The blogger is an expatriate American based in the UK. Carbon-based, taller than average, some post-graduate education, married with offspring. Likes jambalaya, post-punk/new wave music, and cats.
Frequently asked questions:
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: I have been reading since I was three, voraciously and sort of aimlessly. I have wanted for some years now to have some structure to my reading, and I would have liked to go back to school for an MFA or a Ph.D. of some sort. Unfortunately, I have to work for a living.
Q: There are about 200 books on your list. Are you really going to read them all?
A: Yes. I anticipate that the major hurdle will be sourcing all the titles.
Q: How do you plan to get all these books?
A: I will buy some, borrow others, and, in a pinch, go to sites like Project Gutenberg to find online texts.
Q: Online texts? Do you own a Kindle? They’re great!
A: I don’t, and I’m not keen to get one just now as I already spend plenty of time in front of screens. Occasionally you need to look up at things.
Q: How long do you think this project will take?
A: If I can tackle three books a month, it should take five or six years. About as long as a Ph.D.
Q: Three books a month? You don’t watch television, do you?
A: No. I live in the UK, and our household doesn’t pay the TV license. The last straw for us was a BBC reality series called “Can Fat Teens Hunt?” We didn’t want to subsidize that anymore. We rent or go to movies.
Q: Your list sucks. I want you to read [Underrated Classic].
A. Feel free to suggest other titles in the comments, but bear in mind that this is my project and I have to figure out what the best use is of my time.
Q: Surely you have already read some of these books? Who didn’t read “Brave New World” in high school?
A: I have read a lot of them, but a) not recently and b) not with a view towards writing about them. I would, like most people, read the books, enjoy or not enjoy them, and then forget about them. By writing about the books I am doing more than just consuming. I am adding them to myself.
Q: Which modern writers do you like?
A: Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, some Dave Eggers, some David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut, Susanna Clarke, Graham Greene, Robert Graves, Bill Bryson… for starters.
