Books

As a retired high school World Lit teacher, it probably is surprising that I haven't talked about the myriad of books I've read, discussed, taught, savored,dismissed, reread, pondered, etc., but the canon of lit is so vast that I am humbled by the mere fact that there is so much I haven't read. I made myself a goal since retiring to read at least one work by each of the Nobel Laureates,and that would only be the Twentieth and Twenty- first centuries, but it's certainly challenging, nevertheless.What I have found out about myself is that I am familiar with European and American writers, but not so "worldly" otherwise. I am trying to rectify that dearth of knowledge, but I get easily sidetracked. I'm reading some of the Nobel winners from Asia- beautiful, haunting , translated poets - whose names I can't pronounce.I recognize that I have a Eurocentric perspective. I certainly have a penchant for Eliot, Sartre, Camus, Beckett, Mann, Hesse, Kertesz, and the Russians,of course.I love Marquez and Paz,but haven't read too much of South American lit. So I'm going to concentrate my reading on writers from continents other than North America and Europe for a while.At least I won't need to concern myself with Antarctica. 3 down, a very large 4 to go.