Recently, a group of us at my church started a literature class called "Prose and Parnassus." We intend to study short stories, poems, and novels. I'm really looking forward to this because I'm not the most well read when it comes to classic literature. I've read tons of contemporary novels--partially because I prefer them, and partially because I want to eventually have a few published, and if you aren't reading the genre that you want to be published in, it probably won't happen.
Long before we started "Prose and Parnassus," I started buying the classics. I just haven't chosen to read any of them yet. Until yesterday. I started "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte. According to the introduction, Emily died in 1848 at the age of 30, not long after "Wuthering Heights" had been released (in 1847). Apparently the reviewers hated the book and Emily died before her novel became a huge success. That seems like a shame to me. But then again, most writers could only dream about their works being read more than a century later.
I'm only thirty-five pages into the book, so I can't tell you whether I'm going to like it or not, but something about holding a book in my hands that somebody wrote more than 150 years ago just feels right. I suspect that I'll find humanity mirrored in Emily's characters as she observed it in her own life. Emily never strayed far from the Bronte family home in Haworth in the Yorkshire moors, but according to her sister Charlotte (who wrote Jane Eyre), Emily wrote from impulse, intuition, and observation. All three are great sources from which to write.
As I dug into this book I thought it might be kind of fun if we had a "Whatcha Reading? Friday" every week. Now that comments are enabled, you can write a paragraph or two (or longer if you wish) about the book you are currently reading and tell us why you either like it or don't like it. If you are interested, feel free to start today.
