I was never much for staying still and learning in school. I preferred to do my own learning, and I feel I’m smarter for it. Seriously – who is better read? The person forced at the point of a failing grade to read Anna Karenina, or the one who decides that her cross-country train trip would be the perfect time to read Anna Karenina?
High school English class frustrated me because by 9th grade they were assigning The Chrysalids, which I had read in 5th grade. And in 10th grade, when we were presented with Steinbeck’s The Pearl, I read it in a night and then had to wait for all the other n00bs to catch up. Yawn.
I read way better books after leaving school with my GED than I ever would have read in class. And I got more out of them because I read them for fun. The Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, a whack of Dickens, The Annotated Alice (Through the Looking Glass), Lolita (regular and annotated, it is my favorite book of all time), Gone With the Wind (who knew Scarlett had two other kids???), Crime and Punishment, Victor Hugo (one of my favorite quotes is from Hunchback*), Ernest Hemingway (God bless the mad bastard)… suffice it to say I am a lady of letters.
I am the boring auntie who buys her nieces and nephews books for Christmas when they are six or eight years old. And not just like *a* book, either, but a collection of them. One of my faves was to buy the leather-bound Dickens collection for the boys, and the Narnia collector’s editions for the girls. Heck, I even gave in to peer pressure and popularity one year and bought the Harry Potter books for my eldest nephew, who suddenly became a bookworm because of it. Ah, talk about pride in my accomplishments!
Well, the kids are older now, and I have them all hooked on books. So I was thinking something a little meatier this year, like the collected works of Ernest Hemingway for the eldest. Maybe one of those one-book-a-month type deals. You know, a year’s worth of gifts, starting at Christmas? I’d love to know that by the end of the year next year, he could be curled up reading A Movable Feast. Thoughts?
*God’s lightning does not strike the lettuce plant.
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My daughter would love to adopt you as an aunt with gifts like that. I may need to consider the book-a-month deal for my kids.
Have you read Steinbeck’s “East of Eden”? One of my all-time favorites.
I tried to get all three of my kids to read Narnia (I LOVED them when I was a kid). I guess if Mom thinks it’s cool, that’s a turn-off. Although Nick read the first 4 Harry Potter books in 4th or 5th grade. And still likes to read just for pleasure. And Lindsay is finally starting to like to read. Baylee….not so much.
I do this with my cousins too. One is an ardent bookworm, and the other reads quite a bit by any standard, though still prefers to get gadgets and toys for birthdays and holidays (which he does from many other relatives).
I’m quite excited that one of these cousins (the bookworm) has now reached the age of 14, and is reading contemporary fiction. It’s interesting to hear her thoughts on books like The Life of Pi.
Quite a few friends keep lists of things they’ve read each year, but I usually forget when I’ve read a particular book (though I can often remember where). I’ve started keeping a list now, too. Might be fun to try it.
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