hawkinsond is currently reading Many Thoughts of Many Minds (Quotations) and Poem-a-Day Collection.
I’m male, from the United States. I’ve been a DailyLit member since November 20, 2008. My reading interests include Classics, humor, short stories, nonfiction, and investing.
Books
- Many Thoughts of Many Minds (Quotations) 41% complete
- Uncle Tom's Cabin 97% complete
- Crush It! 100% complete
- Poem-a-Day Collection 100% complete
- Wikipedia Tour: The Grand Tour 5% complete
- Free Culture finished
- 30 Stories in 30 Days finished
- Jane Eyre finished
- The Intellectual Devotional II finished
- The Intellectual Devotional finished
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My Antonia finished
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Main Street finished
- MBA Mondays II finished
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man finished
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Poems by Emily Dickinson finished
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Robinson Crusoe finished
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War and Peace finished
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The Education of Henry Adams finished
- White Fang finished
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland finished
- Sylvie and Bruno finished
- The Hunting of the Snark finished
- Through the Looking-Glass finished
- The Beautiful and Damned finished
- The Best American Humorous Short Stories finished
- The Enchanted Castle finished
- The Adventure of the Speckled Band finished
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Moby Dick finished
- How to Speak and Write Correctly finished
- Book Sampler: American Classics finished
- Wikipedia Tour: Masterpieces of Western Art finished
- Book Sampler: Poetry finished
- Wikipedia Tour: Cheese 101 finished
- Wikipedia Tour: Wine 101 finished
- Leaves of Grass suspended
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Best of Technology Writing 2007 suspended
Posts
My Antonia - A major disappointment
My Antonia was not for me. Not terribly artfully written, it was not helped by a fairly boring, prosaic narrative. If Willa Cather is a great writer, she did not prove it by this book, though I'm willing to give her a chance with one of her others . . . Just not right now.
Main Street - A Classic
The issues, attitudes, and mores of Gopher Prairie are not just timeless but still poignant today--if you've ever lived in a small town, you will see yourself and your neighbors in this book.
Poems by Emily Dickinson - You have to give her credit . . .
for observing everything in her garden and in the trees and in the light and in her sock drawer, and yet she never went poor. Damn lucky, I say. She'd never survive today. The republicans would drag her off the front yard and make her sweep the streets.
Best of Technology Writing 2007 - I couldn't hack it . . .
It's just tedious and pointless. Go out and mow your lawn. It's time better spent.
Moby Dick - Damn that fish!!!!
I mean mammal. If you haven't read Moby Dick, you're not an American. Move to Canada. NOW!
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - A Necessary Read
To be culturally literate, you need to read at least some of the works by Lewis Carroll.
The Education of Henry Adams - Just awful . . .
'Nuff said.
War and Peace - Read in the winter
Make sure you have plenty of vodka with you--to stay in the Russian frame of mind.
Robinson Crusoe - Not really a classic
This is neither a children's book--for the excessive amount of violence in it--nor an adult's book since it suffers from an annoyingly naive tone. Yet, given the time when it was written, and the mores of the time, I suppose what seems today as gratuitous violence would have been a necessity then. On the whole, I grew bored with the book.
War and Peace - How could you not love this book?
Easy. War and Peace fits the description of a classic: A book everyone would have liked to claim reading but are glad they didn't. That it reflects an important historic event makes it important; that I actually read every word--especially the polemical dissertation at the end--makes me a time bandit. Recommendation: Not everything recommended by starchy old shirts is worth the effort. Starchy old shirts love the classics. But that's what makes them starchy old shirts--and very boring people.