Tuesday’s Top Five – Books I’d love to read….. one day

As I slowly make my way through A Suitable Boy I’ve realised it could be quite a long time before my next book review.  I love writing posts about books so I’ve decided this week my Tuesday’s Top Five is going to take the place of my usual book review post for this month at least.  I, like many others I suspect, have become quite addicted to the various must-read book lists.  There are loads around, the Librarians Top 100, Angus and Robertson’s Top 100, Boxall’s 1001 Books to Read Before You Die and so on.  I usually fare reasonably well when I compare the lists to my own reading checklist, but they always remind me of the books I’d love to read given the time.  Mostly these books are big, both in size and ideas, not a quick Summer read or an easy before-bed wind down novel.  While there are probably many, many more books I could put on this list, I have narrowed my goals down to just five books I’d love to read when I have a little more time and a little more sleep (at the moment I can barely keep my eyes open for a few pages before succumbing to slumber), but hopefully I’ll be able to tackle at least one of these someday soon.

1. Anna Karenina – Tolstoy
I’m drawn to this Tolstoy classic for a number of reasons.  Firstly, Russia and Russian history intrigues me, probably a good thing given that I used to teach the Russian Revolution to my VCE students.  Secondly, this novel was constantly referenced in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which as you know, I adored.  And finally, I’ve never read any Tolstoy and I’d like to be able to check him off my list of authors I really should read (perhaps there’s a another top five list in that one).

2. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Here’s another author on that list potentially.  I actually own this book, a gift from a good friend a couple of years ago.  I guess I’m known to enjoy some of the tougher reads (my sister often tells me to read certain books that she hasn’t enjoyed but thinks I will.  She’s usually right, The Inheritance of Loss is a good example).  I’ve picked up Midnight’s Children at least twice, have made a start and then something happens that means I put it down for too long and can’t pick up the story line again.  It’s definitely a book that needs a decent amount of dedicated read-time.

3. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
Now there really is no excuse why I haven’t already picked up this one.  It’s so short that it has been classified as a novella rather than a novel.  On top of that, I actually studied African colonial history at university – how did I not get around to reading Conrad’s classic on the subject.  Perhaps this would be a good one to start with, and a quick way of getting another book down on my 15 books for the year challenge.

4. Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
The last two places on my list I struggled to decide on, there were so many I considered.  I decided on one of the ‘Great American Novels’ so to speak.  I’ve read quite a few English classics, but only a few from great American writers, of which there are many.  A few years ago I read John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and remembered why I loved American literature – The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Huck Finn, the list goes on.  Of course I don’t always agree with what is considered great, Cormack MCCarthy’s Blood Meridian for instance was so awful I couldn’t finish it.  But other than these ones I haven’t made much of a dent in the list of America’s finest.

5.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The last spot I’ve dedicated to a somewhat lighter read, a comedy and one my sister has been telling me to read or looking at me incredulously when I mention that I still haven’t gotten to this one.  Mind you there are some classics that she hasn’t read that make me hang my head in shame, well maybe that’s a little dramatic, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

I’d love to know what’s on your top five must-read list.  Which of the great authors do you want to tick of?

As for my epic read, I’m now half way through A Suitable Boy (yes, only half way, but in any other circumstance that would be a least a whole novel finished).  So far it’s been a lovely wander through Indian society in the early days of independence with the feisty Lata and her extended family, but I’m starting to wane with my enthusiasm.  I’m contemplating putting it down briefly to read something else and then coming back to finish the second half.  But, will I be able to pick it up again?  I would be heartbroken having gotten this far to have to start again, again.

Over at Liz’s she’s done quite a scientific evaluation of her top five vegies for the summer – including a formula!  Much more professional than my previous thrown together MVP of the garden list.