Attempted: The Age of Reason & Ivanhoe

This week I gave up on two books. Thanks to this new blog, I am now accountable for it.

I decided I wanted to read a classic, and I chose The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre, and took an immediate dislike to it. I survived 100 pages of the text, but when the subject of the novel never wavered from the topic of sex, I decided to throw in the towel. I guess technically the book was about a man who wants to be free, above all else, but oops, he knocks up his mistress, and (groundbreaking) it limits his freedom.

I had to read a lot of French fiction, and fiction in general, from the twentieth century, and I must say, many of our beloved and revered (usually male) authors were quite preoccupied with sex. They were also sexist male chauvinists. So, I will now add Jean-Paul Sartre to my

mental S.M.C list, to join the ranks of Hemingway, Vonnegut, Kerouac, etc...

And since I'm not a student anymore, and don't have to read books like these, I'm not going to.

On to my second pick...

I decided I would have to go with a much older classic to avoid reading about the sexual exploits of young men with way older, yucky women. I also have wanted to read something by Sir. Walter Scott for awhile now, ever since I read some quote somewhere that said he gave birth to the historical novel (my fav. literary genre) and I saw The Young Victoria.

I chose Ivanhoe

This time I made it 200 pages into the book, and I just got bored.

Every couple of pages I read something interesting. I just could not fathom 300 more pages. I promise I have not always been this big of a wuss. However, when I read nowadays, I cannot give a book 100% of my attention. I have to be able to read, and still focus on 5 other things. I could not read Ivanhoe and focus on anything else. It was giving me a headache. I struggled through it for a week, and that's that. Sorry :(

I'm going to have to choose my classics with care, and only pick authors I know I like.