Pros of Prose & Poem

I have spent half, or more, of my life reading text books...I cannot wait to have the time to sit and read the novels that have escaped me.  My particular genre is historical nonfiction, preferably biographies during the World War II era.  (Thank you Dad.)  But I anticipate delving into some classics as we travel the country.

Steve would like to "Kindle" read...but I am partial to holding a book; a used book would be my first choice.  I love the feel of a book.  There is something personal about holding a heavy novel in one's hand, and as each page turns, being encircled by the fine scent of slight, pleasant mildew that only a second-hand, loved book can emit.

The works of Twain, Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, and Hawthorne, among others, are where I would also like to travel.

A wonderful site where you can read classic literature, without heading to the coffee-shop-book-store, gently-used-book-store, or library, is Literature Online.

For example, you can read Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary in it's entirety.  Set in the early 1800's in Normandy, France, the story has a very modern theme...it's the Harlequin Romance of its day.

Or, one can enjoy Charles Dickens' first novel, The Pickwick Papers.  I have not read this piece of work, but, as I understand its plot, it is a comedy about a group of men who form a traveling club where they discuss findings and scientific inquiries from excursions, interesting adventures, and the relationships they encounter along the way.  Another early victorian-era piece of literature testing the new boundaries of that day's society.

I am hoping to one day add my own book to the list.


If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.  ~Toni Morrison