That was the question that Sheree from Keeping Up With The Penguins asked me, and a whole bunch of other bloggers – you can find all our answers in a really interesting and entertaining (though I says it as shouldn’t) blog post.
With the caveat that, yes, of course, there are no ‘shoulds’ in reading – which book would you answer that question with? (For yourself – but you can also tell me what to read if you want to!)
Mine! Draft coming your way this week!
Am looking forward to losing myself in yours!!!
How would you answer for yourself?
Rather obviously, Ulysses. It’s not as if I haven’t had a copy on my shelves for decades….
I got rid of my copy when I moved into this flat – I had to read it at uni, but realised it would never be read again :D
Sándor Márai’s Embers. It’s a classic Hungarian novel. I read it a few weeks ago and his style reminds me of Daphne du Maurier, I think you would like it very much.
That one, or any other classic from any other “smaller” country. Not only was the book really good, but it also made me realise that I could not name any Hungarian author until now, let alone talk about their books.
Which book should I have read by now? I would answer this with at least one classic author from each country. I might actually get one of these scratchable world maps to keep track!
Lovely to hear from you, John! As luck would have it, I bought Embers in a bookshop earlier this year – so will make sure to escalate it. I have only read one Hungarian novel and I loved it – Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi
Now you’ve piqued my interest with Skylark! I’m adding it to my reading list :-) Have a lovely day, Simon!
for me (in Washington DC) it’s all the non-fiction books I’ve purchased on the racial history and attitudes of my country. Me and White Supremacy (or maybe White Fragility) are high on the top of my guilt list. But I’m sure I’ll dig my way through a few more mysteries or Trollope (getting ready to start the Palliser novels, and hoping they live up to my memories of the Barsetshire novels).
And like John, exploring my world literature, currently with the Caribbean since it’s read Caribbean month.
Great choices, Jennifer. I’m reading one of the Barsetshire novels myself – Doctor Thorne.
Hilary Mantel’s trilogy or Trollope’s Palliser series if you haven’t already read them.
How would you answer the qu for yourself? That’s what I meant to write but phrased it poorly…
I gave up a few pages into Wolf Hall, I’m afraid, but do have the Palliser series and will definitely read at some point, once I’ve finished Chronicles of Barsetshire
I have “a few” lists of classics or favourite reads (BBC, for example) that I took as an example. Also a book by every Nobel Prize winner, something like that.
I think many of us, who like to answer this question have read way more books than anyone really “should” have read.
Have you read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell yet? I think you’d like it.
No, but I have four or five of her other books unread on my shelves and should probably get to those first :D
How would you answer the qu for yourself?
Indeed there is no book that “should” be read except perhaps the Feynman Lectures on Physics :-)
Here are I few I would have liked (hoped?) to have read by now:
War and Peace
In Search of Lost Time (I have read Swann’s Way)
The Koran
Kindred (Butler)
The Brothers Karamazov
Wuthering Heights
Song of Solomon (Morrison)
I really want to get to one of my anti-racism books soon. I should be reading a sci fi (argh) by Paul Magrs (hooray) and need to by the end of the month! Long term, the rest of the Barsetshire novels and all the Mrs Oliphant series!
Thank you so much for taking part, Simon. – and loving reading all your readers’ responses here in the comments as well!
The Book of Dust, volumes 1 and 2, by Phillip Pullman. I love His Dark Materials, and I own these more recent ones, but there they sit, gathering … well … dust.