All my life I have loved to read. I still remember finishing my first "chapter book" while driving to our lake house when I was 8 years old. It was the first book in The Babysitters Club series, and my parents' couldn't believe I had finished it so fast.
It was, as they say, all over after that -- I begged my Mom to take me to Barnes And Noble like most kids begged to go to Toys R Us. When I was grounded, it was from reading instead of from TV... usually because I would rather have my nose stuck in a book than to be doing my chores.
When I got to High School English though, that changed -- for some reason I hated every book we had to read. I loathed English class, and getting through the pages of the books we were assigned was worse than a trip to the dentist.
For the longest time, I simply held the opinion that I did not like classic literature unless it was authored by Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. It was a simple explanation, considering those were the only two classic authors whose books I had ever enjoyed.
They were also the only two classic authors whose books I had read prior to 10th grade English.
Over the past couple of years though, I have come to a more reasonable explanation for my apparent hatred for classic literature. The conclusion is that I don't hate it at all. I simply hated the way it was presented to me.
There is no better way to kill one's imagination than to be forced to hold a red pen while you read so you can underline and mark every piece of imagery, alliteration, oxymoron, paradox or syntax. I don't want to write a summary at the end of each chapter or check out 8 books from the Tech library so I can write a 12 page research paper on the author. I want to get lost in the story.
When I read a book, I like to become completely lost in the characters. For me, a good book is one that will transport me to the time and place in which it is written and leave me feeling like I've had the opportunity to live in a completely different life by the time I close the last page.
It's impossible to feel that way when you are required to stop every 2-3 sentences to make an analyzation!
So, over the past several years I have re-read almost every book we read in high school. It was a great surprise to me (especially at first) to learn that I have loved every single one of them! To Kill a Mocking Bird has to be one of my favorites... The Scarlett Letter and Ethan Frome are close seconds. Right now, I am reading Wuthering Heights and can hardly stand to put it down.
There are only two books that come to mind from my high school days which I cannot bring myself to read -- those are Moby Dick and Portrait of a Lady. I particularly loathed those two novels. I loathed them to the depths of my soul. In fact, I loathed Moby Dick so much that I wrote a speech about it for speech class and Mrs. Boyle made me read it to her in a closet in order to not illy influence the younger students in the class who had not read it yet. Oops.
I will re-read each of those books one day. And, I am certain, I will love them both. But I know one thing for sure... I will get new copies of each so that I do not have to look at all that darn red ink!
Those two books aside though, I have found that I absolutely LOVE classic literature! I love it so much that I have even bought a few books that we didn't read in high school -- last month I read The Count of Monte Cristo. I've also recently finished Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I cannot wait to re-read A Christmas Carol this December.
Even more strange than that... I love to analyze the books too. But here's the kicker -- I like to analyze them AFTER I read them! Finishing up The Count of Monte Cristo led me to a 2 hour google session learning all about the life of Alexandre Dumas... how in addition to being a novelist he was also a playwright, and that his father was also an author -- I was also amazed to discover the parallels between the lives of Edward Dantes and Alexandre Dumas, so similar in some ways and yet in others so different.
It has been refreshing over these past few years to discover that not only do I NOT hate classic literature, but I also don't hate studying it on a deeper level. I enjoy learning (I always have) and it bothered me to think that I disliked learning about one of my favorite subjects: books.
So, I will continue to read classic literature for the rest of my life. I have made it a personal goal to read every classic novel I can find and to take what I learn from each and use it in some way to improve my life.
I love classic literature. I love the stories, the people, the relationships and the lifestyles that are portrayed in its pages. I love the glimpse it gives into our history. I love just about everything about it.
I guess they really are called Classics for a reason :)
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