It’s that time of year where the course catalog is sent out, where I agonize over what courses to take because there are so many options, and where I help everyone else figured out how to take chemistry, biology, statistics, and psychology 102 in a semi-reasonable fashion. This Thursday is the day I register for spring classes, and it looks like I’ll be taking Introduction to Literature. I need a “verbal expression” class for my liberal arts requirements, and speculative fiction sounds way too much like political science fiction. Therefore, it looks like I’ll be reading these books come next spring:




I’ve heard great things about Complete Persepolis, and Oscar Wao, which won a Pulitzer Prize, was quite popular on the blogosphere a while back. The others, though, I’ve never even heard of before.
Quite a few people considered it cute when Pride and Prejudice was infused with zombies; I saw it as a mockery of a classic novel. Then, in July, Quirk Classics announced it would be publishing Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and I said no way, no how. August saw the introduction of Mr Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange, whose first attempt at conveying Darcy’s thoughts left me less than satisfied.
And then I found out at the beginning of October Del Ray Books was jumping on the band wagon with Little Women and Warewolves, which is set to be released in June 2010. (Not to be out done, Quirk announced four days ago about it would be releasing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, a prequel to their bestseller.)
Little Women is one of the first books I remember receiving as a gift. My mom gave me a beautiful hardback copy that I love probably even more than I do the story. I thought this had gone too far with Pride and Prejudice because j’adore Jane Austen, but Little Women is a very special book to me and this just feels wrong. So wrong.
Anyways, what do you think about “monsterfication”? Should these classics be left alone? Or can you just not wait to get your hands on a copy of Little Women and Warewolves, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, and/or Mr Darcy, Vampyre.
I’m starting to think the Classics Challenge ‘09 isn’t my cup of tea. This year, I didn’t read a single book of my original list, and instead had to “resort” to old favorites to get anywhere on the challenge. (Huck Finn and I just were not getting along.) The challenge ran from April 1 to Oct. 31, 2009, and I tried to participate at the “Classics Snack” level, which means I was aiming to read four classics plus a bonus book.
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
- Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
- Emma (Jane Austen)
- The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
- Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
- Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
I’m starting to think that maybe I just wasn’t meant to participate as a reader in Dewey’s Read-a-Thon. Last year, I had prom on the same day at the read-a-thon; this year I have the Worcester Novice Invitational Regatta until late morning, an alumni dinner from early afternoon to the wee hours of the night, and in between all of this I’ll be helping my friend, Katie, move from one dorm to another. But I thought I would share some of the books I would be reading if I was participating just as I did last year. So if you haven’t finalized that list year or are making one more trip to the library, here’s what I would be reading.






- Baghdad Diaries (Nuha Al-Radi) — One woman’s account of the life in Baghdad during the first war on Iraq.
- The Cage Keeper (Andrew Dubus III) — By the author of House of Sand and Fog, this one is a collection of stories about those who stand on the fringe of society — ex-cons.
- Digging to America (Anne Tyler) — I bought this one at my library’s book sale because I really, really liked the cover.
- The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) — This is a reread for me (my review), but, alas, it’s for a class and I need a little refresher before I start writing my paper on it.
- The Lexus and the Olive Tree (Thomas L. Friedman) — I’ve been having a difficult timing getting into Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem, so I’m hoping I’ll have better luck with this one.
- Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood) — I told my adviser and professor I was under-stimulated by my classes, so she promptly threw this book at me and we have an appointment to discuss it in November.
Title: Oryx and Crake