Heart of Darkness is #780 in the 2007 Edition of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. The Stone Angel and Mercy Among the Children are not on the list, but should be.

I’m reading a book right now because I have to. Not because it’s on The List, but because I have to, for work (I`m going to an event where the keynote speech will be about Clay Shirky’s `”Cognitive Surplus”).

It’s a been a long time since I “had” to read something. It got me thinking about reading for pleasure vs. reading for school or for work. Sometimes, I think analyzing a book to death can ruin the experience. I read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad in Grade 12 English, and years later, I can’t just read it; I can only see it in bits and pieces – oh, yeah, here’s an example of racist colonial attitudes. Here`s an example of the untamed jungle symbolizing… whatever (it`s been a while). I *know* it`s a great book.  But I just can`t see it.

But, I read Wuthering Heights in the same class and it`s stuck with me as one of my all-time favourites, despite endlessly cataloguing the ways in which weather parallels the character`s personalities. Seriously… it rains a lot, and everyone is depressed, and I GET IT. I also remember reading The Stone Angel by Margret Laurence in Grade 11, but I don`t remember writing the paper. I don`t really remember much about that English class at all, except for the day that the teacher told me to “be the heroine of [my] own life”  (like the main character, Hagar is – she’s the model of a tough broad). That encapsulates the whole novel for me, and I thought it was super profound at the time. Okay, I still do!

Then there are books I wish I’d read in school. I just don’t have the time or brain power to really think them through anymore. I would have loved to have heard what an English teacher thinks about David Adams Richard’s Mercy Among the Children. It’s in my top ten, and I still don’t fully get it. Gist of the story: man makes a pact to never do harm to another human being.  This simple choice destroys his life and the lives of his family, but he can’t let go of his promise. But what does it all *mean*?

And I really miss highlighting and making notes in the margin! I can’t be the only one. I pretty much read library books now, and it makes me sad that I can’t mark them up. I’m probably dating myself. Do “kids these days” even mark up books? How is this going to work with e-readers? So many questions!

Anyways. Did English class ruin books for you? Or did it give you a chance to really get into them in a way you can’t today? Or did you skip out and go to the mall?

I probably used this quote in my Grade 12 HoD paper. Descriptions of nature *always* symbolize something. “Nature herself had tried to ward off intruders; in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair.”

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).

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!’

“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.