It's been on my mind lately and I'm finally addressing it: What qualifies a book to become a "classic"?
One would think that by typing in "list of classic books" in Google, a universal list of all the books considered to be classics would pop up and I could see a common thread that tied them all together. Not so.
I love to read. I read everything. But for some reason, I have an aversion to the books we were forced to read in High School English. I don't know if it's because I could never find the hidden meanings or the symbolism or the moral of the story. I just read them for what they were. Books written in a different era than the one I'm presently in. I'm sure it didn't help that they were crammed down our throats every day for months on end. For a long time I just couldn't see the allure to the "classics".
The other thing I had a problem with was who defined them as "classics". Another seemingly easy search phrase "qualifications for classic books" yielded no concrete answer. It seems that any book that has withheld the test of time is considered a classic.
So it was with trepidation that I put Number 55 on the list--read the classics. For starters, I was going to have to find a list of classics and since there is no universal one, where do I start? The other day I'm at Barnes and Noble and notice that they have an entire bookshelf dedicated to the classics as well as a website listing what "they" (a whole can of beans I'm not opening quite yet) consider the classics. It's a good as any other place to start. The list comprises of 199 books. I've heard of a lot of them, but there's a surprising number I've never heard of. My goal is to read at least one "classic" a month. Not only read it but study why it's considered a classic. At this rate, it will take me nearly 17 years to read them all.
What's really the motivating factor behind this? In 20 years, when I live in the house that I custom designed (number 25), I'd like to have entire bookshelves filled with the classics so when people come over they'll turn to their companion after the door shuts behind them: "Wow! She's really smart. Did you see all those books?"
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2 comments:
Hehe, I sent you a link to Goodreads thinking that would be a good way to keep track of your books, and I just barely noticed that you are already a member. Oh well. At least we can share our reading lists now.
I downloaded a list of 100 "classics" a few years ago and started at #1. I read through the first five or so and then lost the list. I'll have to find that and start over someday. Some of them were hard to get through, but rewarding in the end.
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