Catcher in the Rye came up on the Chick Lit thread, which made me realise I've never read it, and am slightly embarrassed about that.

There's apparently a classic scene in The History Man, which I also haven't read, where the academics play a game called, I think Humiliation. Each has to confess to a Great Work they haven't read. Each confession is greated with comradely hilarity, until a young don confesses to never having read Hamlet. A long, hideous, embarrassed silence ensues.

What books (or plays or films) have WWers not read/seen, that they feel uneasily that they should have?

Just to start things off: I haven't read

Great Expectations
The Old Man and the Sea
Ulysses (I'm working on that one)
Brighton Rock
Wide Sargasso Sea

Emma

Moby Dick
the Great Gatsby - well, I tried...
Far From the Madding Crowd - again, I tried
The Satanic Verses

I dunno if I'm embarrassed not to have read them, but they are all books that people have given me and I've promised to give a go.

JB

With a certain amount of trepidation:

Brighton Rock
Crime and Punishment
Inferno
Catch-22

(oh, the shame)

However, as I have read Ulysses (groan), and The Odyssey, I believe that cancels out any scorn that may be cast my way about the others. I've done my time, dammit.



Myrtle

Good thread!

Mine would include:
Underworld (I tried)
The Great Gatsby (I sort of tried too but was reading something else I enjoyed loads more, so that kind of took over)
On The Road
100 Years of Solitude
And yeah, and I suppose something by Salman Rushdie

I know people had a moan on the 'books you're embarrased to love' thread that it's shallow to be embarrassed or we have crap friends, etc. But I have to say, it REALLY pisses me off when you say you haven't seen read a classic book/seen a classic film/heard a classic album, and someone else says 'Oh my God, I can't believe you haven't...'.

Cath

I read On the Road and it was great. You should also try The Rum Diary by Hunter S.Thompson. I tried Hell's Angels and it is interesting up to a point but I just find fiction so much more interesting than journalism (even if it is Gonzo).

The Bible - now, anyone who hasn't read that should be embarrassed surely?

JB

My brother is totally obsessed by Hunter S Thompson. I think the way he's taken to calling everyone 'pig-fuckers' as a result put me off reading HST.

Well, The Rum Diary isn't typical Hunter as it's fiction and the rest is pretty tolled-up journalism. Very funny, but often a bit much. The Rum Diary is currently being made into a film with Johnny Depp and Josh Hartnett.

JB

<Added>

*Tooled-up!

I'll start off by looking at everyone else's lists:

Catcher in the Rye (...own it, though)
Ulysses (...own it)
Brighton Rock
Wide Sargasso Sea
Moby Dick (...own it)
The Satanic Verses (...and I own two copies of it!!!)
Inferno (...own it again)
Catch 22
100 Years of Solitude (once again I own it - somehow that makes it worse, doesn't it?)

I think there is already sufficient shame in this list for me to stop here.

Oh dear, my list could go on for a while, but for starters:

Satanic Verses (Can't but it where I live, but with Amazon I suppose that's no excuse)

Crime and Punishment
The Idiot
Heart of Darkness
Under the Volcano
1984 (The shame!)

I'll think I'll stop there. However, I've found going into bookshops a bit of a depressing experience recently. The shelves seem to go on forever, and I know there is no way, no possible way, I'll be able to read everything I want. But I'll have a go!

Harry


<Added>

Can't but it?! Can't buy it either.

Midnight's Children and The God of Small Things. Started them both and gave up.

F

Even more embarrassing - whole authors you haven't read? I put The Old Man and the Sea but could just as well have put All Hemingway. Not to mention All

Tolstoy
Amis, père et fils
Proust
Mann
Grass
Lessing
Eliot (George - stuck in Middlemarch for the 3rd time)
Eliot (T.S.)

Mind you, the Penguin 60s are very useful for knocking people of this list as painlessly as possible!

Emma

Well, if it makes everyone feel better, I reckon so far there's more stuff on other people's lists that I haven't read than have!

Cath

Why be embarassed at all? Samuel Johnson said,

'A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.'


Mike

I think if we were truly embarrassed we wouldn't list them...but that's a choice quote.

M.

I suppose the embarrassment has one useful function, if it propels you into reading something your really glad you did read.

On one hand, I do agree with S. Johnson. On the other hand, you try reading Milton if you know nothing about the Bible.

<Added>

Oops! I meant 'you're' not your