#73 - "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston

So far, through the first month, my re-dedication is going well, and I can now boast that #73, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is in the can. It was a relatively quick read that I was able to finish last weekend, but didn't have a chance to put my thoughts to paper until now.

This is yet another book I knew nothing about until starting this project over four years ago. But that shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody anymore; after a quick look at the 73 book I've read so far, I'd guess I knew next to nothing about 55 of them. So I suppose this latest one can get in line...

Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of Janie Crawford, and African-American woman born into poverty in the late 19th century. The result of her mother's rape by a school teacher, Janie is raised by here grandmother, a former slave.

Make your full reference freely my lord

I've been able to do quite a bit of reading the past few days, working my way through my twelfth book on the list, The Corrections.  So far, so good, but that's what I've come to expect from the books on The List.

I encountered a first today from this literary mission however, when I cam across mention of another book from The List in The Corrections.  One of the children in the book is reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series, specifically the third installment, Prince Caspian.  Although not on The List, there is mention of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as a couple of the adult characters wax poetic about reading it when they were children.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is most likely the only time one book from The List is going to mention another.  I base this assumption on a couple of different factors.  There are several books that take place before any of books from The List would have been written, such as Beloved, and Gone With the Wind.  Others, such as The Lord of the Rings are set in fantasy world that wouldn't be familiar with any of these novels.  Lastly, I figure that since so many of the novels on The List were written before 1950 (34 of them to be exact), that a good chunk of the books were simply written too early for any other book to reach such prominence that it would warrant be mentioned in another.  I suppose from this rationale, it would make sense that The Corrections would be mentioning another novel, as it is one of the most recent entries on The List, and therefore so many other books have had time to reach such a level of fame as to be included in a story.

Having said all this, I look forward to seeing how many times I am proven wrong.

Come, and take choice of all my library,

I headed to the library today with a couple of things in mind. First off, I need to read a couple of books that I know nothing about. While I haven’t read the vast majority of the books on the list, I might have seen the movie (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) or I might be very familiar with the story (Lolita) despite not having read it or seen the movie. However, most of the books on the list don’t fit into either category. Let's face it, I haven’t even heard of most of these books. So instead of finding myself with thirty books to go, none of which I know anything about, I’ve decided to make a point of tackling some of these novels.

I came out with two selections from today’s trip; Beloved by Toni Morrison and Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. I don’t know anything about Beloved or its author, and the only thing I know about Tropic of Cancer is that it’s supposed to be quite racy. And I only know this from that episode of ‘Seinfeld’ where Jerry has a 25-year overdue library book.

I think I’ll start with Beloved as it would come first alphabetically. Written in 1987, this will be by far the newest book I’ve read so far, the next one being The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, written in 1964.