Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What day am I on again?

Oh, right.

30 days of Book Discussion: Day 23

A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t

This would be The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

More correctly, this is a book I have read half of when I was 14, and then never finished. I was reading it thinking "This is the most awesome book I have ever read," and then I saw the Wishbone* episode where they reenact the Count of Monte Cristo. After seeing it I was like, "So the first half of the book is awesome, and then the second half is just about stupid revenge? Lame." So I never finished it.

But in the back of my mind I'm hoping that perhaps if I finish reading the book, it will be more meaningful than I'm expecting and live up to the first half, so it's sort of an unfulfilled ambition thus far. There are just too many YA fantasy books out there in the meantime.

Remember Wishbone?  I loved that show.  Except the one where he played Cyrano de Bergerac was a little far-fetched.  Get it?  Fetched?  Just kidding.  But seriously, I felt really bad for the actress who had to unknowingly be in love with a Jack Russel Terrier.  I assume that was probably a low point in her career.

6 comments:

M said...

I haven't read "The Count of Monte Cristo" either. But I think it's curious that Jacques-Louis David's self-portrait is on the cover for that Penguin Classics edition. I wonder why they decided to use it? (You can even seen the slight bulge in David's cheek (from a benign tumor)).

Breanne said...

M - I wonder frequently at the art used for a lot of the classics covers. Especially Pride and Prejudice. A lot of those covers don't even get the time period right, or choose works that are actually contradictory to the tone of the book - one P&P cover I saw had a piece that I know was supposed to indicate an "unchaste" woman. I have a fear that someone in the publishing industry is flipping through an art history book thinking, "That dude looks old. Let's use it."

Breanne said...

That subject actually might make a very interesting post on your blog.

Erika said...

I loved "The Count of Monte Cristo" when I read it in college, but now that I think about it--it sort of goes along with my kill-all-the-bad-guys and kick butt sort of literary preference anyhow. One that I'd like to read and haven't yet is "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Does non-fiction count?

Jacque said...

Let's see how many books have I not finished??? I'd like to finish the Three Musketeers, it was great when I started it. Also never finished East of Eden, but I don't think I really want to. And there's probably about a hundred other books I want to read but haven't gotten to yet. Especially stuff by Wordsworth and Thoreau, those are great!

Breanne said...

Erika - non-fiction totally counts. I've read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and I've really liked it.

Jacque - my list is getting pretty long, too!