Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Here's the problem with setting a goal to read every book on some list. You'll inevitably end up reading some book you know you're going to hate. This play is a great case in point. In my Modern English Literature (English as in from England and her former colonies) class we had to read a bunch of stuff by Samuel Beckett because my teacher was in love with him. It was then that I discovered that I really REALLY don't love experimental/modernist theater. I like my plays to have a story-line that involves action and something actually happening. Samuel Beckett's plays are hopeless and--to me at least--completely pointless.

His characters repeat their lives day after day and they're always in some post-apocolyptical situation where the world as we know it has ended and life is awful. I'm sorry, but I just don't ever see life getting that bad.

So anyways, moral of the story is: Unless you really like modern/experimental drama, don't read Samuel Beckett...

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I finally finished this book!! It took me a couple weeks, but I finally did it. It's a good book, but if you're going to read it, be sure to read it when you won't have to rush through it. It's overwhelming... and slow. I know for sure that it's one I'll have to read later to really understand. I read it when I was shellshocked from the wedding and had a major cold.

This is the author's debut novel, and for a debut it's amazing. I'm excited to read his work later on and see what he develops into. I just feel like it was such a big, slow moving novel, that I had to speed read to get into it, and by speed reading I lost a lot of the depth. In a few months or a year I'll go back and read it when I can take my time going through it. For now though, I'm just excited to get into something a little shorter.

Home by Marilynne Robinson

Regardless of whether or not you took my suggestion to read Gilead, you should read this novel. It's a companion novel to Gilead meaning that the two books cover the same time period, just from different points of view. While Gilead comes from the point of view of Reverand Ames, this novel comes from Glory's (his friend Boughten's daughter) point of view. You can't help but love Jack after reading this book.

This novel gives a much kinder portrait of Jack the "good for nothing" son of Boughten. Ames's view appears to be very sceptical and makes you distrust everything Jack does, but after reading Home, Ames actually appears to be the one who needs help. Ames appears unable to forget the past and constantly wants to remind Jack of his unglorious past.

Although this book is worth reading by itself, I whole heartedly recommend reading both Home and Gilead. Together they create a beautiful story about how different a person can be depending on who you talk to. Now connect that to your life. How often do you let one person's opinion of another person color your first impression of them?