Well folks, the browser add-on I use for saving links erased all of my wonderful bookmarks! So this edition of Say, Oh Say will have to be a little different. Instead of internet links, I bring you the analog equivalent of my bookmarks folder: my homemade scratch-off book poster!
Yes, this is a real thing I really made by hand.
Premade scratch-off book posters have been a thing for a while. You get a poster with 100 or so classic book titles and scratch off the foil to reveal an image once you’ve read the book. Simple. This seemed like a great idea to me, but I found all the book lists underwhelming. Every poster was like a recitation of my elementary school summer reading list: I’ve already read To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby. So I set out to make my own poster, without any books I’d ever read before.
I ended up listing the books in chronological order, and I’m very happy to announce that they’re not all classroom classics. The pictures up top are books I’ve read “off-piste,” and that I couldn’t help tacking on as I’ve gone along. It’s ended up becoming something like a visual book diary.
And as you can see, I’m no artist. :)
I couldn’t help putting a few quotations down the side, many of which undercut the idea of reading lists, or even of reading itself.
Books Read So Far
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days
The Oresteia
Plato’s Republic
The Prince
Macbeth
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Faust
Eugene Onegin
War and Peace
Three Men in a Boat
The House of Mirth
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Short Stories by Dorothy Parker
Under the Net
The Human Condition
The Jewel in the Crown — Paul Scott
The Name of the Rose
Books Read “Off-Piste”
Alias Grace
French Literature: A Very Short Introduction
Sophie’s World
Siddhartha
Wuthering Heights
The Elizabethan World Picture
Tetralogue: I’m Right, You’re Wrong
To the Finland Station
Arcadia
The Life and Adventures of Troubadora Beatrice
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
I, Robot
Medea
The Franchise Affair
Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology
The Fellowship of the Ring
Books From This List That Were My Favorites and That I Would Whole-Heartedly Recommend to You Without Any Hesitation Whatsoever
The Iliad
The Republic
The House of Mirth
The Human Condition
The Name of the Rose
Alias Grace
Siddhartha
Arcadia
To the Finland Station
That’s it! Thanks for indulging me in my arts and crafts corner this week. Let’s hope I have some links for you next time!