This week's Top Five Wednesday challenge is to list five books that I want to read, but for various reasons I find intimidating. Here are five well-known classics that make my list.
- Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov (1969)
Having read Lolita and two more of Nabokov's novels and found his talent to be prodigious, I've collected a stack of others that have since gotten dusty waiting on me. One is Ada which, due to it's reputation as Nabokov's masterpiece and it's girth of 600 pages, has always seemed intimidating. Having looked it up on Goodreads while writing this I see that the topic is even more distasteful than that of Lolita, and I wonder if I could stomach it -- which has added even more to said intimidation!
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1719)
I was too young when I first tried to read this classic, so found the language and style overwhelming. As a result, that impression has stayed with me and I've been hesitant to try it again. - Orlando by Virginia Woolf (1928)
I don't know why this book has intimidated me so much, despite my love for Woolf's other novels. Perhaps it's the fact that it's a historical setting instead of her usual contemporary one, or maybe because it's so popular. Regardless, I've avoided it while devouring the rest of her work. - Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (1895)
I fell in love with Hardy's novels in high school, where I read The Return of the Native, Far From the Madding Crowd, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles in quick succession. Jude the Obscure was next on my list, until a lunch table discussion revealed that my classmate has just finished it and hated it. That put me off and I've never returned to give it a try. - A Passage to India by E.M. Forster (1924)
I've read and others of Forster's work, but despite being quite an admirer I've never read A Passage to India. When I first began to read Forster, I didn't have the knowledge I now have of India's history, so I wasn't as interested in the location, and the seriousness of the subject matter scared me. It's not so intimidating now, but I still have an odd reluctance to commit to it.
There are my top five -- have you read any of them? What books do you find most intimidating?
