A bit of reading history

Way Back in 1999, I decided to take on the challenge of reading all the books one should read.  You know the classics.  The books that are constantly being referred to in pop culture.  And I have been reading mainly classics ever since.

My main problem back then was finding a good list of what should be read (the internet was not as robust at that time).  And honestly, I am not sure where I got the titles I added to my list.  Of course, with today's internet there are many more sources to create a good list.  Recently I have come across the Modern Library's list and I thought it would be fun to see how I am stack up.

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald  - Read 8/99, 6/08, 9/08, 11/10
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley (Read in HS but don't really remember)
6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence -
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck -Read 3/04
11. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
13. 1984 by George Orwell (started in 1984 but never finished, just too young at the time)
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf -started but never finished
16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
20. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O’Hara
23. U.S.A.(trilogy) by John Dos Passos
24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James (All Henry James was a big must read for me, just didn't get to)
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald -Read 11/99
29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell -Read in HS (one of my favs and I need to reread soon)
32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
36. ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
37. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
40. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence -Read 6/01
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
52. PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
55. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
56. THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
57. PARADE’S END by Ford Madox Ford
58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton -Read 8/01
59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
60. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
61. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
66. OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham (on my reading list since 99)
67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis - Read 9/09
69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
72. A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
73. THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling
79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
81. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
86. RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
87. THE OLD WIVES’ TALE by Arnold Bennett
88. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
89. LOVING by Henry Green
90. MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy
93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles
94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
96. SOPHIE’S CHOICE by William Styron
97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
99. THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

Wow, I really haven't made a dent in their top 100.  Here is a list of the other books I did read.

My list not in the top 100

Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - Read 1/99

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - Read 3/99

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne -Read 4/99
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell -Read 5/99

Tin Drum By Gunter Grass -Read 2/00
Washington Square by Henry James -Read 8/00

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -Read 9/00, 1/05

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -Read 10/00

Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell  -Read 11/00

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James -Read 1/01

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein -Read 5/01

Lord of the Ring by JRR Tolkein -Read 5/01

Little Women by  Louisa May Alcott -Read 8/01

Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence -Read 9/01

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen -Read 11/01

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe -Read 1/02

Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens  -Read 4/02

Silas Marner by George Eliot -Read 10/02

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy -Read 6/03

East of Eden by John Steinbeck - Read 7/03

The Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum -Read 8/03

John Steinbeck short stories -Read 2/04

****Had my 1st baby in April 04****

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck -Read 11/04

Read the Harry Potter Series while pregnant with my 2nd child in 05/06

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith -Read 3/06

****Had baby #2 in June 06*****

The Short Stories of F Scott Fitzgerald, Edited by Matthew Brucolli -Read 9/07

The Hounds of the Baskervilles by Sir Aurthur Doyle -Read 11/07

Persuasions by Jane Austen -Read 12/07

Emma by Jane Austen -Read 1/08

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee -Read 2/08

This Side of Paradise by F Scott Fitzgerald -Read 3/08

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl -Read 3/08

The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald -Read 5/08

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald -Read 4/09

The Crack up by F Scott Fitzgerald - Read 7/09

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck -Read 11/09

(This is when I stopped recording my reading in my reading journal)

As you can see, I am a fairly slow reader.  I would get about a book a month when I was in full swing, and once I hit the having babies stage of my life my reading really slowed down.   Well, good, bad or other wise that is my reading history, at lest going back to 1999.

I find it very interesting.  As I was typing out the list, I realized that although my memories of themes. characters and plots may have faded, the memories of reading theses novels are very real.  I can recall specific rooms and environments that correspond with almost every novel.   I was lucky enough to read the cluster of Steinbeck novels while my husband was stationed in Monterey, CA.  I remember hanging out in the pool in Mexico as I read Jane Erye.  I would read Silas Marner as I walked a shaded Washington path to work.  I even remember the frustration and the elation of getting through A Tale of Two Cities.

Well, my journey through the classics is stil motoring ahead.  I am just taking an extented stay in Fitzgeral-land.

-Laurie

Participating in a Read-a-thon?

Dead White Guys and The Souls of Thought are hosting a Read-a-thon this weekend, Dec 3rd.  I think I will jump in and do some reading.

Like most, I am not sure I will make a full 24 hours, after all I do have 2 young kids that need attending, and I have a nasty habit of falling asleep after 20 minutes of reading.  I am hoping to break through that 20 minute slump and put a dent into my reading pile.

I won't be buying any new books for the read-a-thon, as I already have a pretty good pile on my night stand.  And, yes, I will be reading Fitzgerald short stories and biographies, I may even get to that Hemingway novel, who knows.

