Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Reading Important Books

I've been on a quest of sorts with regards to reading.  No, not the one where I read x-number of books in a year.  I read as many as I can as a matter of maintaining my sanity.  This is the one where I'm trying to go back and read old books that I haven't read before.  Some of them are 'important' books for one reason or another.  Some are just on my shelves and I'd like to read them to see if they belong there or can be sold to the local used bookstore. 

I've done this for a few years now.  I pick books I feel like I probably should've read somewhere along the way, but didn't.  Some of them are classics in the broad sense of the word like Les Miserables or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Others are classics in their genre, like Stranger in a Strange Land or Casino Royale, or the first of the cat mysteries by Lillian Jackson Braun.  (Right now, I'm reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.) Still others are books that were made into films and I want to see if the book is as good as the movie - First Wives Club comes to mind and The Poseidon Adventure.  

I'm also reading lesser known works by major authors.  (And 'major author' is subjective, of course.)  The Labours of Hercules by Christie.  The Day of the Guns by Spillane.  Kill as Directed by Ellery Queen.

All of them are important, if you look at it from the right perspective.  I mean, reading widely expands the mind, enriches the life, etc.  Yada yada. I'd probably read everything if I had the time. I think it also helps my writing.  Knowing what was written before, how certain writers did certain things.  What to do.  What not to do. 

Or maybe that's just me.

What do you think?  Do you read widely?  Are you interested in reading older books - even if it's just to see what you might've missed? 

10 comments:

  1. I'm poorly read when it comes to the classics. I have a difficult time making myself read a book just because I think I should. It has to grab me, and pull me in. I've never read Les Miserables. I've wanted to; I've tried; but I just can't get through it. I've read Toilers of the Sea, Ninety-Three, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Man Who Laughs, but I cannot get through Les Miserables. :(

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    1. Oh, if it doesn't grab me, I don't finish reading it. Maybe someday I'll do a list of those. Hubs gave me some sage advice about reading Hugo when I was having difficulty with Ninety-Three. He said feel free to flip past the historical description parts. It really helped me get through the dragging parts of Les Miserables. =o)

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  2. I do read widely. About the only thing I won't read is what I call hard horror. I don't need any help getting nightmares. I can do that all by myself.

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    1. I totally get that, Maria. I'm not big on horror myself. Although, for me, some stuff they call horror, isn't scary.

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  3. When I was in junior high and high school, I had summer reading projects. One summer it was Dumas (loved the Musketeers!). One year it was horror (Shelley, Hugo, Stoker, etc.) One summer it was American classics (Last of the Mohicans, Twain, etc.) One summer I read "War and Peace." OMG! Ugh! But I read that puppy cover to cover. Took me all freakin' summer and I read like 30 books in between. All pulp. LOL The last summer I did this, it was basically a reread of classic SciFi. I'd always read SciFi, westerns (Louis L'Mour, Zane Grey due to my dad's influence), and some of the classics like Mary Stewart, Christie, etc.)

    Now? At my age, I figure I don't "have" to read anything. I read what I want. Steamy romance? Hell yeah. SciFi? I'm on it. Comedy, suspense, thrillers, paranormals, whatever catches my eye. With the advent of digital books and cloud storage, my library is wide open. My physical library is full. Literally. Despite the massive shelves and a room devoted strictly to print copies. We have books tucked all over the house. There are days I'd like to cull but the DH? Nope. Not happening in his lifetime. So...I read, reread, and love my Fire. And still collect a few print books along the way.

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    1. We never had summer reading projects where I went to school. Jealous. Although, I'm not sure I could've done War and Peace even back then.

      Yeah, I don't *have to* read anything. Most of these are books I've been meaning to read all along. Or things I think I might've missed in my early reading years. Like I've never read Little Women. I read what I want, too. I love that I can get huge old books on my Kindle. They're so much easier to read when I don't have to wrestle with a physical copy.

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  4. I read some books in college that I wouldn't have read otherwise. Like "The Scarlet Letter" or "Walden's Pond." Yeah, I enjoyed them, but I wouldn't have read them on my own.

    By the way, I've read "The Poseidon Adventure." In that case, I liked the movie better. But then I was only a teenager when I read it (and I had already seen the movie). I've also read "Stranger in a Strange Land." Roughly 1.9 times. The first time I quit when it got weird. Decades later I read it again and forced myself to finish. I kind of wish I hadn't. It's a strange book.

    I read "From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne ONLY because I referenced that book in one I wrote and it sounded interesting (and I thought I should probably read it since my character had). I'm not going to do that again. Wasn't anything like I expected.

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    1. LOL, yeah, I read a few books because school made me. The Scarlet Letter, The Lord of the Flies, Catch-22. Bleh. Stranger in a Strange Land is totally weird. And I liked The Poseidon Adventure movie better than the book, too.

      I haven't read that one by Verne. I'd totally read it if I was referencing it, though. Can't have our characters being more well-read than we are. =o)

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  5. I've had a couple of stints over the years where I read the classics. Austen, Dickens, Lawrence, Dumas, Thackery and a huge variety of others. I felt I should be more educated and did what I could. Now, at 55, like Silver, I read what I want and I re-read loads. Out of this year's 323 books read, 147 are re-reads. I love re-acquainting myself with well loved stories and I'm jumping around contemporary romance, paranormals, mysteries, thrillers and e, print & audio books. I just love to read.

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    1. I can't get through a book by Austen. I've tried. She's just not my cuppa. I love that you read so much and so widely, Fran. People like you are the reason people like me put out books. =o)

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