Disillusionment

Until today I thought of myself as fairly well read. I have enjoyed reading since I was little and used to read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books after school. In 5th grade I read something like 2,000 pages in a month for our school-wide Read On! and won a trip to the Magic Castle in L.A. I got a 5 on the AP English test! So imagine my dismay when I looked up three “100 Best Novels” lists from reputable sources and discovered I had read less than 15% of the books on any one list. Wow, apparently I’m not the reader I though I was.

On the Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Novels I have read ten. That list was put together by their board, so I counted up my past reads on the “Reader’s List,” thinking my taste and literary devotion would be in line with other readers, and still came up with only ten. On the Time magazine list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 (when Time debuted) to the present, I have read twelve. I went to the Observer’s 100 Greatest Novels of All Time, thinking that junior year spent in English Literature instead of the ever-popular American Literature might help out, but again I could only count twelve. I have read many of the authors on all the lists, but often other books than the ones specifically recognized. How much time have I wasted reading lesser novels? And see my “Livewire Book Club” to the right? Where I list On the Road? Which shows up in all three of the big lists, at #55 in its finest outing? That book that is sitting on my shelf, as yet unread? Ah, this is why I don’t have a better batting average when it comes to these lists. I am full of great intentions…