Finished Reading List In Last Month

Currently I’m on a quest to read as many good novels as possible. Though once upon a time I thought reading novels is a waste of time and devoted my spare time on self improvement books, I really missed the sophisticated writing style that most self improvement books don’t possess.

Last months I finished a few books that I started but quit reading a while ago:

For WhomThe Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. Why I didn’t I finish reading this book at the first go? I felt it was going too slow – it took more than 300 pages to describe a 3 day event. I simply didn’t have the patience to read all those conversation with so much Spanish elements and the details went through Robert Jordan’s mind.

But reading all those self improvement books have taught me to be patient so I set on reading the book again. Omg, how glad I am to have finished this book and how I admire Hemingway as one of the greatest writers! I got goosebumps at the end of the narration. The ending touched me so much and I still get goosebumps whenever I think about it. I guest that’s the power of a good book hey.

Tender Is The Night. For something reason this book didn’t grab me as much as The Great Gatsby did. I loved reading The Great Gatsby and finished it without stopping. Tender Is the Night on the on hand, started really slow to me. For a while, I thought Rosemary would be the main character.  But as the story went on, I couldn’t let go of the book. I cared more and more about Dick Diver’s fate while hopelessly wishing he’d pick himself up again. But Scott Fitzergerald just didn’t write any happy ending books, did he. My heart sank for days and days after finishing reading the book. I simple can’t get rid of notion that Life Is Pain. Maybe that’s why I stopped reading novels – I could get too emotionally involved.

1984 by George Orwell.  Why I couldn’t finish reading it at first? I thought it was too painful. Too painful to go through the endless lies and manipulation by the evil inner party; to painful to face the torturous experience Wilson Smith went through. Yes it was all fiction but I didn’t have the mental strength to deal with it all. But you see, if I couldn’t deal with the pain depicted in a book , how can I deal with real life’s problems? With that thought in mind, I read the whole book. Still can’t help but say: How clever was George Orwell.

Right now, I’m reading Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, a book that I read many times in Chinese version and know the story inside out. It is a much easier read compared to the 3 books above though it’s still kind of sad. I love the English version and have more than 1000 pages to enjoy.

My “To read” list consists 2 books I’ve been trying to read since 2000 but never managed to finish:

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Catch 22;

a self- improvement book someone recommended to me a couple of days ago: The Power of Asking and a book I’ve started earlier this year: The Great Philosophers.