My Reading List for 01/29/10

Howdy! I've been somewhere over the reading rainbow for the past couple weeks. I just completed James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers, and, okay, I've gotta be really honest here, folks-- it sucked! In fact, my classmates and I all agreed that this was the most "annoying" book we've ever read. Great minds think alike. LOL! Anyway, Cooper was simply not the best writer. For example, his character development (a big thing for me) is virtually non-existent, and his use of various literary devices is extremely contrived. Oh, well, none of that matters now, since we've moved on to a study of the life and works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. This coming week, we're going to read and discuss a collection of short stories from an anthology called The Portable Hawthorne. The titles of these stories are: "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," "Roger Malvin's Burial," "Young Goodman Brown," The Minister's Black Veil," "The Man of Adamant," "The Birth-Mark," and "Rappaccini's Daughter." I've read one of these tales-- "Young Goodman Brown"-- before. Of course, that was a long, long time ago. I do, however, recall that the story is set in Puritan New England and is essentially a portrait of Puritan marriage. Thus, I'm excited about re-reading the story in order to get a fresh perspective on it. I'm really excited about reading all these other stories by one of my favorite 19th-century American authors. That said, I'm going to sign off now in order to get ready to go to work and then come home to enjoy my wintry Friday evening with Mr. Hawthorne.