I finally got around to reading Helprin's
Winter's Tale and have since been (not literally, 'cause I'm just not that talented nor limber)kicking my butt over having not read it sooner.
And last month, for some reason, I decided to try Updike's Rabbit series and am now absolutely horrified and embarassed that I'd not read the books earlier.
Oh, and Banks' Cloudsplitter, falls into this category, too.
And now David's reading White Noise and he says that he put off reading it because everyone kept telling him that he should read it and he's mad that he felt so pressured that he had to not read it (I confess to reacting the same way, sometimes, when I'm being pushed to read something) because he hates being pressured to do anything, and so he didn't read something great because everyone said that he should read it. (Er, if someone wants to reword this last paragraph to make it more, um, understandable, please do so.)
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 10 July 2006 05:22 (nineteen years ago)
I felt much the same as David about reading
Ulysses, but I also made the mistake of reading Edna O'Brien's short bio of Joyce and decided I couldn't stand the man, so why should I read his work? Mr. Jaq found this upsetting and sought to win me over to Joyce by reading
The Dead aloud, and then
Portrait of the Artist. I had to admit they were fine, fine indeed. But I still wouldn't read
Ulysses.
Until some random internet person set me a challenge. Which is possibly very warped, but it got me to read the book (as well as Gravity's Rainbow), and I loved it.
― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 10 July 2006 20:11 (nineteen years ago)