Books that most people know by reputation but probably haven’t read unless forced to in some high school or college English or Literature class. These books, though unread, have the interesting quality of being familiar enough in some respects to be the butt of jokes understood by most of the population. We all know that War and Peace is really long and perhaps boring because of this, and so we understand that a joke by Woody Allen is funny even if we haven’t read the book: “I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace. It’s about Russia.” Badda Bing!
Even so, the people that have decided that these books have great value, other than to torture high school students, must be sort of like us, right? A so-called Great Book is merely a book that speaks to some of us over the centuries in a familiar language of human emotion and intellect that we may have thought was ours alone. At a certain time in our lives this connection can become an unparalleled siren call out of our family of origin into the depth and breadth of humanity. So, an unreadable book might be a treasure to you, or just might make you understand more jokes, still a noble pursuit. Watch for The Unreadable Book Club Blog soon.