#between sonnet 18 and 19 in the shakespeare book

[conswayo]

sonnet 18

[raindownforme]

First off, I adore your work! You’re writing is absolutely lovely!

And also I have a request.

Ted is a the popular theater kid and reader is the punk of the school who keeps to their clique. Ted grows an interest for the reader and constantly tries to flirt with them in front of their friends and in private or get a date with them. Reader brushes him off most of the time but grows to like him.

Shakespeare

Ted Nivison x reader [she/her used]

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The tall brunette stood at the front of the English classroom, reading from the book in his hand. The teacher sat at her desk a few paces away, taking note of how he talked. y/n watched him lazily, not quite caring for Shakespeare. “Thou art more lovely and temperate.”

y/n didn’t pay attention as Ted continued the presentation. She flicked her mechanical pencil between her fingers, biding time. “Thank you, Theodore, for sonnet 18. Next is 19– y/n?”

“I chose the annotation project.”

“Thank you. Who had 20?”

Ted took the seat next to y/n. “How’d I do?”

“Not bad. I mean, I’m sure you could’ve done better theater kid.”

“I don’t know. Let me practice it for you and we’ll see.” y/n rolled her eyes, resting her flushed cheek against her hand. “What was yours about?”

“Also romance. I mean it’s half of what the guy wrote about.”

“I could teach you some of his other stuff.”

“Yes. Theodore. The theater tutor.”

“Aw. Is it my aesthetic? Is that the problem?” y/n exaimned the difference between the two of them. Ted wore the same blue jeans, sneakers, and graphic tee to school every day. Of course y/n had a few staple pieces; her leather boots and mix-matched pieces of jewelry, but she did most commonly wear dark or patterned pants and faded shirt.

“It’s a thousand percent the aesthetic.”

Ted closed his notebook, playfully muttering the himself. The school bell rang and y/n stood up, shoving belongings into a book bag as the teacher made announcements to the leaving students.

“Hey. Come see the show.”

“What show?” She pushed through the crowd as Ted followed. y/n could spot her friends group in the distance, waiting just outside the doors.

“The show! Midsummer’s Night Dream. I’m starring in it.”

“Yeah sure. Like I can afford it.” Her hand hit the door, but he stepped in front of her, preventing her from leaving the building. “Ted-“

“Please. Tonight. Seven. I’ll set a ticket aside for you.” She felt her face heat up as moved away slightly. “Might wanna say hi to your friends for me y/n.”

The boy walked away and y/n continued out the door to her and her friends’ lunch period.

———

“I mean. What’s the worst that could happen?” y/n’s friend, Alix, peeled away the paper wrapping around his sandwich. “Do you even like the guy?”

“I don’t- I don’t know.”

“So it could be yes.” Alix leaned in the back of his seat as he took a bite of his lunch. y/n and her friends were sitting in Alix’s truck in the school parking lot, all eating something they either brought from home or bought at a fast food place near the school.

“It’s always wise to indulge in the arts.” Jaz, one of y/n’s other friends spoke from the back seat.

“Dude would you shut up? You took a writing class once.” The last one of the group, Ryan, waved away what Jaz said. “If you like the guy you like him. If you don’t you don’t. Or play with him. I don’t care.”

“I’m not going to play with Ted’s feelings.” y/n searched through her French fries mindlessly. “He Is cute. I don’t know guys.”

“Just go to the show. It can’t be that bad.”

———

Lunch passed, as did the next couple classes, until y/n’s last period of the day. Thankfully, it was a TA period, so there wasn’t much to do.

“Dearie would you run these to the theatrics department for me?” The lady behind the front desk has to be at least 80 at this point, but y/n stood to take the stack of papers from her. “Thank you.”

y/n smiled and left, taking leisure in her walk. The sole of her boots slapped against the off-white linoleum, echoing through the hallways and cafeteria as she crossed the entire building. She never really realized how far the performing arts hall was until walking to it.

The door creaked as it opened to an empty black classroom. “Hello?” She stepped in, her words echoing. She could hear some small commotion deeper into the theater. She followed the noise, finding herself in what looked like a workshop. “Hi?”

