Reading
After taking Literature in school, I finally realized what books actually meant, and that has allowed me to enjoy them a whole lot more. Since then I have read over a dozen classic books, ranging from Tess of the D'Urbervilles to Don Quixote de la Mancha and The Portrait of Dorian Grey. I have gotten to the point where any free moment I get I pull out my most recent book (The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman). The following books are some of my favorites.
Catch 22
Catch 22 was the first book I read where I would continually have to stop and put the book down because I was laughing too hard. The sheer genius behind the conundrums and paradoxes of this book kept me entertained and interested throughout the entire novel. This is one of the few books that I have ever read in one weekend. The only reason it took me two days was that I finished at four in the morning. This is a beautiful and incredibly written piece of literature that I was privaleged to be able to read.
King Lear
Of all of Shakespeare's plays, King Lear was easily my favorite. The utter depravity of Lear's position combined with the witty antics of all of the characters. The paralellism, puns and performances of all the characters combined make this play a thoroughly enjoyable experience to watch as well as read. I may have a little bias toward this play due to the fact that this was the first of Shakespeare's plays that I was able to see performed.
The Life of Thomas Moore
After reading Utopia for my history class, I was interested in reading more about its author, Sir Thomas Moore. This biography was informative and in-depth, as well as engaging and well written. Many of the experiences and antics performed by Moore throughout the novel are surprisingly relatable. I had a great time perusing the depths of Moore's life with this consistant and entertaining biography.
The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand's debuit novel piqued my interest on a list of philosophical works of the twentieth century. After hearing a suspicious quantity of poor reviews, I decided to see if they were grounded or simply bias against her philosophy. I found the opposite of what many of the reviews claimed, and ended up enjoying the book immensely. Although Rand's inhuman characters can be distant at times, the general themes and plot of the novel are engaging and interesting enough to have lasted the ninety years since this book's publication.
A Streetcar Named Desire
This was one of the first books that I read where I spent an inordinate amount of time in analysis and concentrated digestion of the entire book. I greatly enjoyed being able to dissect this book in every possible way, from characters to symbols, from plot to background music. Tennessee Williams raised my bar for the sheer amount of in-depth analysis needed to understand this type of book.