For the past several years I have read an awful lot of non-fiction - books about chess, science, astronomy, mathematics… you name it. I’ve continually told people that I need to get back to reading some “proper” books, and have just done something about it.
We’re going to spend a week in Dorset in a couple of weeks time - having a quiet break away from everything and everybody. We’ve done it before; taken books and a small radio and not much else. With Dorset being the home of Thomas Hardy, I thought it was an ideal chance to start reading great books once more.
I’ve just ordered the following books from Amazon to take away with me (and yes, before you say anything - some of them are not by Hardy, and some of them are going to take far longer than a week to read)…
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tess of the D’Ubervillles, by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Under the Greenwood Tree, by Thomas Hardy
Wessex Tales, by Thomas Hardy
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
I’ve not read any Hardy, Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy before so it’s going to be a voyage of discovery for me. I’ve just had a quick look at Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd” which we already have here at home, and it looks like the style is easy to read.
A few years ago I read a number of the “classics” just to find out what they are like. It winds me up that so many people talk about the various classic books without having actually read them. I should really have kept a list though; my memory is so terrible I’ve forgotten half the books I’ve read.
I do know that I read a lot of the so-called scandalous books; things like “Lolita”, “Tropic of Cancer”, and “Tropic of Capricorn” - and came away somewhat amused that standards (or should I say limits?) have changed so much in such a short time. What seemed horrendous when they were published is now very tame indeed.
Perhaps the biggest surprise - if you can call it that - was Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov. I actually enjoyed it, and found that it wasn’t seedy at all. Before you think “oh my god - Jonathan’s a pervert”, you really need to read it. The main drive of the story in Lolita is about a really rather wicked girl who knows exactly what she’s doing, and the adult facing his own shame that he might react to her advances. Like I said - it’s a book you need to go and read yourself.
Anyway - I guess later this week I’ll have one of those exciting mornings when the postman delivers a box from Amazon!