[Gail White]

It's surprising how many of us haven't read Moby Dick. I admit the combination of adventure novel and whaling manual is a little off-putting, but I read it way back in my teens when I'd read anything, and still re-read favorite passages now and then.

Duncan, thanks for advice on "The Gift." Friends have also recommended "King, Queen, Knave" for my first Nabokov, but I could never get into it.

I notice few of us have mentioned Conrad, who I think ranks as one of the Great Unreadables. I had to force myself to get through "Heart of Darkness."

Oh, and I've never read "Ulysses" either.

But I did like "The Red and the Black". I thought Mathilde was really cool, cutting off her hair for love and all.
Also, I'll match the amount of Thackeray I've read with anyone in the room.

[Kevin J MacLellan]

Gail,
Conrad, unreadable!?!
Shall it be pistols or blades? (And, mind you, I'm a bleeder.)

I fondly remember a summer in grad school when I read everything he wrote and found him one of the greatest story-tellers and an unsurpassed master of a language not his own. (He was a Polish lad who put to sea on English merchantmen very young in his life.) So, you see, I have no choice but to throw down the gauntlet. (Not what I wanted to do on such a cold night here in the Northeast.)

I can forgive your not having read Ulysses, no doubt due to its scandalous 'Anna Livia Plurabel' scene; oh, and also because - now that I think of it - I have yet to get through Finnegan's Wake. (As a devout Joycean enthusiast, I am duly ashamed.)

Still and all, I must insist you take back your derogation of Conrad, -- Have you tried Lord Jim? -- or, . . . we'll be back to pistols or blades. En guarde!

P.S. Conrad wrote a fine short work called "The Duel"! (That must have been in the back of my mind all along. Ha!)

[R. Nemo Hill]

I've read a lot of Conrad when I was younger, mostly the shorter works, of which there are a bunch. I went back and re-read Heart of Darkness later, and thought it was astoundingly good.

Melville's shorter works are a good appetizer for Moby Dick. Like the Conrad, they are often collected in one volume. Billy Budd and Bartelby are especially fine.

Nemo

[Mary Meriam]

I read everything by Conrad, one of my absolute favorites.

[Orwn Acra]

Originally Posted by Gail White

On the other hand, I've never read a single book by Vladimir Nabokov.

Oh, Gail. Oh, poor, poor, Gail. I have read nearly everything written by that wonderful man--every novel, every poem, every short story and play, his lectures on literature, Boyd's biographies (how wonderfully appropriate is it that Nabokov's two best biographers have the initials A.A. and B.B.?) most of his published letters and interviews, some of his scholarly science papers. The Gift was his first masterpiece, but not the best place to start. And King, Queen, Knave could never be considered one of his best works. Start with Pnin. Lighter and shorter than The Gift and far funnier, perhaps his funniest novel, but terribly sad in places, and often poignant.

Anyway, the only Salinger I've read is Seymour which I liked, particularly the "John Keats/John Keats/John, please put your scarf on" haiku tucked in the middle. I can't imagine Catcher in the Rye being nearly as good.

I haven't read any Dickens. Everything can be excused on my age.

[Kevin J MacLellan]

Janice, to follow your lead:

Three for 2014 --this is too close to a New Year's resolution for my liking, but here goes:

1. Willhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1796), by Goethe, J.W.v
To read this auf Deutsch has long been a wish, a hope and an oft postponed plan.

2. Shakespeare's Comedies
OK Janice, your conniving, scheming prodding has worked its wicked magic. I have committed myself --but only, so far, to the Comedies.
Happy now?

3. Against the Day (2006), by Thomas Pynchon
This is an actual obligation (since it was, long ago now, gifted to me), but it also presents me with a golden opportunity to face up to the reluctance I have had towards indulging Pynchon's style. At least by the end of it (1000+ pages) I should know more precisely what I do and/or don't like in his writing. Who knows? maybe I'll come around . . . or maybe he already has?

So, . . . I once resolved not to make such resolutions --because I knew I would break it, and now I have. And that's why I took it in the first place. There's just no escaping resolutions. Damn!

[Shaun J. Russell]

Just to chime in on the Nabokov tangent: the first novel I read by him was The Defense, and I think it's a reasonable work to start with, even if you're not much of a chess player (I'm not). I still haven't read as much of his work as I should, but I've liked everything I have read (though haven't read Lolita yet...I'm admittedly a little squeamish about the subject matter).

[Mary McLean]

Ok, you've decided me. My 3 resolutions will be Pnin, Hard Times and Moby Dick. I don't normally keep resolutions, but a cold wet winter might be about to help me out.

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

Just an odd note on Shakespeare—adding Nietzsche also:

I put off reading both for a very long time. I had read S's sonnets many times, but other than a couple of his plays read in high school, I'd avoided the plays. And I avoided N. mostly because a high school friend was fond of quoting him and I was a little annoyed/suspicious.

But I'm glad I did wait, for both. I've been working from a hypothesis, ever since, that both should be avoided until around the age of 35. This is only because I know that, for myself, knowing myself, way too much would have been misread or overlooked by me if I'd attempted either while in my 20s or younger.

[Janice D. Soderling]

What a great thread. What a lot of inspiration. What a well-read community.