“y/n!” She whipped her head to the side to see Ted walking through a large doorway. “Always a pleasure to see you. Especially here. How can I help love?”

y/n brushed off his comment the best she could. “I’m looking for the director? I’ve got some papers to deliver.”

She held out the papers, trying to show Ted, but instead he linked one of his pinkies with hers. “I’ll take you.”

She stared at their linked fingers as Ted dragged her from the workshop to the back of the audience. Ted talked to somebody, but she didn’t quite pay attention.

“And who’s this?”

Looking up, she met eyes with a man she hadn’t quite spoken to before. He wasn’t quite as tall as Ted, and he wore a blue blazer and hiking boots. “This is y/n, from the front office.”

“Ah.” He nodded at Ted. “And is this who-“

“Yes.” Ted cut him short, rubbing at the back of his own neck.

“Well thank you.” The man took the papers from her hand. “We hope to see you tonight.”

She watched him walk away before turning back to Ted. “What’s he mean?”

“Well, he’s who I had to talk to about your ticket. You are coming tonight aren’t you?”

“I can swing by.”

“Good.” Ted brought their still conjoined hands up and lightly kissed her knuckles. “I’ll be watching for you.”

———

y/n had been waiting for a while now.

When school had got out, she had hung around with her friends for a while, getting something to eat and doing some homework, but now it was 6:53 and she was stuck in line at the ticket counter. In front of her were five people. She was five people away from whatever was to come out of tonight.

“Next!” The line shuffled forwards as two people walked inside. She bounced on her feet, watching the exchange of cash between the student running the ticket booth and the patrons. “Next!”

“Hi I think I had a ticket reserved for me.” The student looked over their shoulder at something, then back to y/n.

“Who reserved it?”

“Ted Nivison?”

“Oh. Okay then this is for you.” The student handed over a rectangular ticket with a seat number stamped on the bottom. “Enjoy the show.”

y/n walked through the double doors into the audience. Most of the seats were full, and it took her a few minutes to find the seat marked for her. When she did, she set her backpack down in the front of her, noticing something underneath her seat. It was a folded piece of paper with a note from Ted.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

-Ted

She stuck the note in her pocket and traded it for her phone. 6:59 pm. She silenced it and looked back to the stage, anxiously waiting. The lights dimmed and she stared up the stage. The curtains began to open and it revealed Ted standing in Grecian style clothing with minimal armor pieces. He stood with his hand outstretched to a girl wearing similar clothing.

Ted’s eyes surveyed the audience, landing on y/n with a smirk. “Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour draws on apace…”

y/n sat in awe for the next two hours. She watched as Ted moved across the stage, putting to life the story as if he’d lived it. She watched as the characters came to life, as the set moved, and as the lights changed. And two hours later, the curtain closed and the cast came together to do bows. She clapped furiously, then watched everyone stand from their seats and leave. She stood, trying to grab her things. The theater had been nearly emptied by now, people rushing out to say hi to people they knew in the cast.

y/n looked around. To the side of the curtain, just peeking out, was someone waving. She walked over, realizing it was Ted.

“Hey there! What’d you think?”

“That was amazing, Ted.” The boy smiled, taking her hand in his. He began to pull her backstage with him. “Wait Ted-“

“It’s fine don’t worry. Here.” Ted pulled her to stand near the classroom area. “Give me two minutes.”

She watched Ted enter the dressing room. For a moment, it was quiet, until everyone else started to file in. The room quickly became loud, filling with student’s voices.

“Hey.” Ted tapped y/n on the shoulder. “I know it’s a lot. Come with me.” Ted draped an arm over her shoulders as he pulled her outside into the crisp night air. “Better?”

“Yeah. Better. Ted that was- that was awesome.”

“I’m glad I can impress you.” Ted checked his phone. “It’s nine already. You have plans?”

“No I-“

“Come get dinner with me. My treat.”

“Ted. It sounds like you’re asking me on a date.” She lightly nudged him with her elbow.

“It’s only a date if you say yes.”

y/n paused, taken aback by the sudden forwardness. “If I say yes?”

