- "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand
- "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
- "Death Comes for the Archbishop" by Willa Cather
- "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain
- "1984" by George Orwell
- "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
- "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
- "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
- "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck
What are your literary canon confessions?
5 comments:
And the list goes on. The good news (and this is coming from an English major), they are still the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So whenever you get around to reading them makes no difference.
And let's be honest here...sometimes, even though something is pegged a classic, it's old and tired and long-winded drivel you're better off without. Kind of like this comment :-)
Last semester we read Moby Dick- if you've read this book, you'll know what I'm implying!
My literary canon doesn't include ANY classics, with a few Dicken's as an exeption. Pretty sad, and I'm married to Jenna! But hey, I just finished "How to Build Hot Rod Chassis" by Tex Smith. Does that make me smarter or...
I am also an English major just getting ready to graduate -- and as sorely lacking in classics as you. I've read most of your list of lacks (Rand is delightful, if you don't pay too much attention to the philosophy), but I've never read a Bronte work or, seriously, Dickens. Never Gulliver's Travels or Macbeth.
I agree with a previous poster: they'll still be there tomorrow, during your next road trip, and when you're feeling sick and too tired to go out.
Aaaaah, but think of what you have read - classics to you? I mean, how many other people of read books by Donald Davis, Bill Bryson, and Michael Perry, Wallace Stegner? They probably aren't on any official classics list, but that may be because those list-makers haven't read them! As an English professor, I admit I haven't read many of those classics on your list, and you can tell my students that!
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