The idea is quite simple: List books that everyone seems to have read, except you.
As you probably know by now, I’m constantly working on my classical education. And still, there seem to be a hundred thousand books that I feel like I should have read because everybody has read them. Here are a few:
- To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
It is on my list. I swear. - The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
Like Christy, where I took this meme from, I’m afraid I’m too old for this book. Especially aftr watching The Good Girl. - Anything by Asimov
This might be a special thing for a SciFi fan, but I basically haven’t read any classic SciFi… I just picked Asimov as probably the most famous guy of them all. - The Earthsea Quartet – Ursula K. LeGuin
I already bought it. :) That means it should only take me about 3-30 years till I get to it. - Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
And I probably never will. It just seems to be really not my kind of book. - The Sorrows of Young Werther – J. W. Goethe
After having read Faust, I’ll probably never read this, either. - Hunting and Gathering – Anna Gavalda
Everybody keeps recommending it to me. My sister lent it to me. It will be read at some point.
I think that’s all I can think of right now. Now that I’ve read Faust, I feel like I have done much for my education in that regard. This feeling will wear off soon.
Maybe next week I’ll do “books I’ve read that I don’t understand aren’t world famous”.
kalafudra's Stuff 
how about “books I’ve read that I don’t understand ARE world famous” if you run out of ideas. :)
*lol*
Totally could do that.
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I haven’t read Earthsea (on the list for this year, though) or the sorrows of young werther (like you, I also read Faust and didn’t get why people liked it that much, so might not ever) either. I hadn’t heard of Hunting and Gathering. Is that a Austrian/German thing?
And did u mean “books I’ve read that I don’t understand that aren’t world famous” or “books I’ve read that I are so awesome, I don’t understand why they aren’t world famous”? The second is a stretch, but the first doesn’t seem like something you’d blog about, because at least for me that’s a lot of books. At least if in understand you include “didn’t care enough to read carefully enough” :) .
Hunting and Gathering is a French book – so it might be a European thing. It was made into a movie with Audrey Tautou, if you want to check out the quick version. :)
And I meant the latter: Books that are so awesome, they should by rights appeal to the masses, but don’t. The phrasing was a bit misleading, I guess…
I never heard of it, either. (Shame on me.)
You might know it by it’s German title – “Zusammen ist man weniger allein” ?
yawp, I’ve heard of the movie version.
I actually read “Catcher in the Rye” and “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (How did that happen, you ask? Me too.)
“Werther” was alright. It’s basically a guy writting emo letters about his Oh-so-emo life to people who may or may not care. And he’s so annoying about it I breathed a sigh of relief when he killed himself.
“The Catcher in the Rye”, on the other hand, was a godawful pile of excrement. I hated Holden from page one, and then he didn’t even have the grace to fuck off and die. (Why yes, I _am_ still angry about the fact that this book even exists, and that it’s famous, and that I was forced to read it.)
I look forward to “Awesome Books That Ought to Be World Famous” ^^
I liked Werther, but, oh yes, he is soooo emo.
Catcher in the Rye: Totally agree with you. Holden is the kind of person that really annoys me.
looking forward: yawp, L. too
Well then, I’ll get on that list/meme. :)
I have to admit that all your bitching about Holden kind of makes me itch to read the book… I guess that’s a bad sign for my mental health.
I think you are going to find Holden’s annoyingness somehow cute.
Is that a compliment? hmmmm…
I too have never read Atlas Shrugged and I don’t think I’m missing anything there.
Yeah, that’s my feeling as well. :)