I will be posting updates as I progress.  How about you? Are you participating?

-Laurie

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerld An American Woman's Life by Linda Wagner-Martin, a review

source-Amazon

Where should I start?

I read this book over the summer.  Yes, I finished this book back in July, and it is now November, that is 4 months.  Why should it take me 4 months to write up a little blurb on this biography?  Hmm, I think I was trying to give it space. This particular book made me mad.  Yep, that is right.  It mad me mad and angry and question a whole bunch of stuff that isn't really related to Zelda. And honestly, I am not sure I want to get into it all, because it is a really big topic that is emotionally charged and I am not equipped to tease it out.

So what made me so mad?  Basically, I had the feeling that the author of this book had an agenda. 

And that agenda was that since Zelda was misunderstood and marginalized that Scott Fitzgerald must have been the cause.   I didn't get the feeling that the author was able to look at these two individuals possessing both good and bad traits, rather, one had to be good and the other bad.

Now, I haven't really gotten into my feeling of Zelda.  And that is on purpose.  Mostly, because I don't know much about her.  It is not through Zelda or his flappers that I relate to Fitzgerald, as I have stated in the past, it is through his men. 

But what I have read about Zelda from other sources and what I read about Zelda in this book seems to be at odds.  Well, maybe not at odds, but definitely a skewed view of events.  I get that Zelda, as an individual was over shadowed by her famous and talented husband, I get that we may know her only from the Fitzgerald scholars eyes, and that most of those eyes were male.   I get all that.  But I felt that Ms. Wagner-Martin wanted to take all responsibility of Zelda's life out of her hands and say she was not responsible for any of it.

OK, I am getting worked up again, so I will make it short and say simply, I did not like this.  I don't trust the author, I felt she made large leaps to what Zelda thought about things, things we could never know.  I think there was an agenda.

I felt that the author wants Zelda to be a hero.  And guess what, she is to many people.  As she is.  Faults and all.  Don't white wash Zelda.  Don't make Scott responsible for all the troubles Zelda had.  Scott and Zelda had a tumultuous relationship.  That is true, but they were both responsible for how things turned out.

-Laurie

The Baby Party- All The Sad Yound Men, 1926

When John Andros felt old he found solace in the thought of life continuing through his child.  The dark trumpets of oblivion were less loud at the patter of his child's feet or at the sound of his child's voice babbling mad non sequitors to him over the telephone.

Being a mom of school-aged children, it was not so long ago that I was in glorious bubble of having babies.  And it is a glorious bubble.  The world revolves around the little pink bundles of joy you have some how managed to create and bring into the world.  They are magnificent and they become everything.  The sun rises and sets on your child.

"A dozen mothers, and each one looking at nothing but her own child.  All the babies breaking things and grabbing at the cake, and each mama going home thinking about the subtle superiority of her own child to every other child there."

You wait for the time you get to brag about your child and every comment has a "meaning".

Edith wondered if "little Ede" referred to the fact that Billy Markey, though several months younger, weighed almost five pounds more.  Accepting a cup of tea she took a seat with tow other ladies on a divan and launched into the real business of the afternoon which of course lay in relating the recent accomplishments and insouciances of her child.

And, again, Fitzgerald catches this in The Baby Party.

I could easily see how this story could be lumped into his "written for the hire" category, and I can see why.  The Baby Party can easily be written off as contrived.  However, for me, sitting on this side of motherhood, the story takes on a deeper meaning.  I see how a simple struggle for a child's toy can easily spin out of control and how it escalates into a fist fight.  It is easy to forget how caught up in raising your children, and how wrapped up in the whole essence of them that everything takes on heighetend meaning and stress.  I am sure that to father's the siginificance of the physical fight takes on meaning that I as a mother I can only guess at.

I am very curious to hear what you thought of this story and where you are in the parenting life cycle.

-Laurie

Read The Baby Party here

Illustrations are from the wonderful collection of Emma Block- She has some great Fitzgerald illustrations that I am dying to get copies of.

And just for fun here are my babies at 2 1/2...

On the outside

Zelda was a woman who was certain of her charms and knew how to use them to her advantage.

source-Mermaidens

And Scott was someone who had a grasp on certain aspects of his appeal, but also had much insecurities that haunted him throughout his life.

source

The more I read about both Zelda and Scott, I am able to see why I relate with Scott and Scott' s male characters from his works.  In my younger years, there was always a doubt when it came to the men in my life.  A unstable footing, an question that had always lingered.  I was not the confident girl who threw caution to the wind and flaunted expectations.  Instead I wanted to belong, but felt no matter how I tried, I was not ever going to be on the "inside".

source

There has always been the battle within myself, the battle between how I think the world should see me and how the world actually sees me, and I think the world gets it wrong.  I sense that battle in my reading of his work.  The feeling of being on the outside of the group in which he felt he belonged, but not ever being able to feel comfortable within that group, and some how knowing that there was no other group to feel comfortable in.  

