Thanks for the recs, Jen. Your post is bookmarked, and will go with me to the library tomorrow.

Si vous comprenez francais, lirez Le Petit Prince en francais.

Q'uest-ce que si je comprends Francais seulement assez au lire ces mots?

_Cowboys Are My Weakness_ by Pam Houston.

Is that the one where, in an early story in the collection, a character walks something like 80 miles in one night to get water? I could not get past the fact she walked too far too fast for a human to enjoy the literary values of the story. (I know the point of the story is not how far she walks, but I get hung up on things like that.)

I was wondering why no one mentioned Copperfield or Oliver Twist in re: Dickens. Is "Oliver Twist" worth reading or simply over-exposed?

Also, it occurred to me over my double cheesburger at lunch that we had a kurfuffle over, of all things, anti-intellectualism and the value of litcrit. Others, possibly some here, have kerfuffles over American Idol voting and sports scores and such. If we argue about the definition of intellectualism, doesn't that, by default, make us intellectuals, therefore not anti-intellectual?

It made sense while eating a double cheesburger.

Our community standard is that if you don't want to participate in a conversation you do not try to undermine it either.

If you're going to make a statement like this, for the love of Mike, separate your two points. Inline comments about specific works, which happens anytime there's a focused discussion about anything from cars to grammar to cheese (like: swiss; hate: brie, which is raunch) != a dislike of critical discussion, so while both may have been stated, conflating them just makes you seem like you're lecturing people about the wrongness of personal tastes, be that your intent or no.

I don't equate saying "Hey, I didn't like Moby Dick because of its encyclopaedic wanderings," with trying to undermine a conversation.

I equate it with participating in the conversation.

The book that I'm going to use as my 'what Classic to read next' guide is Gothic: 400 Years of Excess, Evil, Horror, and Ruin.

I took a class on American Gothic literature, and one of my favorite books in it was Absalom, Absalom! but I'm afraid of scaring you away from books in general if you dive into Faulkner so early. I really do think Crime and Punishment is incredibly readable and compelling for a classic.

5. _Candide_ by Voltaire. Oh, the sarcasm. Oh, the viciousness. Oh, the funny.

Yes! Oh, Pangloss, you optimistic fool.

6. _Lust and Other Stories_ by Susan Minot.

"Lust" is amazing, but I haven't read anything else by her.

Okay. Wanna tell me why?

Oh, sure. You want details....

Other people have chimed in with good reasons for the rec, but I'll just say that for my part, it's very affecting, and presents a vivid picture of its time and place. Plus Atticus Finch.

Screw Atticus. Great man, wonderful father.

For me, it's all about Scout. A little girl like no other. I will read this book to my daughter and hope that she gets just a smidge of Scout's honesty and capacity for love and acceptance.

Q'uest-ce que si je comprends Francais seulement assez au lire ces mots?

Pas de problem. Les mots dans le lire sont tres simple.

I don't think the walking-80-miles-to-water story is in _Cowboys Are My Weakness_.

It happens that my "classics" are mostly in the two six-foot by four-foot bookcases behind me in the office. (There are more bookcases in other rooms.) I'm going to turn around and see what I recommend.

Certainly To Kill a Mockingbird. It's about loss of innocence and doing the right thing, no matter how painful it is. The viewpoint character is one of the best little girls in fiction.

Moll Flanders. It's about a whore who doesn't even have a heart of gold. There's sex and amazing coincidences! What's not to like?

Tom Jones. There's sex and amazing coincidences! What's not to like?

Gulliver's Travels. One of the most vicious attacks on the damned human race, in which three fantastic societies (you know about the Lilliputians) illustrate the flaws of human society.

(to be continued)

For me, it's all about Scout. A little girl like no other.

Here is my Scout story.

It took me about fifty pages to realize Scout was a girl.

It took me another fifty to realize she was white.

Does anyone have an interest in a list of poetry recommendations? I'd be happy to do it but only if it would be useful.