The Washington Post has a great weekly feature called The Short Stack. Each week a writer or editor posts a lists of five books that fit within a particular theme. For the most part, I find these lists fascinating and I love the lists that readers post in the Comments. Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am going to shamelessly steal weekly themes to provide you with my own short stack each week. Or at least I'm going to try for each week. If I'm feeling really creative, I'll even come up with my own themes! And, of course, I want to hear what's in your short stack too.
This week's theme: Books I'm Afraid to Re-Read.
(1) The Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery (forgive me, Anali). I loved these books when I was somewhere in the 12 to 14 age range. I'm afraid though that a re-read as an adult might ruin them. What if Anne's annoying? What if Gilbert isn't as cute? What if it makes me roll my eyes?
(2) Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Because I know it's sad.
(3) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Same reason.
(4) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I went through a period in high school when I thought that Ayn Rand was brilliant and the world should be run according to her philosophy. After growing up a bit, I came to see her way of thinking as stark and in many ways cruel, and realized her world isn't one I'd want to live in at all. I'm tempted at times to re-read her work as an adult because I think it'd be interesting to compare my more experienced perspective with my idealistic adolescent notions. On the other hand, I'm afraid to discover just how dumb I was.
(5) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. This was a dark book and though I know I'd get a lot more out of it on a re-read, I'm just afraid to go back.
So let's hear it, what are you afraid to re-read?
1. Empire Falls by Richard Russo, because the scene where the dog is beaten to death still haunts me
ReplyDelete2. What to Expect When You're Expecting, because that would mean that I was expecting
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac, because when I met Jim he said it was his favorite book, and I worry that if I re-read it I will pyschoanalyze my husband
Oooo...I second Empire Falls. That's definitely on my list, for the same reason.
ReplyDelete2. The Kite Runner - because it's depressing.
3. Snow, by Orhan Pamuk - because it was terrible
4. The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan, because it just wore me out emotionally and I don't think I could go through that again.
5.Anything by Mercedes Lackey - because I've outgrown them
Related to that last - there are a lot of Scifi/Fantasy books that I steamed on through in high school that I probably wouldn't tolerate now. My pain threshold for poor writing is much lower than it once was. Or maybe I just value my time more.
I've never read Empire Falls and now I'm pretty sure I'm never going to :)
ReplyDelete-- know what you mean about Anne of Green Gables. I went through a major spurt of those around late high school and early college. (It was inspired partly by the PBS production.). I think I read all of them in the series, which requires a ridiculous amount of reading as it was fairly long. Not hard reading, but like enough already. And I also read some of her short stories and the Emily Series. Around the time I read the short stories I had enough of quirky orphans, the lovely P.E. setting and all the cosmicalness.
ReplyDelete--I have re-read some of the Emily series, but I've never found my way to get back into the whole Anne series.
--Speaking of Anne and co, I re-watched the third part of the PBS Anne of Green Gables series where Anne and Gil marry, Green Gables burns, they enter W.W. I, Gil's missing, Anne gets involved in espionage, etc. It was bad at the time and the re-watch made me realize how weird it was. At one point, I wailed, "I want my Anne and Gilbert" back, so I watched certain parts of the second one to cleanse the awfulness from my head. It helped.
--As for my list of what I don't want to read ever again, I'll think about it and see what I come up with.