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Showing 24 results for "culling the classics" - reset

Culling The Classics: The Grapes of Wrath

August 8th, 2014

Cover image via libcom.org It was bound to happen eventually, classic cullers. After 14 months and 13 successfully culled classics, I have for the first time abjectly failed in my monthly mission.

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Culling The Classics: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

July 29th, 2014

Happy birthday! "Culling The Classics" is a year old this month! We've somehow managed to sift through 12 classic works already, and I think many a "to-read" bookshelf is better for it. We've got some big plans for the next 12 months, but first, let's take a quick look back at our year in classics:

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Culling The Classics: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories

June 16th, 2014

First, let's get the obvious out of the way. [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ClCpfeIELw&feature=kp] Now that we're past that: Holly Golightly! The original manic pixie dream girl! Breakfast at Tiffany's was a novella before it was a cinema classic before it was a mid '90s pop-rock jam. Let's please never mention that song again. The Book Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories, by Truman Capote (Random House, 1958)

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Culling The Classics: One Hundred Years of Solitude

May 2nd, 2014

There was an unwritten rule when "Culling The Classics" began that, whatever else one might be able to say about a book, it had to be at least 50 years old to qualify as a "classic" for our purposes. First published in 1967, One Hundred Years of Solitude still has three years before it officially reaches that "classic" age, but sadly Gabriel García Márquez died last month, and this is the best way I knew to honor him. And besides, every rule deserves an exception.

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Culling The Classics: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

April 17th, 2014

Weeeeee're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We hear he is a whiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was. If ever, oh ever, a wiz there was, the Wizard of Oz is one because—because because because because because!—because of the wonderful things he does! We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz! 2014 marks the 75th anniversary year of one of the most beloved films ever made, and...

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Culling the Classics: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

March 26th, 2014

I must still be high on that St. Patrick's Day excitement, because I couldn't think of anything I'd rather read this month than James Joyce. However, one does not simply read Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, so I decided to start with something that you (and I) would be more likely to pick up and finish.

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Culling The Classics: Lolita

February 25th, 2014

Fans of "Culling The Classics"—yes, all seven of you—may recall the trouble I got into the last time I reviewed a Russian work, when two lovely commenters from the Motherland lambasted me for not sufficiently appreciating the bulk of their literature. I did love Anna Karenina, though, so I thought perhaps I would give the Ruskies another go. Ready your molotov cocktails...

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Culling The Classics: Moby-Dick

January 30th, 2014

Image by Tony Millionaire This was a terrible idea. The Book Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, by Herman Melville (Richard Bentley [Britain]/Harper & Brothers [US], 1851).

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Culling The Classics: The Hobbit

December 13th, 2013

And what is a hobbit? Hobbits are little people, smaller than dwarfs. They love peace and quiet and good tilled earth. They dislike machines, but they are handy with tools. They are nimble but don't like to hurry. They have sharp ears and eyes. They are inclined to be fat. They wear bright colors but seldom wear shoes. They like to laugh and eat (six meals a day) and drink. They like parties and they like to give and receive presents. They inhabit a land they call The Shire, a place between the River Brandywine and the Far Downs.

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Culling The Classics: The Chronicles of Narnia

November 27th, 2013

Forget J.F.K., the grassy knoll, and any conspiracies theories you were planning to debunk this month, because November 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of a much bigger tragedy: the death of C.S. Lewis, author of the classic children's series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Clive Staples Lewis (or "Jack" as his old buddy John Ronald Reuel called him, another spooky J.F.K. parallel) was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. To celebrate the man's life 50 years after his death, to celebrate his 115th birthday (Nov.

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