June 21, 2009
“The Shelf of Constant Reproach”
Tags: books, English, literatureWe talk all the time about guilty pleasures, but what about guilty omissions? About a week ago, NPR ran a story called “The Shelf of Constant Reproach.” The thesis was that there are books that sit on our shelves, books that we feel we should have read but never got around to. For an English major like me, this could be the universe of literature in English, plus a fair amount of French, German, and Russian lit. But the reality is, there are a handful of books that ping my conscience from time to time.
Before I get to my list though, I should mention that the books on my reproachful shelf are constantly changing. Several years ago, thanks to a 45 minute commute on foot and books on tape, I managed to “read” about 80 percent of Hemingway’s work. After reading Fast Food Nation, I immediately read The Jungle. I expect to peel one or two off the list below within the next year or two.
The List:
1. Any novel by Faulkner. I share this one with the author of the NPR article. I’ve read a story or two (notably, “The Bear”) but I’ve never managed to get more than a few pages into his novels. A while back my wife bought me a Faulkner collection and I’ve yet to crack it.
2. Democracy in America, deTocqueville. Someone once told me that every political science major owns this book, quotes it at length, and has never read it. I’ve started it several times, even once in French, but never got more than a quarter of the way through volume 1.
3. Candide, Voltaire. Somehow I managed never to read Candide, although a collection of “Romans et Contes,” with its bright yellow dust jacket, stares down at me from my bookshelf as I surf Facebook.
4. Remembrances of Things Past, Marcel Proust. Since John Updike died, I can’t seem to escape Proust. Several eulogizers have drawn a comparison so I’m curious. Are they really that similar?
5. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck. This is my Achilles heel. We had to read this book in my high school senior English class. It was the only time I ever used Cliffs Notes. My English teacher will be happy to know I still hate myself for that – especially since I’ve liked very much all of the other Steinbeck I’ve read.
6. The Odyssey, Homer. Okay, this is my real Achilleus’ heel. I went to Reed and the year I took Humanities 110, we only read The Illiad. Four years later and a degree in hand and I still hadn’t read it. Yet I’ve read The Illiad a half dozen times.
I’ll close with a paraphrased quote from a poem Sam Danon, a former professor of French at Reed, wrote:
You don’t admit that you have never read a book,
You only haven’t re-read it, lately.
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I have a degree, not just in pol sci, but pol rhetoric. And have yet to read through Democracy in America. Don’t feel badly. =)
Books everyone should read, but won’t because they’ve heard bad things about them:
A Moveable Feast – Hemingway
Tropic of Cancer – Miller
Finnegan’s Wake – Joyce
(more once I’ve had some coffee)
June 22, 2009 @ 5:54 am
I have degrees in English (BA and masters), Poli Sci, and law, and I’ve never read the deTocqueville, either, and won’t, because I don’t own a copy. My shelf of reproach contains about 500 books and I need to knock a few off that list before I buy anything new. I’m currently working through it in vaguely alphabetical order (one author for each letter of the alphabet, and then I start over).
From your list, I’ve read a lot of Faulkner and he is my favorite author, but he can be tough to approach. I’d start with Go Down, Moses, the novel that contains “The Bear.” It’s one of my favorites and you’ve already read the toughest part.
I’ve read both The Illiad and The Odyssey, and I am sorry to say that compared to The Illiad, The Odyssey is just kind of boring. There is all that hacking people to pieces in The Illiad! But if you don’t have the Fagles translations, get them — they are super readable and may be easier to get into than what you read in college.
I think The Grapes of Wrath is overrated but if you’ve enjoyed other Steinbeck then it’s not a tough read or anything. I seem to remember that it’s hard to get into, but moves along fine once you’re in.
I’ve tried to read Proust and the first part of the first part of that endless thing bored the heck out of me, and I decided life is too short to read long works that don’t interest me. There are too many other things to read. Of course I know people who say Proust changed their lives, so maybe I am missing out, or maybe I’ll just read it when I’m retired.
Who says bad things about A Moveable Feast?
June 22, 2009 @ 9:13 am
I don’t actually care what books sit unread. I’m more afraid that my husband will find the really god-awful books that I don’t put on the shelf, because I’ve hidden them away, too ashamed to admit that I read them.
June 24, 2009 @ 6:22 pm
Because I eschew the shelf of constant reproach, I used to have a “canon-only” policy. But as a public policy degree holder, it’s pure sin that I haven’t read Peter Schrag’s Paradise Lost.
June 28, 2009 @ 11:23 pm
The two Faulkner novels that I’d recommend:
The Wild Palms or As I Lay Dying
July 02, 2009 @ 2:43 pm