“You don’t have to! Don’t think you have to!” Ted gestured with his hands in a panicked motion. “I just- I think you’re really cool and pretty with your style and I’ve always liked you for as long as I can remember and I was just wondering-“

“Yes.”

He paused, eyes wide as a blush crept onto his face. “Yes? Yes as in yes a date? Our date?”

y/n stood on her tiptoes, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Take me on a date theater boy.”

Ted wrapped her in a hug, pressing a kiss to her nose. “Anywhere you want.”

——————

Hi! I hope this is what you were looking for!

[heliantyr]

ALRIGHT!

Time for questions! I’m going to put 1-9 here plain and simple, and then the rest will be under the break just so that you don’t have to scroll to oblivion if you don’t want to see this! Let’s go!

1: Name

     My name is Jude, or Coreta if you wanna use my pen name! A few of you might also know me as Virchude since that’s my main blog!

2: Age

    I won’t tell you plainly, but I am still in high school.

3: City that you live in

     I’m just gonna tell you which state! I live in the lower peninsula of Michigan!

4: What do most people not know about you?

     I’m almost certain that none of you know this, but I am the youngest of  my dad’s (kinda) six kids.

5:  What do most people know you for?

     If we’re talking just here, I hope to all get out it’s my headcanons, but in real life it’s the fact that I get offended rather easily...

6: Hobbies!

     I do a lot of pointless writing (meaning I never finish anything)... I also draw a lot of random junk, I rad a shit ton of fanfiction, I sing/write songs a lot... uuhh and do nothing.

7: What are your passions?

     I have a very large passion for helping those around me who have suffered like I have mentally and emotionally. I also really like debating (more like arguing) with people about politics!

8: When was the last time you had a significant conversation with someone you love?

     Just yesterday my mom, older sister, and I ended up accidentally sitting down in the living room and ranting about how shitty out lives are... so.......... yeah

9: have you collected anything? What is it?

     I have a small hat collection (that I hardly ever wear), and I’m beginning a plant collection! There is also a ever fluctuating collection of cups and bottles in my room T-T

10: List ten things off your bucket list (I may not remember half of these TvT)

*Take a trip back to Colorado with my friends

*Start a business

*Travel to at least 8 countries

*Go to Andorra

*Be known for some great feat

*Have one of my works (whether art or writing, etc) become famous or greatly known

*Meet one of my favorite actors/band members (doesn’t matter who)

*Learn to swim...............

*Make drastic strides towards saving the planet

*Meet more people from my dad’s side of the family

11: What was the last thing you learned?

     Seeing as I got out of world history an hour and a half ago, we learned about the Cold War and how the USSR fell apart because of silly putty

12: How many relationships have you been in?

     Counting the ones that didn’t mean shit, 4. Only counting the ones that actually meant something, 2.

13 + 14 I am not answering.

15: Favorite food

     Menudo. Fuckin love it

16: Favorite drink

     hm... either tea or ginger ale, but out of a shot glass TvT A TWO LETER OUT OF A SHOT GLASS

17: What is the best birthday gift you have ever received?

     I went to NYC over my birthday weekend this year with my school’s choir, and our tour leader on my bus got me a pastry in Little Italy! It meant so much because I didn’t even know her! 

18: Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

     I’m usually pessimistic unless my friends are also being pessimistic, cuz then I’m frigin sunshine and rainbows!

19: Do you sleep during class?

     Not very often, and only if what I’m doing isn’t actually important.

20: What is the most expensive thing you own?

     If not my actual bed, my laptop, which is $200.

21: What is the cheapest yet most useful thing you own?

     ..... I... Don’t know... uh I got a huge fukin thing of cocoa butter lotion at the dollar tree... and it’s kind of multi use?!?

22: How many time a day on average to you check your phone?

     .........don’t look at me like that.

23: Text or call?

     Text. I wanna call people, but what if they don’t pick up? Or it’s really awkward? or I can’t hear them? or vise versa? or-

24: Opinion on long distance?

     Sounds like torture. I honestly couldn’t do it.

25: What is your definition of success?

     Feeling satisfied or content with what you’ve done.

