Humiliation, Round Two: The Nominations
Posted 24 July 2008 in Reading by Catriona
Here’s the playlist for round two of Humiliation:
I have never read The Catcher in the Rye.
Georgia has never read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Sam has never read James and the Giant Peach.
Nick has never read Dracula.
Leigh has never read To Kill a Mockingbird.
Tim has never read The Da Vinci Code.
Wendy has never read The Hobbit.
John has never read King Lear.
Matt has never read Great Expectations.
Tell me in the comment thread below which of these you have read (there’s no need to go the trouble of telling me if you haven’t read some of them) by 6 p.m. tomorrow night, and I’ll post the results shortly afterwards.
There are some frighteningly strong contenders, here—and I thought my entry was looking so good when I thought of it!
Share your thoughts [39]
1
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 08:02 am
Of these, I have read Chamber of Secrets, James and the Giant Peach, Dracula, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hobbit, and King Lear.
2
Sam wrote at Jul 24, 08:27 am
I have read ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ and ‘The Hobbit’.
I’ve never read all of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ but I have seen the movie, I don’t think that counts though.
3
Wendy wrote at Jul 24, 08:34 am
I have read Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, James and the Giant Peach, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Da Vinci Code and Great Expectations
4
Tim wrote at Jul 24, 08:41 am
I have read The Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, James and the Giant Peach, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hobbit, King Lear and Great Expectations.
In other words, I have not read Dracula (or The Da Vinci Code).
5
Leigh wrote at Jul 24, 08:46 am
I have read The Catcher in the Rye,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
James and the Giant Peach,
The Da Vinci Code (but agree i wish i hadnt),
The Hobbit.
6
Nick Caldwell wrote at Jul 24, 08:55 am
I have read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, James and the Giant Peach, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Hobbit.
7
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 08:55 am
Sam, the fact that you’ve seen the movie counts as far as Pierre Bayard is concerned (in that he argues that that sort of knowledge is all that you need to be aware of a book’s place in the collective library and therefore to talk about it.)
But you’re right; it doesn’t count for the game.
8
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 08:58 am
Wow! I knew Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was a good choice, but James and Giant Peach, The Hobbit, and To Kill a Mockingbird are closing in behind rapidly.
9
Tim wrote at Jul 24, 09:14 am
None of us watch SBS news, I take it.
I’d put money on Mockingbird to win, with James and the Giant Peach coming second.
10
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 09:27 am
Mockingbird was a good choice, although I’m now curious about Leigh’s surefire winner that she thought of after the first round and then forgot.
11
John wrote at Jul 24, 09:57 am
I have read: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and The Hobbit.
Oh crap! Is that all? This is humiliating. Oh… wait a minute…
12
Tim wrote at Jul 24, 10:18 am
Haha!
(points at John, laughs)
13
Sam wrote at Jul 24, 10:55 am
Wow, for the first time I can actually claim to have read just as many books as Dad.
I though the day would never come.
14
Georgia wrote at Jul 24, 11:55 am
I have read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.
I started ‘Great Expectations’ but I didn’t finish it so does that count? I didn’t even get half way through.
I feel horrible. I do read people!
15
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 09:38 pm
No, I’m deliberately excluding half-read books from either side of the game this time around (since Sam won with a half-read book last time) so Great Expectations doesn’t count.
I’m really surprised that so few people have read Dracula. I know that I’ve found when teaching it that it’s an under-read book, but still . . .
16
Leigh wrote at Jul 24, 10:07 pm
I’ve read 1/2 of Dracula, from what I remember I didn’t find it very engaging. Same as Great Expectations. I think I started both of them in my 20s and haven’t picked either up again since (unless I was moving house :)
17
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 10:23 pm
Now I’ve not read Great Expectations myself, despite the fact that I really should have. But then, I always find Dickens just a little bit of a slog for the first hundred, maybe hundred and fifty pages.
I suppose what always surprises me about Dracula is that it’s such a well-known novel and yet no-one seems to have read it.
Plus, I think it’s awesome.
18
Wendy wrote at Jul 24, 10:40 pm
i’ve seen the movie of Dracula…but I guess that doesn’t count..it didn’t inspire to seek out the book…perhaps I should
19
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 11:18 pm
Which movie version was it, Wendy? Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula? That one really annoys me.
On one hand, it captures the adventurous spirit of much of the book, especially in the final race against the setting sun. I liked the evocation of Jack Seward’s life working in a late-Victorian asylum, and thought Renfield was great. And it managed to maintain a lot of Stoker’s dependence on new technology—carried over from the 1860s’ sensation novels with their dependence on steam travel, telegrams, etc.—as a way of cutting across the Old World fiefdom system that gave the Count his power.
On the other hand, they grafted on that bloody awful romance between the Count and Mina. And, yes, Gary Oldman is quite lovely and I got a geeky little fangirl giggle out of the way in which they explicitly modelled him on Albrecht Durer (the thinking woman’s 16th-century artist), but it still frustrated and irritated me.
20
Matthew Smith wrote at Jul 24, 11:34 pm
I have read
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Da Vinci Code
The Hobbit
Of those, I think To Kill a Mockingbird was the most emotional and in a way traumatic but also heart warming. I know people hate it when you compare Rowling and Tolkien but in terms of whether I would re-read them, the difference between Rowling and Tolkien for me is that while Tolkien is brilliant and original, Rowling is funny and charming so I can more easily re-read the first three Potter books any day (but wouldn’t bother with the rest of the series now I know what happens). Having said that, I happily remember holing myself up in a hammock on the front porch during exam week in 1995 and reading the entire LOTR series instead of studying electromagnetic field theory.
