Perhaps my title is misleading; Andy Miller really only read 51 books, he suggests you cross out the subtitle, and his List of Betterment only includes the 50 Great books. Also, his Cannonball took place in 365 not a calendar year for those CBR members who may or may not be purists.
Andy Miller loves books, he has spent much of his life reading and an equal amount of time lying about what he has and has not read. He decides to embark on a challenege to read the classics he has already been telling people he has read.
This may be controversial on this website but I have never read anything by Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters. I haven’t even seen any of the film adaptations! But I know the plot to Pride and Predjudice and Jane Eyre because it is common knowledge now.
Of Miller’s ‘List’ I have truly read the following:
Moby-Dick
The Odyssey
Paradise Lost
I took Advanced Placement English classes throughout high school and took upper level literature classes as Humanties electives in college. Andy Miller put me to shame. *in my defense he does not include a lot of American authors and most of my education involved “American Classics” a la Hawthorne, Twain, etc
Of Miller’s “List” I have seen the movie or could adequetly explain the plot of the following:
Anna Karenina
Pride and Predjudice
Catch-22
Frankenstein
Crime and Punishment
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Vanity Fair
Jane Eyre
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Don Quixote
The Epic of Gilgamesh
On the Road
American Psycho
Beloved
Beowulf
War and Peace
So I am what’s wrong with America!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly blown away by The Year of Reading Dangerously. My eyes glazed over a few times and I began skimming the footnotes. Perhaps because I haven’t read enough on the List to be truly engaged.
