else.

Mans' Search for Meaning is easy to get into.

 

[whiteraven]

Lol I’m pretty sure it’s your reading challenge that I stole.

I finally figured that out. LOL