Amazon.com: J. Cameron-Smith "Exp...'s review of Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and Wha...
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4.0 out of 5 stars `What to love and what to skip in literature's 50 greatest hits.', November 6, 2009
Jack Murnighhan states in his chapter on `Madame Bovary': `Read the wrong thing, and the damage is irreversible.' I agree. Although sometimes I think it's an issue of timing: a book that is inaccessible or incomprehensible at one stage may become a joy to read at a different stage. Or vice versa.

The main reason I bought this book was to see which the chosen 50 books were. Having some quite fixed favourites of my own, I'm always intrigued by which books others choose, and why. Once I checked that `Wuthering Heights' had been included, I relaxed and enjoyed the book.

I liked the structure of this book which included a cheat sheet which includes the following headings: What to Skip; The Buzz; What People Don't Know (But Should); Best Line; What's Sexy; Quirky Fact; and What to Skip. This cheat sheet is applied to each of the 50 books. I don't agree with all of Jack Murnighan's views, but I enjoyed reading them. His enthusiasm for these books and for literature in general is contagious. I'm not sure that I'll tackle all of the classics I've not yet read (roughly half of those listed) but I'm tempted to read some and to reread others.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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4.5 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
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Location: ACT, Australia

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Showing 1-3 of 3 posts in this discussion
Initial post: Nov 16, 2009 12:44 AM PST
 H. Schneider says:
you are so right in the first chapter! so many books I have tried and disliked, and later tried again and liked! and others, on second visit don't hold up to the recollection...
I may need to look into this list of 50!
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In reply to an earlier post on Nov 17, 2009 12:42 AM PST
 J. Cameron-Smith says:
It's an interesting read, and I enjoyed his enthusiasm these 50 books.
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Posted on Dec 18, 2009 4:01 AM PST
 Olivier Comte says:
I find Madame Bovary a very bad novel. Flaubert and Maupassant are my personal enemies.
So what? They couldn't destroy anyone's taste for literature. Only school revealed truths, and later "cultural" obligations and snobism can spoil anything.
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