Classic

"I've found that there is always some beauty left--in nature, sunshine, freedom...in yourself. Look at these things, and then you find yourself again. Then you regain your balance."
Anne Frank

I was wandering through my campus library the other day, and decided to check out the "Give a Book/Take a Book" cart. Usually this cart is full of jewels like "Math for the Ages," or even better, "Paradise Love." Harlequin romance novels seem to congregate on this cart.

However, the other day I found "Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl." I read that in 8th grade, and remember being very moved. But I decided that it would probably be a good idea to grab it and read it again. So I did.

Whenever I read any book, I become completely immersed in it. I think about it when I'm not reading it. I invariably put myself in the narrator's place. It's almost like a mini obsession with which I grapple for as long as I'm reading. When you're reading the story of a small, spirited Jewish girl who is locked away and eventually ripped away from her family and killed in a concentration camp (sorry if I ruined the ending for you...but by the way...the Titanic sinks, Jesus ends up getting crucified, and Romeo and Juliet both committ suicide. Sorry again!) this makes for very thought-provoking days.

I'm not going to do a book report on Anne Frank. I'm not going to try to minimalize what is possibly the most culturally significant book of the 20th century (and written by a child!) with lots of adjectives and descriptions. What I am going to do is make a list of other classic books that I've read at one point or another that I think I should probably read again. I got so much more out of this book the second time around. Who knows what else is out there to be gotten!

1. Wuthering Heights
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Beowulf
4. The Canterbury Tales
5. Dante's Inferno
6. Heart of Darkness
7. Great Expectations
8. To Kill a Mockingbird
9. Uncle Tom's Cabin

Any other thoughts??

xoxo