26: Favorite song?

     um. At the moment, Killer Queen by Queen.

27: Favorite artist?

     Music wise, Patrick Stump. Art wise, Van Gogh.

28: Celebrity crush/crushes?

     That’s a long list. But my main two recently have been Sebastian Stan and Tom Holland...

29: When was the last time you read for fun?

     Aside from fanfiction? Last Wednesday night I stayed up reading Shakespeare’s sonnets to myself...

30: Favorite flower?

     chrysanthemums!

31: What is the best gift you could receive right now?

     A confidence boost that lasted at least the rest of high school...

32: Any guilty pleasures?

     Day dreaming about random shit.... random weird shit about people I know...

33: What is one thing you’d like to change about yourself?

     Hm... I think I’d change my mental health. I just wanna be perfectly okay for once.

34: What do you search for in a friend?

     being able to understand me, relate to me, and be weird with me. Also mutual interests. And reasonable barriers.

35: How many times have I said “I love you�� in the past month?

     You expect me you count???? A shit ton! Do you know how many times a day I have a family member leave the goddamn house????

36: Where dd you last go other than your room/home?

     School.

37: Why do good things happen to good people?

     Because that’s not how life works. Our society constantly has people suffering, no matter who they are or what they’ve done.

38: In your opinion, what hurts more? Being left out, or being stabbed in the eye?

     Seeing as I’m just about used to the pain of being left out, I’d say being stabbed in the eye. I am such a wuss T-T

39: How many green shirts do you own?

     1. It’s a St. Patty’s day shirt.

40: Do you like anime?

     noooooooooooo.......... not at allllll.... TvT I’m tired!

41: What do you invest the most time in?

     Either videogames or fanfiction.

42: What is the name of the last book you read?

     The Hobbit (even though I haven’t finished yet)

43: What’s the difference between loving and liking someone?

     No clue... Still trying to figure that out.

44: Where are you most productive?

     My art classroom

45: List three things you enjoy doing with friends:

*Complaining about life

*being gay

*Pretend to kidnap one of them my dragging them around the floor during lunch

46: List three things you like to do alone:

*Listen to music

*Think

*Read

47: Do you think that world peace will ever exist?

     As long as there are living things on it? Never.

48: Do you have any allergies?

     Absolutely none! I knew this kid in the third grade who was allergic to nuts, milk, AND gluten!

49: When was the last time you cussed at someone?

     My friend and I got into an argument about who the best actors are during english....

50: What was the last promise you made?

     .......Is it bad that I don’t remember?

51: What was your last dream about?

     I had a hedgehog (which I really frikin want), and I was taking care of them, and hen this asshole in my grade was in my living room and I had to be nice to him.

52: If you won a trip to Hawaii and could take 5 people with you, who would they be? 

*My best friend Kiara

*My friend Raph

*My other friend Molly

*My other other friend Faith

*My dog

53: How many countries have you visited?

     1, if you count the fact that I live in one!

54: What is your favorite medium of art?

     Music. It moves me so easily.

55: When was the last time someone complimented you?

     My friend Laura jokingly complimented my hair during english (we were looking at old english compliments) and she winked at me TyT

56: If you switched bodies with someone, how would you recognize yourself?

     uh... hol up, wha? 

57: Do you consider yourself mature?

     At times, yes.

58: How many days in your life do you think you’ve wasted on tumblr?

     so frigin many, but there’s more to come!!!!

59: What is your favorite quote?

     “I was so good at sports when I was in high school, that I started a band.”

                                      -Patrick Stump

60:  If you started a new religion and you had to create 3 rules or commandments for your new followers to live by, what would those 3 rules be?

*Be kind to all (see how that’s turned out???)

*Spend life learning. Try to find the lesson in your experiences.

*Mental growth is more important than anything

61: What is your greatest accomplishment?

     Being alive today.

62: Do you believe in the death penalty?

     No, not really.

63: What are your goals in life?

     To be a better person than my mother is, and to help others on a mental level.

64: What do you think your soulmate is doing right now?

     I honestly have no clue... maybe something weird?

