Paris Review editor Lorin Stein recently fessed up about the famous books he’s never read.
OK, I’ll fess up too…
Books I’ve never read:
- War and Peace
- Paradise Lost
- Robinson Crusoe
- Winesburg, Ohio
- Catch-22
- Tristram Shandy
Books I’ve started but never finished:
- Moby-Dick
- Anna Karenina
- Blood Meridian
- Gravity’s Rainbow
Anyone else care to confess?
Yes, I’ve also started Anna Karenina, but could never finish it. I think I still have a bookmark stuck on page 600…
And then there’s the dilemma… If you start a book, then stop, then come back to it later, do you start over from the beginning or pick up where you left off…
Can’t believe I have the MA in lit. but never read Wuthering Heights–until last week. Also started Gravity’s Rainbow and stopped after I threw up (figuratively). I’m sure it’s very good….
I did read Wuthering Heights for a novel seminar in grad school. Never read Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, though.
And I just thought of another major gap in my reading: Philip Roth. I started American Pastoral a few years ago, but that’s it.