Ermahgerd! Berks!

Brutal honesty ahead: I think the Pandemic broke me. I think it broke a lot of us, but one way in which I *know* the pandemic broke me is that I found myself absolutely unable to read books. It was sad, but at least in searching around, it sounds like I was not the only one (exhibit 1, exhibit 2, etc.). Whether it was the persistent feeling of dread, confinement or people dying in the thousands per day, I found myself unable to concentrate long enough to get beyond a few pages. My usual go tos of history or non-fiction just felt a little too real and reading became a chore rather than a joy. So as much as it pains me to admit this publicly, I almost completely abandoned reading during the pandemic and I have had a very difficult time jumping back onboard, particularly with fiction. So I have decided that I need to fall back in love with reading again and I need to be intentional and deliberate in my quest. So I have compiled a list of books that I am hoping will help me fall back in love again (in no particular order):

• 1984, George Orwell
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain*
• Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
• Catch-22, Joseoph Heller
• The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger*
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank*
• Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
• The Handmaid’s Tail, Margaret Atwood
• Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
• The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
• Little Women, Louisa May Alcott*
• Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Moby Dick, Herman Mellville*
• Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
• Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie*
• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck*
• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
• Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
• Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegaut
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee*
• Watership Down, Richard Adams
• A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle
• The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck*
• Persuasion, Jane Austen
• Lord of the Flies, William Golding*
• On the Road, Jack Kerouac
• The Secret Garden, Frances Burnett*
• A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
• The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
• A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

Yea, it’s a LIST. And there are a LOT of books on it, but they all have one thing in common: I have never, to my knowledge, read them before and if I did read them, I certainly don’t remember them. Some I think I have read, so those get stars (*) but I can’t remember the plot points to save my life. If I know I didn’t read them, there are a few valid reasons for this, which I can get into.

Looking back at my Kindergarten thru college experience, one thing definitely stood out, which is that I have always had a gift and passion for writing (in case it wasn’t abundantly obvious by the archives on this blog haha). Reading comprehension has *never* been my strong suit or passion, so my classes and curricula leaned heavily on composition rather than on literature. It was this gift of prose that actually allowed me to skip over a few English classes in High School, including a lot of the prerequisite books that came out of those courses. I also took one AP Enslish course and tested out of all my English classes in college save for, you guessed it, Composition! I had an unfortunate crash course in Soviet Literature that I’m still having nightmares about, but that was about it.

At the time, skipping grades to get ahead seemed like a great idea, but it led to a backlog of reading that I’ve always secretly regretted. There are also some pretty egregious “holes”. For example, I’ve read Lord of the Rings, but not The Hobbit. I read and loved George Orwell’s Animal Farm in school, but somehow skipped 1984? I’ve skimmed Little Women and Moby Dick, but never touched Charles Dickens. So in an effort to plug holes, I’ve looked at recommended lists of “best books of all time” lists like this list and this one. In going through those lists, there are quite a few books I’ve already read and love dearly so I have omitted those books entirely from the list. Additional omissions are largely because I am not ready to take on such heavy “tomes” at this time. I’m looking at you, War & Peace! Maybe I’ll reevaluate at a later time, but, for now, I feel pretty good about the list I have compiled. With how slow of a reader I am, believe me, I will be busy for quite some time!

What are my goals here? Why am I doing this?

1. Plugging Holes: How can you have read Lord of the Rings, but not The Hobbit?
2. Falling back in love with reading fiction again: While I can’t guarantee this will work for me, I am hoping to fall in love with a few of these books that might lead to more and more books to read…
3. Avoiding the dreaded doom-scroll: When I have a ticking clock (i.e., a library due date) I am a lot more motivated to keep on task and exchange my screen time with page time. If this will keep me from doom-scrolling, then I consider that a win!
4. Inspire others: Maybe I’ll come across a read that will inspire you to pick up a few classics as well! If you follow me on Instagram, I will try to post to Stories what I am reading AS I am reading it. So feel free to join me!

What this is NOT:

1. This will not be synopses of books: Do you remember when I said reading comprehension wasn’t my strong suit?
2. Literary Analysis: I am sure if I wanted to be thorough, then I would do a full biography and back story about why author wrote such and such during that particular time of their life, etc. I could do that, but I am not going to detail that here. I may do a quick Wikipedia scan just to see highlights, but I’ll leave that to all of you to do on your own.

What I hope to give you to, my bloggy readers:

1. Humor: If you have read this blog for as long as you have, you must know I DO NOT take myself seriously.
2. Hot Takes: I have thoughts. Not all of them great. I’m going to be brutally honest about what I like and what I don’t like. And if you disagree with me, that’s fine. But not everybody likes the Louvre…and I happen to be one of them.

So there ya go! I’m calling this project “Ehrmehrrgerd! Berks!” If you remember the meme from awhile back, that’s my muse! I just wish all of the books were as easily digestible as Goosebumps from back in the day!