65:  If you could live anywhere, where would you live? The place can be in an imaginary, fantasy, or the real world.

     I would have to go with.......... oo that’s hard................... the bnha universe      T-T I want powers!

66: What were you like in 2013? 

     I was an awkward, abusive, shitty little child.

67: Do you have a job?

     Nope! I’m planning on possibly finding a part-time one soon, though!

68: Tell us a story about your childhood best friend.

     His name was Parker, and he was a year older than me. He was my first friend other than my older sister, and I loved him so much. I don’t remember much, seeing as the last time I saw him I was five... It was early fall, just when the leaves start to fall. We had one of those trees in my front year that dropped the seed thingies that twirled around. Parker and I would always toss so many of those in the air until out hands got cold... I really miss him.

69: If you could change one thing in society, what would it be?

     I would get rid of corrupt governments and people in positions of power.

70: How many all-nighters have you pulled before?

     Never have I pulled one for school, but I find myself staying up til the crack of dawn the day before school starts, usually. Or on nights when I can’t but help contemplate everything to the point of not being able to sleep at all.

71: Is tumblr your favorite website? If not, then what is it?

     Tumblr is one of my favorites, but Ao3 has my ass.

72: What is the craziest thing you would do for a million dollars?

     Nothing. I tend to be very hard to bribe. But if I reaaallly needed the money, I wouldn’t be able to kill someone, I’ll tell you that.

73: Does money equal happiness?

     It can for some people, but not for all.

74: How many times have you experienced true happiness in your lifetime?

     I don’t know, a few? I’m never truly happy until my thoughts leave me alone. 

75: How many times have you experienced true sadness in your lifetime?

     More than happy, I can tell you that.

76: What’s the funniest joke you have ever been told?

     My generation is going to save the planet.

77: When was the last time you looked at the news?

     We actually watched a news clip during history today!

78: If you could say one thing to the world, what would you say?

     Stop being a dick!

79: What is your favorite animal?

     A hedgehog!! 

80: If you could earn a million dollars for pretending to be dead for three years, would you do it?

     NO! I have people who would miss my sorry ass, then murder me for coming back!

81: What is one thing everyone is bad at?

     Having a lot of friends. A lot of the time (in my personal experience), the more friends you have, the less time you can spend with them, and the less close you are, until eventually you can’t keep dividing your time!

82: What time do you normally sleep? How many hours do you usually get? 

     uuuhh... yes, and not enough!

83: Does age necessarily equal maturity?

     No, but that does not excuse digusting things like p*****ilia.

84: What is your favorite clothing store? 

     ....The Hot Topical.

85: In the winter- beanies or gloves?

     why not both?!?!?!?

86: Would you rather have wings or a fish tail?

     Wings. I can’t swim, and I panic underwater.

87: If you had the power to erase someone from the world so that nobody remembered them but you, would you do it?

     That depends, does it fuck up history? Cuz in that case, no!

88: What do you fear the most?

     Being abandoned by everyone.

89: How many digits of pi can you recite?

     3...

90: If you could travel back to one year and relive it again, what year would it be?

     2015, so I could leave a better version of my for my friends that I leave at the end of the year,

91: Describe yourself in one word.

     Invasive

92: Describe your last victory.

     I had a conversation with that asshole from my dream without arguing with him.

93: What is the weirdest thing you have ever seen?

     SO! This one time towards the end of the school day in the seventh grade. This one kid (let’s call him V) was sitting next to his friend (C). I look over as I go to shoulder my bag, and V is running his hand down C’s thigh. V catches me looking, and goes “WHAT?! he did it first!” like that made it better! (and it kinda did because that’s still one of my best stories!)

94: What is something you will never forget?

     Something traumatic

95: Would you rather forget all of the past, or remember everything in vivid detail?

     Vivid detail. Then maybe I could win arguments with my sister!

96: Have you ever broken a bone before?

     yeah... I fractured the growth plate in my foot in the sixth grade... by walking.....

97: Is it harder love someone, or hate someone?

     love is so hard....

98: Coffee or tea?

I drink both, but tea ftw!

99: What are some little things you do that have changed your life in a positive way?

