Why 100?

Last year I set out to read 100 books, but I ran out of time and only read 75. So this year, I will read one hundred books. And you're my witness :) The only thing stopping me this year is 9 seasons' worth of Seinfeld episodes- wish me luck!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Scarlet Letter.... Number 40!

The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
I will admit that I have yet to read many "classics" from America's literature canon.  The Scarlet Letter is one of those books that I wasn't force-fed in high school, and I somehow avoided it in ALL of my college lit classes.  Instead, I was introduced to Hawthorne by way of "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Birthmark," and "Rappacini's Daughter."  These were all incredible short stories that I reccomend to anyone, therefore I was very enthusiastic upon cracking the spine of The Scarlet Letter.  Therefore I am a very unsatisfied reader.  Hawthorne's short stories are so inspiring and enthralling and then he throws this crock of over-elegant Puritan psychological mind shit our way.  I don't mind so much, except that this is how most people are introduced to him.  He has, in a sense, put a scarlet letter of B (for boring) on himself to all high school students that are given a copy of The Scarlet Letter  to read involuntarily.  And then they are unaware that he is actually a pretty good author that writes short stories, not long, tedious, melodramatic ones.  Anyway, that's about all i have to say for tonight.  Hopefully I can make a change to the high school curricula and give my students "Rappacini's Daughter" rather than The Scarlet Letter and give Hawthorne an updated image to the next generation. 

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