Sat in a seminar last week, with Anna Karenina on my lap, my lecturer made the obligatory speech that introduced us to the novel. “This is what University is for” he exclaimed, before going on to claim that to die without reading Tolstoy was, a tragic loss.
When we are at University, we are expected to read. Whether this means textbooks, plays, novels, short stories or poems, reading is considered essential to learning. However what this lecturer unknowingly illustrates is the belief that there is a small, close-knit collection of books that are considered vital to our development and learning. This idea is not uncommon, and there are lists entitled ’10 books to read before you die’ and ‘5 books to read before you graduate’ which have conceived to help the floundering reader.
The question is, as university students, who want to learn and develop as much as possible, should we be reading these prescribed books? Being a literature student who loves Tolstoy and can’t get enough of Dickens, I should be nodding furiously. However, after trawling through some of these lists, it is quite the opposite.
And therefore, instead of writing an obscure and biased book review, or another blasé list that sings the same dull notes, I thought I’d try to put together a list of books that you are told you should read, when really you shouldn’t.
1) How to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Collins
How to Kill a Mockingbird is one of the classics. Dealing with the issue of race in a small town in America, it won a Pulitzer Prize and has since then become infamous. I read this book about a year and a half ago, and the only thing I can remember from it is that one of the characters was called Boo. Telling, no? Seriously though, I struggled to finish this book, and when I did, I was disappointed. It may be a classic and remarkable in it’s own time, but it is no page-turner, and if you’re looking for thrills, you’re looking in the wrong place.
2) Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare
The amount of people I meet that gush about Shakespeare after learning that I study English is incredible. It’s like they believe that’s all English students study, and that every one of us should be bonkers about him. I am happy to say I am not, and would happily dissuade anyone from considering lightly reading Shakespeare. First off, who in their right minds reads plays for fun, and secondly, these plays are meant to be performed, not read. Othello may be a masterpiece, but you’re missing the point if you pick up the book.
3) The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Another book hailed as a classic. Currently being made into a film with Leonardo Di Caprio, the book is rich pickings for an English student, who has a love of annotating and close reading texts to death. However, for anybody else, it usually fails to live up to expectation. Yes, there’s the odd sprinkling of the glitz and glamour of 1920s America, but in retrospect, the psychological elements of the novel make it disappointing in terms of escapism.
4) Jane Austen
One word springs to mind about Austen: Vanilla. Yes, she was a genius, and her books are entertaining, light-hearted and universal in truth, but seriously, if you’re going to devote your time to reading, pick something a little more adventurous. In my personal opinion, an obsession with Austen is like an obsession with the colour magnolia – it shows no personality, and is too passive to be taken seriously.
5) Ulysses – James Joyce
James Joyce was a madman. I’m all for realism, but describing in minute detail banal tasks such as going to the toilet, really does not appeal. As well as this, it’s a mammoth of a book, and won’t gain you any cool points for reading – people will just consider you ridiculous and laugh at you.
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As this shows, lists, advice and suggestions all are defunct when it comes to deciding what books will be the best to read. Instead, it is completely up to you, and is dependent on your tastes and your lifestyle.
I think the only thing I could possibly promote or advise when it comes to reading, is to branch out. Look for the new writers or even the books that are collecting dust in the corner. If you’re not a big reader or have a short attention span, go for an anthology of short stories, written by one or many authors, or if you’re a lover of Austen and the classical writers, try and see who was also writing at that time and give them a go. If you’re looking for high-octane thrills, try out different genre writings or switch cultures for the ultimate form of escapism.
The idea that I’m trying to get across here is that there are no rules. The beauty of reading is that the options are limitless, and instead of conforming, we should fight against lists and opinions, and decide for ourselves what is worth reading and what is not.
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