I Book Good
There are certain books that I could read over and over and over again. In fact when I say a book is my "favorite" it usually falls in this category.
Now, I have two things to say that you may think should contradict each other.
I was an English major in college.
I LOVE Oprah's Book Club.
When I was in college, my English classes were rife with literary snobs. If you weren't reading Junot Diaz and Dave Eggers than you had no clue about life. God forbid you even mentioned even watching Oprah!! And then there was me, hunkered down on the lawn in between classes reading a book with an"Oprah's Book Club" sticker proudly emblazoned on it and I tell you, I was proud. Every book that she has recommended that I have read has become one of those dogeared books that sits on my bookshelf and is re-read a few times a year. These include I Know This Much is True, The Poisonwood Bible and East of Eden. I don't think I will ever get sick of reading them and though others scoff at the idea of reading the same thing over and over....if you love something enough you really never get sick of it, right?
I tried to start my own Book Club a few years ago (which Andy promptly (and rightly) re-named Sarah's Book Dictatorship) but I just don't have the knack for picking books that Ms. Winfrey does. (Word for the wise: Albert Camus + boxed wine = not the best mix!).
I bring all this up because I actually "re-found' I Know This Much is True over the weekend in a bag of stuff I had picked up from my parents' house. Not having re read it in about 3 years I dove in on Sunday and barely looked up from it all day. Even thought I had read it at least a dozen times before, I could not put it down.
I finished it last night and sighed the sigh that I always sigh at the end of a good book.
It felt like the first time.
UPDATE: for interested parties who have already read East of Eden, may I direct your attention to an IM synopsis of that novel starring myself and my friend Danielle, from 2003.
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20 comments:
I have yet to read I Know this Much is True but Wally Lamb's other book, She's Come Undone is a book I probably read once a year. I will have to pick up I Know this Much Is True.
My girls and I started a book club which is now known as drunk club. We actually have our monthly meeting at a local Martini bar and they do a nice little spread for us. We've read some great books but there have been some losers amongst them too. No one can pick a book like O.
That is absolutely one of my favorite books as well. I'm glad to hear you're not one of *those* English majors - I had quite a problem with some of them in my classes down in SD. Apparently, if you do not liveandbreathe the literature we were supposed to read, you were just not cool.
Anyway, fabulous book, and I'd like to hear some of your other faves - I'm always looking for new suggestions...
I just finished The Orchid Thief, which I really enjoyed...though I can't say why. It's really more of a history of the flowers and Indian land than a story, but absolutely compelling.
Meg
Gone With the Wind. I read that thing every summer for at least 6 or 8 years. Read it so much I wore out my paperback copy and had to replace it.
I once read a book that was required for a class which made all the literary snobs feel all smug and pleased with themselves. Not long after I saw it on the shelf at a book store with the Oprah book club sticker on it. She had picked it. And they had already read it and liked it and there was nothing they could do. Ha! (I forget which book it was, though.)
A, i have a ton of fave books.I love anything by Barbara Kingsolver especially Animal Dreams or The Bean Trees. The Outsider by Richard Wright, The Unvanquished by William Faulkner, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Wuthering Heights is another one I can read over and over. I read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini last summer and that was stunning. And of course if you have never read Valley of the Dolls by Jacqualine Susann; you HAVE to! I probably have a bunch more that I can't immediately bring to mind but this is a good start :-P
oh and Amanda - i have never read GWTW BUT it is my absolute favorite movie of all time. I am sure my reading would be colroed by picturing Scarlett as Vivien Leigh and Rhett as Clark Butler....but I still plan on tacking it someday!!
You MUST read GWTW - that's one that sits on my shelf and is a favorite "go to" book when I have time to read...
I just wish I could find time to read nowadays...
Thanks Sarah! Valley of the Dolls is actually the ONLY one I've read, out of all of your suggestions. Maybe now I can get out of my book rut!
:)
I have not read I Know This Much is True, but I loved The Poisonwood Bible. I've been on an Anne Tyler thing lately, I just re-read Saint Maybe and I'm about to start Digging to America.
Oprah ruined her book club choices for me when she chose House of Sand and Fog - I found it horrible!
I saw the movie and vacillated between being incredibly bored and wanting to pop open a vein. If the book was anything like that then I know how you feel!
You HAVE to read the new book by the author of the kite runner...I think A thousand splendid suns (or something like that)...SOOOO good!! I think I liked it better!! Quick synopsis...Jaded woman whose father she adored as a child until he sold her off to marry an old haggard man at first is angry and hates his new (second) younger wife. Obviously they bond and become friends. There is more dram involved AND a surprise ending that once it happened I said...I should have seen that coming!!
Oh, I know exactly the contradiction you are talking about - English undergrad major and grad student here and yet...no one respects my love for the Shopaholic series! I always stick up for the books/titles that come up in class that everyone loves to make fun. I loved "She's Come Undone" but haven't read anything else by Wally Lamb. Good post!
amy D - that book is on my list for sure!!! i keep meaning to pick it up..i am going to this weekend for sure!
and britt - LOVE the shopoholic series...although i may relate to it a little TOO much :-)
I was just going to comment and recommend She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb--ppp beat me to it! I agree that The Poisonwood Bible is a great book. Also, A Thousand Splendid Suns is incredible--I wept for like a hour while reading the end (if you're into that kind of thing).
I actually read She's Come Undone and didn't care for it...but that just shows just because you didn't like one book by a certain author doesn't mean you won't like a different one!
You probably don't want recommendations, but Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the book I've read at least a dozen times over the past decade. If you consider yourself a radical feminist - as I do - then you'll appreciate it. If you've read Orwell (especially 1984) as an adult, you'll love it.
I've given this as a gift countless times, lent it to firends, and I like to give it to pre-teen/teen girls to give their feminism a kick-start.
YES Jane I have read it and always considered it a kind of feminist 1984. What a great book!!
this blows, i'm out.
<3 me.
I was an English major and I have never heard of either Junot Diaz or Dave Eggers. We read Dickens, Hardy, Chaucer, Hemingway, Joyce and Shakespeare. Are they going to take away my degree?
PS My guilty pleasure is murder mysteries and "People" magazine.
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