Online - I have read the wonderful books by the Bronte' Sisters . Wow. Now those girls could write.

I'm reading Jane Austin's books now online. Makes me look like a complete amateur indeed. I can only wonder and be amazed at the inspiration & talent
these girls came up with. I know there are a lot of great authors out there, & right here also. But am completely enraptured with the writing styles from the generations the Bronte' Sisters came from & Jane Austin.

Anyone else been there?

C.

I just read The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. Great book. I love all his books.

Yes The Bronte's I even visited Haworth their home.
Jane Austin yes yes yes.
What about Dicken's..I HAD to use it as text and despite having resisted it when younger I really got into Hard Times.
Saw social comment and recall much of it as being so wise.I inherited all Dickens books and they mostly as yet unread..
Will set this as a resolution.
MA

Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle. It's an old old book about the meat-packing industry in Chicago. The original version is very descriptive and not for weak stomachs. The revised version has been tamed down a bit and has chapters cut out. I still have my original book from high school. It's a keeper to be reread from time to time.

I will say something utterly blasephemous...I wasn't keen at that time, when I was required in my Victoria literature course to read Austen's stuff. Charles Dickens, the great social commentator ..also I had problems wading through the texts..

James Joyce's Ulysses, is a difficult but tour de force book. I would like to retackle that book again one day..his stream of consciousness technique is serious literary mountainclimbing that taxes reader's understanding but after reading a section, I am in awe. And it is a literary device, that many novelists use now.

"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad is the adult colonial complement to Golding's "Lord of the Flies". Lord Jim should be a must for everyone to understand colonial/political invasion of not just another conquered country, but terrible mental and physical abuses to others. I read Conrad's book before after I saw the movie "Apocolypse Now" by Coppola. The movie packed a powerful punch to the theatre audience where I was..many people just standing in shock, as the film credits roll by.

On a more positive note, even as a teenager I did reread, Louisa May alcott's "Little Women". It resonated well particularly for those with many sisters and a brother. Probably my inspiration from fiction for young women to become accomplished, to speak up, get educated, etc.... came from the characterization of Jo/Josephine. I finally found a true bookworm, feisty heroine...in a novel.