I don't know, it is just some thoughts.

-Laurie

Armie Hammer as Scott Fitzgerald?

We went to see J.Edgar last night.  As I sat there watching it I couldn't help thinking that Armie Hammer would make a great Scott Fitzgerald.

 source

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What do you think?

-Laurie

Cause shes a Blond ya ya ya

I must admit I am surprised to find out that Zelda Fitzgerald is a blond.  In my head she was the quintessential brunette flapper.

source-Wiki

I look a picture like this an see the darkness- I guess it could be blond.  But then a picture such as this...

source

Leaves me with no doubt that she is a dark haired beauty.  But I am wrong.  Or at least if I am to believe the biographers I must go on board with this Zelda as a blond bit. 

 source

source

OK, yes I know she is blond.  I have previously written about her being brunette and I wonder how many others are mistaken about her hair color as I have been.

In the end, blond is a very strange hue.  I consider my daughter to be a blond, and yet she tells me she has brown hair. 

I have always been blond myself.  Of course my hair was naturally lighter in my youth and has darkened over the years, But I am always blond, even if I have to help it along. 

-Laurie

Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston, a review

I finished Gatsby's Girl a few weeks ago, and I am full of mixed feeling, which is probably why it has taken me a while to put this together.

source-Amazon

I have to start by saying the subtlety, beauty and magic of Fitzgerald's writing is not present in this book.  Which may be a given, but I fee the need to say it.

Gatsby's Girl falls into the category of fan fiction.  The author wants us to be aware the story she writes is loosely based on the love of Scott and Ginevra, and that there are many things she has altered and imagined.

OK. Got it, not an accurate portrayal.  Not based on all the facts.  An imagined, possible scenario of events that may or may not have happened. 

So, where does that leave me?  Are you getting the idea I am not really sure what I think of this book.  On one side, I am a bit of a purist.  If you want to write a book on the love of Scott and Ginevra, base it on the facts that are known.  Don't change it up to suit the story you want to tell.  But on the other hand, have we all not spent time daydreaming about what could have happened, what they might have been thinking?  Didn't Scott play around with the big "what ifs" questions in his short stories?

I guess, in the end, I think it is a fail.  I don't think she captured my imagination of the great love between them, or the misinterpreted love if you will.  I found the Ginevra character thin and weak.  I think the real Ginevra was much more deep and devious than she was presented in this novel.

In the end I say read Babes in the Woods, by Scott or The Perfect Hour, by James West to get the real story. 

-Laurie

The Rich Boy-All The Sad Young Men, 1926

"Begin with an individual, and before you know it you find that you have created a type; begin with a type, and you find that you have created-nothing.  That is because we are all queer fish, queerer behind our faces and voices than we want anyone to know or than we know ourselves."

 source-Camille

Straight away, the opening page of The Rich Boy is classic Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald is famous for his flappers and his obsession with the Rich.  The Rich Boy is his story about the rich (duh).  It is where you find his famous line
"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me..."  But forget about the Hemingway punch line and continue to read..."They posses and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand.  They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are....Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are.  They are different." 
Yes, The Rich Boy is the story where Fitzgerald puts it out there, the story of the youthful rich boys he pressed his nose up against.

This story is filed with lines and quotes that struck me.  Some as simple as..."Most of our lives end as a compromise" or "The words wrung her heart like hands" and "Life, has made a cynic of me".  The simple combination of words are able to evokes such strong images or feelings.

But, to me, it is some of the longer passages that speak personally to me. Especially when he is talking about Dolly.  "Since she was ten she had always been in love, and usually, with some boy who didn't respond to her.  Those who did- and there were many-bored her after a brief encounter, but for her failures she reserved the warmest spot in her heart,"..."It never occurred to this gypsy of the unattainable that there was a certain resemblance in those who refused to love her-they shared a hard intuition that saw through to here weakness..."  That was me.  I could go into the this and thats and defend myself, but in the end.  I was Dolly Karger.    Passages like this, that speak directly to my experience is what makes him my author.  I am constantly amazed at how he creates connections to my life across time, space and gender.

And it doesn't stop there.  Oh no, how about "They dropped out of the world for a while and made another just beneath it"?  Makes me want to drop out of the world as well, or at least go back to the world I created when I dropped out with the boy who stole my heart.

