It’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: A free choice, which means I can pick my own topic. I love books and I have to admit that sometimes I pick up a book to make more of a book snob. I like to think it as increasing my pretentious levels, however dispite picking on books for this reason, I found that I enjoyed most of them; once I spent a lot of time working these novels out. I thought I might post ten book I picked up to increase my pretentious levels.
- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I absolutely loved House of Leaves;however it can hardly increase my pretentiousness quotient because when I casually drop it into conversation none of my not-very-bookish friends have even heard of it. No, to raise my PQ it would have to be something like Ulysses… (which at the age of almost 50 I am beginning to think I will never read ,despite owning at least 2 copies of the wretched tome)
Doesn’t make a book more pretentious if no one has heard of it? Well maybe not with House of Leaves, you just need to show the pictures of the pages. I plan to read Ulysses and Finnigans Wake in order to increase my pretentious rate but I keep putting them off.
Yay for all of the Russian lit on your list this week! 😀 You know, you think that after reading War and Peace I’d be able to read something like Les Miserables but reading one page from that book, I said “Nope” and put it aside *shrugs* lol, one of these days…The Unbearable Lightness of Being is another one of those books that have been on my wish-to-read list for ages…
My TTT
I’m all about the Russian literature, I need to read more of it. I’m sure you’ll enjoy The Unbearable Lightness of Being, since it is a Czech post-modern novel and the soviet influences are still very strong.
I definitely need to read more of these books. They’re always on my TBR, but I quite often pick other books over them. Oops!
You should get on to them Chrissi, you want to be a bigger book snob, don’t you?
This is such a great topic, but perhaps too much Tolstoy. I think Anna Karenina has gone from being pretension to mainstream. I mean, if people have only read one of the great Russian novels it is usually Anna Karenina.
There is never enough Tolstoy. I could of added If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino instead of Anna Karenina but I didn’t think too hard about the list.
New York Trilogy, for the win!
Something tells me that you love this book
Hahahah great topic. I actually haven’t read many of these, but I remember loving The New York Trilogy. It was pretty surreal.
I am going to get around to Les Miserables (do I get extra pretension points if I read it in French?!) and House of Leaves eventually though. They are both on my list!
Reading it in the original language does give you more pretension points
Haha, great topic! I was lacking in inspiration for a topic this week. I am ashamed to admit to how many of these books are sitting on my shelves unread. I did intend to read them at the time of buying, but…got distracted by other things, I guess. They do look good on my shelves though!
I think this pretty much sums it up
good title,ha, ha! I’ve only read Paul Auster’s and Milan Kundera’s works. Some friends recommended them and I truly enjoyed reading these books.
They are great books, a little difficult but worth the effort