GOT this Times link from an FB friend: 10 books not to read before you die. The list includes Ulysses, War and Peace, Lord of the Rings, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Pride and Prejudice, etc. (I've read the last three and Homer's Iliad...damnit. Maybe I should've read more of Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov...yeah, sci-fi was my thing when I was in the Elementary grades. I would've become smarter than a Promil baby by now.)
Btw, I would add to that 10 books list Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, the only novel of this author I didn't care for. I actually flung the book away after finishing it. I wanted to read it primarily because I have always been interested in the Knights Templar, Rosicrusians, etc. (I didn't care much for Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code though which I thought was mediocre excuse for a novel. I can't even finish that horrible film starring Tom Hanks! Ick.)
Like many others, I bought a copy of the Focault's Pendulum after having enjoyed Eco's The Name of the Rose, a whodunit set in a monastery in the 14th century. I had just graduated from college I think but the quantum physics-like equations in the beginning stumped me. So I decided not to force the issue and just put back the book on my shelf.
I picked up the book again about five years ago, thinking I had more patience to wade through the quantum mechanics or whatever mathematical equations therein. And I wanted to challenge myself that I could finish reading it. And I did. But I thought the plot in Focault's Pendulum was just way too slow. Plodding grabeh. After wading through all the semiotics, the history, and the rich background, then reading an ending like that, I wanted to tear my hair out. Na-information overload na ako, naburat pa ako sa ending. Leche.
But then I'm just a sucker for pain. I think I might pick up the book again next year just to see if I feel any differently about it.
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