I read a lot of books. The list of titles I've read over the past 30 years of my adult reading career would be mind-boggling if I could only remember them all ( I started keeping a list 18 months ago). With the death of JD Salinger in January this year, I realised I had never read Catcher in the rye. And that got me thinking about what other 'great' books or authors I have never read. I've never read any Steinbeck novels either. Nor Hemingway. Never read The Great Gatsby. Never read a single Jane Austen - although I have read the Brontes and George Eliot. Never read Gone with the wind, or seen the movie. Speaking of movies, and while I'm in a confessional mood, I also have never seen The sound of music or The wizard of Oz.
I'll probably never read any of the above-mentioned books, except for Catcher in the rye and I'm only reading that because it was a book club suggestion. Do I feel impoverished by these gaps in my reading history? Not at all. I'm reading some of the fantastic literature that's been written in the last 50 years. There's enough there to keep me going for the rest of my life. I can't possibly read all the books out there (although it won't be from a want of trying), but every book I do read enriches me just that little more.
What 'great' oeuvres have you never read? Send me a comment!
What 'great' oeuvres have you never read? Send me a comment!
