Everyday Canvas

Of Books and Memories

Prompt: Deborah Spark was discussing reading Chekhov in an article in Writer's Chronicle. She noted reading differences compared to our age. In the article, she said she hated Chekhov when she was young but loves him now. I did too! For that matter, in high school, I hated Jane Austen and Edith Wharton. I love them both as an adult. What about you were there books you read as a younger person and hated but as an older person now love?

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I adored Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Balzac during my teens, with Dostoyevsky in the lead. I was totally in love with the Idiot. Well, that didn’t change much, except for Balzac and the existentialists. I am not too keen on them anymore. I was also very much impressed with Montaigne’s Essays, then. Nowadays, there are really good essayists that don’t make me miss Montaigne.

As for Jane Austen, she made me sick. I thought she was gross and I avoided her books like the plague. The same with Fitzgerald. Not anymore, though. I appreciate Austen now, although she’ll never rise to Dostoyevski’s stature. Also, in eighth-grade lit, we read the Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, which I hated, and just maybe, I still do.

During my young years, I was a lot into the Greek and Roman dramas, especially the tragedies of Sophocles. I don’t think I have read a play lately, though. This is because, nowadays, I like to see plays on stage, but unfortunately, we don’t live close to Broadway anymore.

Later on, I was really into Paulo Coelho’s works, but not all that much, at this time. I also like the works of the Bronte sisters, all three of them. Then, Joseph Conrad’s, Tolstoy’s, Steinbeck’s, and Dickens’ writings are in my “like” section, too.

Of the Contemporaries, at the moment, I am really into the writings of a young Swede, Fredrik Backman who was born in 1981 with books like Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer. So far, I have read A Man Called Ove, The Deal of a Lifetime, and Us Against You. I am working on the rest of his books and will continue to do so, as long as he keeps writing.

Before Backman, I went through loving and reading most of the works of Daphne Du Maurier, Pat Conroy, Isabel Allende, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Jodi Picoult, Alice Sebold, Dean Koontz, John Banville, and Jack London. I also like Faulkner, but I have yet to read everything that he has written.

Then, there are books that have singly left a lasting impression on me like Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Emma Donoghue’s Room, Kim Edwards’ The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima, and Weike Wang’s Chemistry.

Then, once every two or three books, I read a book written by a newbie writer or some lightweight fun-to-read books like the Outlander Series, Harry Potter books, Stephanie Plum series by Sue Grafton, etc.

I am sure there is more I can write about, but these are the names and books I can recall, at the moment.

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Note: You got me to talk about books. I had to push myself to shut up.