Top Ten Favorite Classic Books

Its time for Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's theme is:  Top Ten Favorite Classic Books 

This year I joined The Classics Club and have agreed to read 50 classics in the next five years. This means I have read quite a few of these this year alone!  Here's my favorites so far: 

1. To Kill A Mockingbird: This is my favorite book period.  Its just amazing.

 

2. Great Expectations: I recently read this and was quite impressed.  I really liked how the main character really wasn't the best person at all times. He needed to be corrected several times.

3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:  I love this book, although it's been over ten years since I read it.  I think a reread is in order.

4. Slaughterhouse Five:  This book is unique and hilarious.

5. A Christmas Carol: Such a fun book for a holiday season!

6. The Hobbit: This is my favorite fantasy book.

7. The Count of Monte Cristo: I would love to reread this someday but it's a huge undertaking.

8. Anne of Green Gables: This is a cute fun tale I can't wait to read to my daughters (when I have daughters).

9. Catch 22: This is another unique and hilarious book.

10. Something Wicked This Way Comes: This is a fun a eery tale.

Making Up For Monday: Can't Wait for the Ending

It's time for Making Up For Monday!

This week's question: Do you read ahead or skip pages?

I was talking to my sister one day about a book.  I asked if she was surprised by the ending and she said "Not really; I read the last page."  Apparently this is something she does with every book.  She reads the last page so she knows where the book is going. I thought it was absurd, but when I mentioned it to my book club, I discovered she was not alone.  Many people read ahead.  

I am not one of those people.  I don't want to know where the book is going.  I want to take the journey the author intended for me to take, in the correct order. 

What about you?  Do you read ahead?  If so, why? 

Rabbit at Rest: 1 Star

Rabbit at Rest by John Updike

Seeing as I hated Rabbit is Rich, many may wonder why I even bothered with Rabbit at Rest.  The answer is simple: it also won a Pulitzer Prize.  Why?  I have no idea. Just as I expected, I also hated this book.

Once again we join Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom in his life, this time as a man attempting to retire after a heart attack. His wife is unhappy and wants to work.  His son is married and now has two children (one he is fond of, the other he is not). But he and his wife are not exactly making Rabbit's life easy. Rabbit's life is coming to a close and he can't seem to find happiness. 

I wonder why Rabbit can't find happiness.  Oh wait, it might be because he's is a terrible human being. He's crass and disgusting.  He cheats on his wife multiple times (without any remorse) and only thinks about women in the sexual sense.  If they can't or won't pleasure him sexually, he has no use for them. He's greedy, uncaring, and disgusting.  I couldn't stand him in the slightest and was happy to know that this was the last book he would ever be in. He does things that are so disturbing, I can't even stand to repeat them.

I walk away form the is series and hope to never think about Rabbit again. 

Rating: R (or possibly X)