Wuther or Not…

Wuthering Heights is #902 in the 2007 Edition of 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

So, I watch Coronation Street. There’s a b-list plot about obsessive-compulsive shopkeeper Norris going on a Wuthering Heights themed holiday with girlfriend/stalker Mary. (A-list plots include a teenage lesbian relationship and a Great-grandmother falling in love with a gigilo. I love this show).

Norris and Mary head for the moors

It got me thinking back to reading Wuthering Heights for the first time, many years before “The List” was around. I read it for Grade 12 IB English, and it was good timing – I’d just come out of my first super-dramatic relationship. And Wuthering Heights is ALL about the drama.

I mean, Cathy and Heathcliff don`t just break up like me and my then-boyfriend did. [SPOILER ALERT] She *dies* and haunts him! And he goes crazy! And then their kids fall in love and go crazy! Multi-generational drama at it`s finest. It helped my put my problems in perspective, that`s for sure.

Wuthering Heights stands up to repeated readings. It`s just so rich in imagery and character and symbolism and all that good stuff. Even though it`s dense, it`s also really accessible. It`s easy to picture those windswept, desolate moors and realize that they`re the perfect setting for Heathcliff, who is left with nothing after losing his Catherine and exacting his revenge on everyone around him.

What books can you read over and over again?

Heathcliff bringing the drama: “And I pray one prayer–I repeat it till my tongue stiffens–Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you–haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!’

Love in the Time of Runny Noses

Love in the Time of Cholera is #236 in the 2007 edition of 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

Love in the Time of Cholera is one of those divisive books. People love it, people hate it. I love it, and it’s Valentine’s Day, so it’s on my mind. It’s also on The List. Bonus!

With Gabriel Garcia Marquez, you have to suspend your disbelief. His stories are crazy, epic, and bigger than a character or a character’s lifetime. “Love…” is about love at its most romantic, and at its most realistic, at the same time.  Hopeless, unrequited love is at the centre of the story and Marquez`s writing will make your heart ache. The fact that the romantic hero spends most of his time with various prostitutes and lovers doesn`t take away from it… at least for me! I think that`s where the book loses a lot of people. Either that, or the detailed, descriptive writing style. If you can just let yourself go with it, it’s so worth it.

I read it for the first time while on holiday in Radium with Jason and some friends. It was pretty early in our relationship, so maybe I was just in the right time and place to be swept away. I wonder how it would stand up to another read? Is there room for romance among the runny noses and loads of laundry? Hmm…

“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else’s heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”

1,001 Books or Bust

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all” -Henry David Thoreau

“1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” is a just what it sounds like – a list of (arguably) the greatest novels ever written. I picked up the hardcover 2007 edition a few years back. I love lists, I love reading, and I love rating things (good thing I’m a market researcher by day) so I couldn’t wait to count how many I’d read.

The book was too pretty to mark up, so I found an online list I could move into Excel: http://www.listology.com/list/1001-books-you-must-read-you-die

I’m pretty well read. English was my favourite subject in school, and reading in bed is my happy place (hence the blog title). I figured would at least crack 100.  Imagine my surprise when I could only check off 55 or so!

I knew I had to do something. I went on a mission. Reading from the list opened up new sides of reading. I found out that language in the seventeenth century novels can be surprisingly accessible, while eighteenth century novels can be nearly unreadable. I found the temptation to cheat too much to bear when a favourite author came out with a new book. And I found that the list is far from perfect; how is “Generation X” not on there?!

I did another count last week, sure this time that I would be over 100. Nope. 83. So disappointing!

I’ve been off the list for a a few weeks now (the new Jonathan Frazen was too much to bear) and it’s time to get back on track! Check out the list, find your number, and join me as I read my way to 1,001… or perhaps 101 by 2012.