21
Catriona wrote at Jul 24, 11:45 pm
And that’s it! The last of the votes is in, and the results look like this:
Georgia (Chamber of Secrets): 8 points
Wendy (Hobbit): 7 points
Leigh (Mockingbird): 6 points
Sam (James and the Giant Peach): 5 points
Catriona (Catcher in the Rye): 3 points
Tim (Da Vinci Code): 3 points
John (King Lear): 2 points
Matt (Great Expectations): 2 points
Nick (Dracula): 1 point.
Why, John, Matt, and (especially) Nick have hardly been humiliated at all! That’s just against the spirit of the game.
22
Tim wrote at Jul 25, 12:36 am
I am mildly surprised.
23
Catriona wrote at Jul 25, 12:42 am
By which bit, precisely?
24
Tim wrote at Jul 25, 12:53 am
By the relative rankings; mainly that The Hobbit beat To Kill a Mockingbird.
Only mildly surprised, though.
25
Wendy wrote at Jul 25, 01:24 am
if you get this comment twice ignore this second one…(i’m naughtily posting from work and the system is being cantankerous)- although if this is the only one that goes through…
yes – it was the coppola…i thought it was just me thinking it was a bit lame and stupid…so wasn’t inspired to read the book…i’ll put it on my list of “to reads”
26
Catriona wrote at Jul 25, 02:06 am
I do recommend the book. It doesn’t have the love story; the Count is not a faithful man seeking his lost beloved. He’s a scurrilous foreigner threatening the virtue of Englishwomen. Much more fun.
It also doesn't have Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves in it, which I find an advantage.
And it does interesting things with tradition/invention, and the epistolary form, and the Old World/New World dichotomy.
Plus, it’s kind of scary.
27
Wendy wrote at Jul 25, 03:17 am
yes spot on with the winona/ keanu combination! not a good look… scary in a whole other way really…
28
Catriona wrote at Jul 25, 03:29 am
And Keanu’s accent! Oh, my. Still, better than the time he played a Native American (Mohawk, I think?) in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and he was literally painted brick red. Ouch.
29
Leigh wrote at Jul 25, 03:41 am
Georgia was a shoe in with Harry Potter, but my theory that High School english texts would make good contenders was proven a bit wrong.
And come on Keanu and Winona had some great moments, Heathers and Bill and Teds two of the great 80s movies (or maybe thats my teenage self talking) !!
30
Catriona wrote at Jul 25, 03:52 am
Yep, I’m not surprised by Chamber of Secrets, but Mockingbird was a great choice: you scored more highly with that than Sam did to win the last round. (It was your high-school text? And you still didn’t read it? Tsk, tsk.)
Love Heathers,and adore without reservation Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
(“Put them in the Iron Maiden.”
“Iron Maiden? Excellent!”
“Execute them!”
“Bogus.”)
Not so fussed on Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. Even quite like Keanu in Speed and Point Break and he was surprisingly good in My Own Private Idaho.
But Winona started irritating me with Little Women (that’s Jo March? I don’t think so) and any film where Keanu has to do a foreign accent I’ll avoid like the plague.
31
Wendy wrote at Jul 25, 04:04 am
yes – bill and ted was a good one – such memories.. speed the highlight of his career for me..totally miscast in anything historical i think
I quite liked little women…but probably because it still makes me cry when beth dies and i liked gabriel byrne – but poor winona is a little “where are they now?” these days… and I can’t bear reality bites so a black mark there from me
32
Tim wrote at Jul 25, 04:43 am
In my mild surprise, I neglected to congratulate Georgia on her win. Well played.
33
Matthew Smith wrote at Jul 25, 04:47 am
I think Winona and Keanu team up in the Philip K Dick film about Substance D. What was it called again? Ah” A Scanner Darkly” thank you google. I even reviewed it on my blog: memorable in that the whole film is shot live action then coloured in so that it looks kind of like anime.
34
Matthew Smith wrote at Jul 25, 04:48 am
Oh yeah good point Tim, well done Georgia and other top scorers.
35
Catriona wrote at Jul 25, 06:43 am
Ah, yes: I too should have been gracious in defeat. (Seriously, people: shouldn’t you all have read Catcher in the Rye?)
That was an excellent choice, though, Georgia. As was Sam’s choice.
36
Sam wrote at Jul 25, 07:05 am
Yes good game everyone, but I must say I’m thoroughly humiliated for several reasons (foremost the fact I’ve never heard of half the books) and have been inspired to start reading.
Now just to find a book I might like…
37
Leigh wrote at Jul 25, 08:22 am
Ohh yeah sorry congratulations Georgia :)
I haven’t heard of “A Scanner Darkly”, must look into it, can’t have a hole in my Keanu knowledge
Treen, I read Catcher as a High School text, Mockingbird wasn’t in our curriculum but I know it often is. Mind you I moved up english classes and missed a few of the big ones because of that. For example I have never read a Shakespeare, because I kept jumping classes and missing the year that they did it. At the time I was very thankful, but now I feel that I missed something.
38
Georgia wrote at Jul 26, 10:42 am
Wohoo! I won! I am the most humiliated of them all!
39
John wrote at Jul 28, 02:31 am
Sam@36: Neuromancer, obviously. (When your mother’s finished it).