Naturally it's a hit with the English faculty. One particularly competitive professor claws his way to the top of the heap by swearing that he's never read Hamlet (and loses his job as a result).
Would you be able to win a game of Humiliation? What book would you choose as your trump card? I've been trying to figure out what my best bet would be.
This is not a real Wednesday Reading post, but they'll pick up again next week, probably.
Comments
There's another book, Small World, with some of the same characters. I was planning to put off reading it until I've read some of the books I already own, but it made me laugh out loud on the first or second page, so I might just go ahead; we'll see.
Edited at 2016-04-17 05:03 pm (UTC)
I wouldn't be shocked to learn that someone hadn't read it, American or not. Actually, it's hard to think of something I'd be shocked by, especially outside the context of an English department -- I have a pretty patchy cultural literacy myself.
I can't think of any one book that I'd expect everyone to have read. But it'd be possible to create a list of books that I'd expect people to have read at least one book from. Like a list of Shakespeare, or children's classics.
Did you read a lot of Australian writers in school? We read almost nothing that wasn't British or American, but I think that was partly just my own high school being sloppy. Exceptions: a couple of short stories (Joyce, Alice Munroe, Kafka) and "The Doll House" by Ibsen. No Australians. :(
But for books... 'Great Expectations', perhaps? Or 'The Odyssey'!
I sabotaged myself by reading a bunch of Great Books in middle and high school that I now remember nothing about. I can't honestly claim to have never read A Farewell to Arms, for example, because I know I did, but I also can't remember a single thing about it except that it's not the one about the Spanish Civil War (I think???)
*HUGS*
but your chains!I think I've gone through too many "Must read ALL the classics!" phases to win, though. I could pony up Lord of the Flies? Or maybe The Tempest or Twelfth Night - although I could only use The Tempest if seeing the play doesn't count.
I bet the winner would be anyone who could solemnly swear they had never read Harry Potter.
I've read all the above-mentioned books except Great Gatsby, which I downloaded from Gutenberg and managed a few chapters, because my teenage nephew and his cousin were solemnly discussing it one day, and believe me, they had read it! I know those two. I thought if they could, I had better give it a go.
I liked it all right when I read it in high school, but I liked it a lot better when I re-read it and was no longer required to notice painfully obvious things about the eyes and the ash.
Edited at 2016-04-17 11:57 pm (UTC)
(My sister used to brag about never having read Harry Potter, but eventually she gave in. Now she's a hypercritical Harry Potter fan who can talk for hours about how much HP worldbuilding sucks).
In the book group I just joined, the way for me to actually win is to say, "I tried Neil Gaiman and I don't feel like trying any more." My prize is to have four people asking me whether I've given Neil Gaiman another try yet at every subsequent meeting.
I have had a similar Neil Gaiman experience. I liked one of his books, Coraline - although not in the "I feel a fervent need to evangelize about this book!" way that other people seem to like Gaiman - and haven't really gelled with any of the others I slogged through. But nonetheless certain friends are certain that if I only read one more, I will see the light and join the Cult of Gaiman.
The annoying thing about the Neilvangelism that I've encountered is that (certain) people treat it like a test of sincerity: I can't really like fantasy/sci-fi/reading at all if I haven't accepted Neil Gaiman into my heart. I shouldn't let this attitude put me off, but it does a little.
Please do post about Harry Potter! I will rant about worldbuilding with you, and change my opinion 100 times, and probably try to draw a bunch of unnecessary parallels with the Cormoran Strikes.