Faulk. U

l am surprised that I have not yet mentioned that I managed to finish the first of Oprah's Summer of Faulkner challenge last week.  Yes, I wrapped up As I Lay Dying a full two weeks ahead of schedule... pretty impressive since I have not been terribly good about reading (or doing anything else for that matter) of late.  I won't win any writing awards by saying the book was a'ight... as previously mentioned, it was a bit of a challenge to read due to its structure and language... but my main feeling is that I have scratched something off the "to do" list.  I think I had a more enjoyable reading experience with Oprah's last two big summer reads... Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Steinbeck's East of Eden.

I have been watching the video lectures (thus my "Faulk U" title) on O's website and I am thinking I did not really "get" the book.  Or should I say all that I was supposed to.  Lots of lofty symbolism and, in general, just a lot of stuff I guess I was supposed to have figured out... but heck Mr. Professor Dude has probably read the book like 72 times and he can spend all day long figuring this stuff out!   That said, I did enjoy the book on a more basic level though ... so I am not totally "anti" Faulkner or the book!  Which is a good thing, since I have two more Faulkner novels to go to get through the boxed set!

The Sound and the Fury is the July book... so I still have some time.  However, it is a bit longer than AILD, so if I want to be a good boy I should really get an early jump on it.  But while I was in the book section of Costco picking up the Faulkner set, I also bought Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat... so maybe I'll sneak a few chapters of that in first.   So many books...

Comments

[Todd]

Couldn't help noticing Robert Gant over in the Fine Wine section. Sigh... He's so HOT!! Much, much more so than Gale Harold, imho. Swoon.... I'll go now... :-)