Why haven’t you read Dickens? You know you want to.
Posted By Christina M on July 10, 2010
My personal recommendation is Oliver Twist. David Copperfield is a very, very close second.
And then you can tackle Shakespeare, C. S. Lewis’ non-fiction, and Charlotte’s Web. The book, not the movie.
The point to all this? Never stop learning. You learned in elementary school because they told you to. You learned in high school because you dreaded the loss of college and the pains of restriction. You learned in college because, by gum, you’d paid for it.
And now it’s a warm Saturday and you have the evening to watch tv. Go learn something for you, instead. Not for a teacher, a parent, a job, a promotion, or a degree. Just for the sheer joy of learning. You ate your brussels sprouts. Now go take a bite of chocolate cream pie. Learning for joy is a pleasure you won’t want to give up.
heh I read all the time, and have read many classics.
I think the reason people resist reading Dickens, DeFoe, et al is because of the much slower pace. The books require patience, as the authors wrote for a time when story-telling was the main entertainment, and people wanted their yarns to spin out as far as possible. Once you get into them, though, you start to get a feel for the culture of thos antique times…and the stories really are very good!