I don’t remember exactly what I didn’t like about Gatsby, I read it over 10 years ago. I remember thinking it was boring and that with all those parties and stuff, the characters were still really boring people. I must’ve had the maverick English teachers, my friends were reading Grapes of Wrath and The Scarlet Letter and To Kill a Mockingbird and I had A Yellow Raft in Blue Water and The Bean Trees.

If you want to read some “literary” genre, Vonnegut’s always a good call. Or Dracula, or Frankenstein.

Steinbeck’s another “classics” writer who is quite easy to get through. Grapes of Wrath reads very quickly, and both The Pearl, and Of Mice and Men could be read in about 15 minutes.

What didn’t you like about Gatsby? I’ve read it…I don’t five times now, and in my experience it’s really polarizing. Either you love it, or you hate it. Personally, I think Tender is the Night is a superior novel by Fitzgerald, but it’s much longer and much more complicated so taught much less often. Which is a damn shame.

Generally, I try not to categorize writing, honestly, because I tend to have no self-motivation to read “literary” stuff either, but it can often be surprisingly rewarding. If you haven’t read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Chabon, won the Pulitzer) for instance, then forget everything else I’ve just said and go get it.

That, and I never finished college myself. So good on you!

(Oh. The only reason I know about Virginia Woolfe is because of some old obscure Oscar Award trivia I’ve since forgotten. Go me.)

I think it says more about your area study, than anything else. As to the titles I would doubt that the average reader would be interested in said books from looking at today’s “Top Sellers lists.”

I suppose it says a lot about me that I’ve never heard of any of the books and only two of the authors.

Though the Witcher series along with the Sword of Truth both look like good targets