Book # 11 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

 

Except for one ridiculous coincidence near the end of the story I really enjoyed Jane Eyre. I mean come on... what are really the chances that the total strangers that take in Jane just happen to be her cousins that she never knew about? Ummm- there's no chance. Also I guess you could say that some parts of the story are kind of problematic. I mean Mr. Rochester totally lies to Jane about his wife. And also that's no way to treat a person with mental problems. I'd like to see his wife's side of the story... Still though it was an enjoyable read. A.

The Collector by John Fowles

 I'm starting to think that it is better to not plan out so far in advance which books I'm going to read. I had never heard of The Collector until a few days before reading it and I really enjoyed it. Maybe I'll start alternating one "planned" book and then one "unplanned" book. As to how I happened upon it - I was reading about The Catcher in the Rye and saw that this book makes mention of it as a plot point (it also mentions Emma). It sounded interesting and so I put off staring Jane Eyre for another week.  A-

Book # 1 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

There probably isn't anything original I can say about The Catcher in the Rye. It was one of my favorite book before and rereading it was great. I can't put my finger on it, but this book just gets it. Something about the difficulty in connecting with people on a real genuine level or about how small trivial details can bring on random emotions and memories. A+

Also it mentions a few other list books.... David Copperfield, A Farewell to Arms and The Great Gatsby.

Book # 38- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

 

Did you know that Evelyn Waugh was a man? And that his first wife's name was also Evelyn? I didn't until I started reading about Brideshead Revisited. And I know I saw the movie version some twelve years ago but I remember nothing about it. It has Emma Thompson right? Anyway, the book was enjoyable enough. It is in the A- range. Mostly I found it strange that one of the main characters from the first half of the book completely disappears in the second half and we only get a third hand account of his fate. Oh yeah, it also mentions Alice in Wonderland.

Later by Stephen King

The other week I realized that I've read at least one Stephen King book every year that I've done this blog. Well the streak continues in 2021. Later isn't his best work but for a shorter casual read you could do a lot worse. Will I remember the details in a few years? No... but I did enjoy reading it. Let's say it gets a B.

Book # 23 - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

 Somehow The Brothers Karamazov wasn't quite what I was expecting. For such a long book I expected a huge epic story and that really isn't what it is. Anyway, I still enjoyed it, maybe because I had no idea what it was about before I started. I'll say it gets an A but I'm not sure if I've really processed the book enough in my mind after finishing it yet. It was nice to finally take the book off the shelf and read it too - way back when we first started this blog my mom got me a really nice copy of the book for Christmas and it had just been sitting on the shelf for eight years. She was probably the only person that ever read this blog so I'm sure she's probably up in heaven somewhere glad that I finally got around to reading the book she gave me.

Book # 53 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

 
Yep, I still have my copy of Heart of Darkness that I had to read multiple times in both high school and college. This particular copy has all of my notes from studying it - so I guess it was worth keeping all these years. A