Oh my. Look how pretentious I look reading Hemingway. The funny thing is, I really do like that book. Its one of my favorites, and I've read it 6 times.
ANYWAYS, when I thought of what the letter "B" would represent in my list about me, it was obvious that it would have to be books. If you walk into our place, the first thing you see are bookshelves full of books. When the guys that were moving our piano came in, he said "whoa, you guys really like books, huh?"
And we do. For the first 8 years living together, we didn't have cable TV, and so we got used to reading instead of watching TV. Which is great. Its a habit now if we are bored to pick up a book instead of turn on the tube. But I definitely read more than D does. I will read anything. And I know people say that, but seriously, I will. One night because it was in the house and I was interested, I read an entire text book on the Nuremburg War Crimes trials after WWII. I don't know why, I just did. I think I like being a know-it-all. That's why I read all sorts of things. I like to be able to annoy my friends with little-known trivia. I am a hit at parties. Well, not really, but still...
I also read for fun. I love a good novel. For a while, I was into the classics. I figured they had to be classics for a reason, right? Some I loved, like Les Miserables, David Copperfield, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Grapes of Wrath; but some I didn't like Wuthering Heights; Great Expectations or anything by Jane Austen. I've slowed down with the classics, and read a lot of Sci Fi now. Its cool, and you've heard me drone on and on about it, so I won't repeat how much I love it again. But I do. Love it that is.
I'm usually a really social person, but reading is one of those things that I do solo. I have never been in a book club-- I don't think I would enjoy it. I tried to have a stress-free book club on my blog here, but I always have a problem sticking to things I start... So, that was short lived. I think I like talking about books, but I don't necessarily want structure to that conversation because then it feels like English class. And I kind of hoped my essay days were over. I don't like writing essays.
What I do like is writing book reviews. But if you are anything like me, you hate reading book reviews; which is an interesting conundrum. I want to tell you what I think about a book, but I don't want you to care about what I think. I guess I just want to argue about books. Or not. Its hard to tell with me sometimes.
What is also hard is coming up with my top ten books of all time. Entirely difficult actually. So here is my third list (in no particular order). I tried my best to come up with one line summaries- not reviews.
- Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell- A dystopian "love" story. (Read it and you'll know why I put love in quotation marks.)
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald- You can't always get what you want.
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo- Vive la revolution!
- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway- Viva la revolucion! (See what I did there?)
- Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut- You never could see the cat, or the cradle, could you?
- Dawn by Octavia Butler- Alien babies of our own.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley- You want to wear grey in this world. Trust me.
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood- Never trust anyone who calls themselves "Maddadam."
- Where and When I Enter by Paula Giddings- Its a feminist text book. I love it though.
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck- Even though Tom Joad has a ballad, Ma Joad was the hero.
What are the top 3 books you would recommend to someone to read? For what reasons?
Read the rest of the ABCs of Stephanie:
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