<p>I’ve come late to Dickens. He’s a favorite of TheMom’s but until a year or so ago all I’d ever read was A CHRISTMAS CAROL. I read OLIVER TWIST and I saw the screen adaptation of NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. I suppose the Bronte’s are on tap…sparked by weird & circuitous route, i.e., by Jasper Fforde’s literary fantasy novels.</p>
<p>TheMom’s first ever present to me when we were dating was a book, John Fowles’ THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN. Probably my favorite author that she introduced me to is Robertson Davies, whom I do periodically re-read, and Jane Austen is more than acceptable though I think I prefer the BBC telethingies to the books (heresy, I know).</p>
<p>I prefer Jane Eyre over Wuthering Heights.<br>
Pride and Prejudice/Emma/Persuasion–probably a 3 way tie.</p>
<p>Few film adaptations pass muster for me, but the BBC generally gets it right–or, maybe I’m just hypnotized by their accents!</p>
<p>I enjoy re-reading the classics, especially concurrently with my D, so that I can discuss them with her. It’s interesting, as well as enjoyable, to learn how your genetic material processes these things! (She’s just finished Camus’ The Stranger & is now reading Kafka’s The Trial.)</p>
<p>Bleak House is one of my two favorite Dickens’s. I also love (though haven’t read in ages) Our Mutual Friend.</p>
<p>My mom would let us stay up to read as long as my dad didn’t find out (isn’t that awful?) We could keep the light on if we were in my brother’s room because you couldn’t see it from the bottom of the stairs. Dad was into strict bedtimes; Mom is the flexible one. Both, though, were (“are” in my mom’s case) avid readers.</p>
<p>I am using “Curious Incident” as well as “life of Pi” in my freshman comp course (second semester, though it’s in Fall.) I’m hoping to have discussions about how people perceive and frame their worlds, perhaps throw in the theme of “journeys” as well. While teaching them to write coherently along the way. Should be interesting.</p>
<p>When I lived in big cities, with subways and tons of other public transportation, I read tons while “on the road”. Here in the west I am stuck behind a steering wheel and can’t do anything but listen. So instead of listening to my kids all the time, I listen to books on tape.
Today it was Left to Tell - a story about Rwanda 1994.</p>
<p>I was re-reading Leaves Of Grass the other day. Such a beautiful book. Here is something that made me cry as I read. This was written when Whitman was 70, in a long poem of thanks to all the many things that he loved. Here is the bit that moved me:</p>
<p>Thanks in old age – thanks ere I go…
You distant, dim unknown-- or young or old-- countless unspecified, readers belov’d
We never met, and ne’er shall meet-- and yet our souls embrace, long, close and long</p>
<p>David Sedaris is pretty unique. I thought some (those I recognized) of those Read-alike suggestions were pretty off-base. However I couldn’t do much better - for some reason Carl Hiassen is the closest I can get, but he doesn’t write wacky vignettes of daily life. It’s just that I think he shares a similar warped sense of humor and he’s also great long car drive listening!</p>