Just one more..."Her dedication to the Goddess of waste would have been less obvious had she been less spirited- she would most certainly throw herself away..." Nummy.


The Rich Boy, like May Day is somewhere between a short story and a novella (does that make it a novelette?).  I would have liked to see The Rich Boy developed further and made into a full novel.  As I read it, it just feels like it should have been longer.

What do you think?  Have you read The Rich Boy and if so is it one of your favorites as well?

-Laurie

"I don't think he was ever happy unless someone was in love with him, responding to him like filings to a magnet, helping him explain himself, promising him something.  What it was I did not know.  Perhaps they promised that there would always be women in the world who would spend their brightest, freshest, rarest hours to nurse and protect that superiority he cherished in his heart."

Here is a little bonus.  In the story The Rich Boy, there is a passage where young people are singing in the corners...

The Rose of Washington Square

Read it here...The Rich Boy

Taking Fitzgerald to lunch

I have been having a pretty sucky couple of weeks.  I don't really want to go into it too much, except to say I have not been the easiest person to have around. And today was no exception.  So instead of being miserable, I decided it was time to run away and make time for me.  And of course I brought Fitzgerald along for the ride.

First up, lunch.  I figured the best way to cheer myself up was to get one of my favorite meals.  So off to PF Chang's to have some Mongolian Beef.  I am not sure if Scott likes Chinese food?  I have a feeling it would not be what he would want.  But since he was just keeping me company, I did not think it too rude.

I am now hiding away at the local Starbuck's.  Enjoying my holiday latte.

I had a quick converstaion with the Barista about Scott.  Initially she thought FSF was a pen name for a female writer.  But she did recommend I read some of Dorothy Parker's short stories. I don't consider myself a book snob, but it was refreshing to find another reader who is reading something other than YA Fiction.

Well, I hate to cut this short, but I am off to my book.

I am finally getting to "All the Sad Young Men".  I have been surprised that this collection of stories was rather difficult to find in paperback, considering some of his better short stories are collected here.  But my cheapness and book buying quirks will need to be addresses at a later time.

Any how.  I am off to enter the world of Anson Hunter aka The Rich Boy.

Talk to you soon
-Laurie

Fitzgerald Silhoutte

So I have been thinking of creating a personalized book plate for my Fitzgerald books.  I am thinking of using a silhouette of Fitzgerald with some funky background.  I am still working out the design, but in the process I discovered this on Etsy, and I thought I would share.

And all for $12.00.

You can find it on Etsy by Hello Grey Day.  She has a whole bunch of authors as well.  Check it out.  And Hey, what a great gift idea for your bookworm.

-Laurie

What the heck is Fitzgerald Musings all about anyways??

I am not sure where Fitzgerald Musings fits in the whole blog universe.  It is hard for me the really define what it is.  On the surface it is a blog about F Scott Fitzgerald.  But really it is not that simple.  I am not really reviewing his work, as I am not a critic.  I am not writing about his life, as I have nothing new to add and I am just learning those facts myself, and I am not really writing a fan site, not really. But in the end the name of the blog is Fitzgerald Musings and the blog is focused on his writing and his life and writings about his writings. 

I guess I could have named the blog something else, like Laurie's Book Shelf, but in the end I would have spent most of the time discussing the writings of F Scott Fitzgerald, because that is who I want to read right now, and it is who I want to learn about.  So Fitzgerald Musings it is.  

I am not sure if I have ever really iterated my thoughts on the direction of the blog.  I know I have vocalized it in conversations with friends and family, but I can't say I have really put it in writing (and if I have, here it is again).

I feel that I have something to learn from Fitzgerald's writing.  Not something about how the world was in the 1920's or how beautifully Scott wrote, or even how tragic his life was.  Instead, I have things to learn about myself from the lines that Scott penned.  From the way he lived his life or did not live his life.  I have things to learn from his mistakes and short comings and how he thought things out.

Getting a bit more personal, I have often felt like an outsider, like my thoughts are skewed or somehow not normal, and often misinterpreted.

But when I read Fitzgerald, I feel he saw things the way I would have seen them.  In short, his work resonates with me.  He makes me feel like we are seeing through the same eyes.  But unlike Fitzgerald, I am bumbling around trying to find words that can somehow express my thoughts and feelings.  He has already mastered them for me.  When I read Fitzgerald I am no longer the awkward girl, I am, some how, in the know.

-Laurie

I am thinking about changing the name in the future, but haven't fleshed out the right change, also I am not sure if I want to mess around with it.