Reading the Best Novels in the Some of the Worst Hotels in America, England, Canada, and Mexico

The Novels List: Page 2 of 3

 Someone asked a few weeks ago about why I challenged myself to read the 100 Best English Novels of the 20th Century. To be honest, the answer lies in my fascination with lists and counting and marking things as complete. But, enough about my neuroses... See picture at right for evidence (pink highlight = books read prior to starting this challenge).

About 10 years ago, my brother or sister-in-law sent me a link to Hillman's 100 Wonders of the World, which could be accessed from a site dedicated to lists: http://www.listsofbests.com/. I printed it out and checked off the "wonders" I had seen at the time and thought it would be great fun to try to see them all. Today, I am a long way from completing that list (74 to go), but I have started thinking about vacations with the list in mind. After all, I only have so many good travel years remaining.

I bookmarked the site and would reference it occasionally. A few years later, I changed careers and started traveling for work, which meant I was spending a lot of time in airports, on planes, in hotels, and eating dinner with only the company of a book. Over a period of two years, I tore through all books of interest in the airport bookshops. My bookshelves were bulging, but I could barely remember the plots of any of these cheap thrill rides. Airport books are a bit like porn - you enjoy it while you are watching it, but the plot points all tend to blur over time and the endings are somewhat predictable.

So, I figured if I am going to spend so many hours staring at books, I should read those books judged to be among the best written - particularly those written in the century in which I was born. So, I returned to the lists and printed out the pages for the 100 Best English Novels of the 20th Century. Since my second degree was in English, I was able to cross off 20 books before I even got started. I thought, I would make quick progress and that this would be something I could complete is a few years.

After some thought and a quick calculation, I realize that I have spent seven years plowing through this list. There are times when I have strayed (The Dragon Tattoo novels, Jonathan Franken), but for the most part, I have been rather faithful to the reading list.

My thought was that I would read them in order 100 to 1. One would think that if a book is among the 100 greatest it would be easy to find, but many of the books are out of print and difficult to locate, which added to the challenge. For the last 7 years I have carried a sticky note with the next eight books on the list in my wallet - marking them off as I find them. I am now completely unable to pass a used bookstore without ducking in to see if they have some obscure book that I have been unable to locate, that is next on the list. In many ways this challenge is as much a scavenger hunt as it is a reading marathon. Since purchasing my Nook, however, most of the books are a few clicks away.

Along the way I have discovered some new favorite authors (Nabokov, Doctorow, Faulkner, DH Lawrence) and some that I dread to see looming ahead on the list (Conrad and Joyce). Some books have been surprisingly enjoyable and easy to read (Tobacco Road, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Of Human Bondage, A Farewell to Arms), some have fanned the desire to travel (The Alexandria Quartet, Kim, A Room with a View) while some have been a slog from start to finish (Finnegan's Wake, The Movie Goer, Lord Jim, Nostromo). I have also realized that I have an equal interest in Costume Dramas (Edwardian) from the turn of the century as well as modernist works - novels about war, not so much of an interest, unless the war is simply a backdrop for the work (From Here to Eternity, Sophie's Choice)

So with 25 entries left to complete the list, I have to start thinking what will I do with my time once I have completed this monumental task. Perhaps I should write a book about reading all these books. Something similar to Julia and Julia. Who knows, there could be a happy ending in there somewhere (wink wink).

Note: The 100 Best American Movies list is much easier to get through - thanks to Netflix.