Top Ten Fridays: Reads I've Studied

Sorry this is a little bit late. I completely forgot to do this on Friday morning, and then it slipped my mind for the rest of the day. Better late than never, I suppose. So, without further ado....

Top Ten Reads I've Studied in my B.A. Degree in English:

10.) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - This book was read with my closest friends in the same class. We had many great discussions over all of our assigned readings, gathered round my friend's table and in her hot tub. This book was one of them.

9.) Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - A prequel to Jane Eyre and the crazy woman that lives upstairs in that novel. This is how she came to be so. Very good!!

8.) Romantic Poets - specifically Samuel Taylor Coleridge - The other poets are quite good as well. (Wordsworth, Blake, Byron, Shelley, and Keats) I also quite liked Blake.

7.) Twelfth Night by Shakespeare - I had never read nor studied this play before. I took a whole course on Shakespeare, which was excellent. I got to read a lot of the plays that I had not read before. This was one that I particularly enjoyed. It is funny and a love story. It is the one that Shakespeare describes in the end of the movie "Shakespeare in Love". It is well worth the read!!

6.) Hamlet (also by Shakespeare) - You cannot beat all of the soliloquies (speaches to oneself) in this play. It is brilliant.

5.) Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - This was a compilation of lectureds done for a women's college or university by Virginia. I love the topics and things she discusses here about women and what we can do. My favorite quote being: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

4.) The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - Her best book, I think. I have tried a few of her others, but they were not as good. This was studied in my Postcolonial Literature class, which was my favorite, (with the above study group I was talking about in number 10).

3.) Paradise Lost by John Milton - This was studied in my 17th century class in which there was 4 students including myself and the proffesor. We met in her office and had tea and treats. It was lovely. There were more great pieces in this class, but this was a highlight because it is so hard to understand and once you do, it is brilliant!!

2.) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Loved it. Another piece of Postcolonial Literature that is very good.

1.) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - This was the highlight for me, and what I will go back and do my Masters on if I ever get the chance. PLEASE!! Read the book do not see the movie "Apocalypse Now" first and then judge the book before you have read it. The book was way better. Trust me! The descriptions, the imagery...it is haunting and will leave you feeling haunted.

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I loved my first degree more than I thought I would. It was amazing. I love reading and learning. There is so much to learn in books and to experience. So much depth to novels that I never really examined until I began to read the above books.

I am planning on starting a book club this September because discussing books is so important in taking meaning from books and understanding them. I am very excited about this and can't wait.

Hopefully I have inspired you to read some more books and to dig deeper into the books you are reading.