As you may recall (lord knows I do), I spent last November attempting to plow through Moby Dick. It was supposed to be a clever spin on National Novel Writing Month, the idea being that it would be easier to read a book in 30 days than write one. Rarely have my prognostic powers proven to be more incorrect. Knocking out my 750,000-word fantasy novel about obese wizards would have been a cinch compared to getting through The Dick.
Or so I am forced to assume, as I didn’t actually complete the book. Fortunately, I think my daily progress reports reduced my readership to approximately one (hi Mom!), so no one noticed when I scotched the project.
As with most fiascoes, I blame my failure largely on you. I had hoped that people would join in the endeavor, reading the book along with me and adding their own insights to my daily posts. Let’s ignore, for the moment, the fact that I didn’t get around to announcing my intention to spend November reading Moby Dick until 11:45 PM on Halloween, leaving you no time to secure a copy of the novel. In fact, let’s just ignore that fact forever, shall we?
Anyway, I’m you’re not going to make the same mistake again. This year I am announcing the reading material well in advance, so we can all do this together. (** Spoiler**: it won’t be the second half of Moby Dick.)
In fact, I’ll even give you a vote as to what we read. Here are the 10 novels I am considering. For each, indicate if you want to read it for NaNoReMo, would read it for NaNoReMo, or absolutely won’t read it for NaNoReMo. (If you will not read any of these books, or just don’t care to participate in NaNoReMo, just click here to see the results so far.)
I limited the choices to “American Novels,” for no compelling reason (I figure the Bush administration pretty much naturalized 1984). I also tried to pick books that were a tad more accessible than Moby Dick (not hard, given that Fort Knox is more accessible than Moby Dick). Specifically, I tried to pick books that were less than 500 pages, and, if not necessarily “easy-to-read,” at least not “grueling-to-read.” And, before you ask: To Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby were omitted because I’ve read both in the last five years.
Now let me tell you my preferences, in an effort to influence your decision (he says, as if he’s not just going to throw out all the votes at the last moment and decide that we’re all going to read back-issues of Heavy Metal …)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: My top pick my a healthy margin. I figure most folks of my generation haven’t read it in 20 years, and most folks of subsequent generations were prevented by The Naughty Word Police from reading it at all.
The Adventures Of Augie March: Clearly I am in the mood for adventure. I don’t know the first thing about this book, but, in doing my research for NaNoReMo 2007, I found it at the top of nearly every list of “Great American Novels.” Intriguing. Violates the < 500 pages rule, though. Catcher In The Rye: Read it in college, didn’t think it lived up to the hype. Of course, as a dedicated counter-counter-culturalist, I would have come to that conclusion regardless of the quality of the book (see also: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). Would like to read it again as an adult (i.e., free of the obligation to come to a different opinion that everyone else for the sake of faux individualism).
Those are my front-runners, though I’d be happy to read any of these. Let me know your thoughts. We’ll keep the poll open until the 8th–that will give those who want to play along at home plenty of time to get the selected book from the bookstore or library.
I’ve re-read Huck Finn (well, actually, listened to) twice in the last seven years.
Listened: my daughter has dyslexia (although well-remediated) — the rule of thumb is, dialect in print = listen to it.
I was moved, both times, by the language and by Clemens’ willingness to look closely and critically at the mores of his times.
Man, and I just read half those books this summer (the half worth reading, that is) in an effort to make up for all those AP classes in high school- which had us reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henrik Ibsen instead of the Great American Novels.
That being said, I vote for the metal magazines.
How about “Goodnight, Moon” ?
Geez, if you think Bush as naturalized 1984 then you should really give it a re-read. I mean sure, American money watches you, just like in the book, but it only wants to sell you something.
You could read one of the books it knocks off, like Zamyatin’s “We.” It’s a fast read.
Besides, Orwell was one of them socialist libertarians– no way he’d get into the US these days.
Ok, so you’ve already picked your book. I know. I’m slow. But for future consideration: American Gods. So Gaiman isn’t American… but the book is all about America and it’s fantastic.