I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude but didn't care for love in the Time of Cholera at all. Catch-22 is also worth reading.

That's an excellent list, megan. Although I have to say I've never head of La Princesse de Clèves.

Although I’m considering replacing Catch-22 with either One Hundred Years of Solitude or Love in the Time of Cholera. Thoughts?

One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favorite novels and one of my most pleasurable reading experiences.

Although I have to say I've never head of La Princesse de Clèves.

It's pretty big in the history of the novel and everybody reads it in school in France. I've been meaning to read it for a long time, but it has been used to protest Sarkozy of late, so I figure now is the time.

Plus, it's about the court of Henri II, and my mother grew up in the shadow of his mistress's chateau (seen in the opening of Thunderball ).

The Education of Henry Adams

Yay!

A favorite quote:

One never expected from a Congressman more than good intentions and public spirit. Newspaper men as a rule had no great respect for the lower House; Senators had less; and Cabinet officers had none at all. Indeed, one day when Adams was pleading with a Cabinet officer for patience and tact in dealing with Representatives, the Secretary impatiently broke out:—“You can’t use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!” Adams knew far too little, compared with the Secretary, to contradict him, though he thought the phrase somewhat harsh even as applied to the average Congressman of 1869;—he saw little or nothing of later ones;—but he knew a shorter way of silencing criticism. He had but to ask:—“If a Congressman is a hog, what is a Senator?” This innocent question, put in a candid spirit, petrified any executive officer that ever sat a week in his office. Even Adams admitted that Senators passed belief.

I love both Catch-22 and Love in the Time of Cholera. I own One Hundred Years of Solitude so that I can read it one day.

Megan, definitely read Atwood's Penelopiad for fun when you get a chance. Given that you re-read the Odyssey relatively recently, I think you'll love it.

I own One Hundred Years of Solitude so that I can read it one day.

I used to own it so that I could read it one day. And then I moved cross-country and decided it was never going happen.

Megan, definitely read Atwood's Penelopiad for fun when you get a chance. Given that you re-read the Odyssey relatively recently, I think you'll love it.

Oh, I'm sure I will. I just added it to Shelfari. This list was more based on a "what am I embarassed not to have read" concept.

My two big ones on that list are Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy. I have a copy of the latter but need to buy the former still.