     I have become more friendly with my dog, and he actually likes me now!

100: How many hours do spend on tumblr a day?

     quite a fukin few....

[emjee]

Fanfic Meme: 1-4, 13-28, and 49.

1. Things that inspire you. Nature (I’m a fucking capital-R Romantic I know), heightened emotions (Romantic, I told you), and characters who really need to kiss. Most of my fics start with a single concept or word, e.g. “names” (”By Any Other Name”) or “thunderstorm” (”That Looks on Tempests”). Sometimes it’s other people’s bomb-ass headcanons (you can thank @dereksprettyboy for “How to Lose a Winning Match” and “Dazed and Distracted, Can’t You Tell).

2. Things that motivate you. Oddly enough, the end of the semester. The month when I have to do the most research and write the most papers is always the month where I’m like “LET’S READ EIGHT NOVELS THIS MONTH” or “LET’S START WRITING FIC AGAIN”. Also, comments and reactions from people who read my stuff. So tell me what you think of my fics; I promise you’re not bothering me!

3. Name three favorite writers. In chronological order: William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, John Keats.

4. Name three authors that were influential to your work and tell why. All three of the above for the same reason: negative capability, which is when the persona of the author disappears behind the integrity of their characters. Interestingly, my fourth favorite author, Victor Hugo, wants NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. My goal is always to make my characters seem very real, so I try to make my writing blend in with them.

13. Hardest character to write. Belle, even though we are very similar. I just want to make sure I do her justice because she’s so three-dimensional: smart and brave but also she’s seen a lot and definitely has vulnerabilities. I always want to make sure my interpretation of her has a lot of integrity and agency.

14. Easiest character to write. Adam comes very naturally to me. Maybe it’s because he’s kind of my dream man? Or I’ve internalized so much witty romance novel banter that it’s getting easier to write.

15. Hardest verse to write. I’m assuming this means poetic verse, and I’m gonna go with sonnets, because being coherent and complex in FOURTEEN FUCKING LINES WITH A RHYME SCHEME IS FUCKING HARD I’VE TRIED

16. Easiest verse to write. Blank verse. Iambic pentameter comes very naturally to me as an English speaker and it doesn’t rhyme.

17. Already answered.

18. Favorite pairing to write. Adam and Belle have given me material for years.

19. Favorite fandom to write. Based on number of fics alone, Beauty and the Beast.

20. Favorite character to write. Adam and Belle are givens, but I also really love writing Plumette.

21. Least favorite character to write. Agathe felt tricky to get right because we don’t see much of her in the film so I didn’t have much to go on. But other than that, if i don’t love writing a character I don’t usually put them in my fics.

22. Favorite story you’ve ever written. Right now I’m very fond of “Dazed and Distracted, Can’t You Tell?”

23. Least favorite story you’ve ever written. It’s not fic, it was a short story assignment for a creative writing class. The writing itself is actually pretty good, but it’s a novel trying to be a short story so it doesn’t really work.

24. Favorite scene you’ve ever written. I really like the scene between Adam and Belle in the library in “How to Lose a Winning Match”.

25. Already answered.

26. Story you’re most proud of. “That Looks on Tempests” took a while to get right in terms of the emotions, but I’m also really proud of the structuring of “pouf-pouf”.

27. Best review you’ve ever gotten. @nursemz87 once told me my fics are “blankets of the soul.” And @dereksprettyboy says we’re on the same Mental Wavelength of Sin.

28. Worst review you’ve ever gotten. I’ve only ever gotten lovely reviews, but I eagerly await the day I get the coveted “there was too much sex in this” review, which is guaranteed to increase both romance novel sales and fic hit counts. You know that scene in The Music Man where an old biddy tells Harold Hill, “Of course I shouldn’t tell you this, but she [Marian] advocates dirty books.”? Someone’s gonna say that about me someday, and I’m gonna be so proud.

[rantreader]

100 books I need to read

Wish me luck.

1.      To kill a mockingbird 2.      The bible 3.      Pride and Prejudice 4.      Wuthering Heights 5.      Jane Eyre 6.      Little Women 7.      Great Expectations 8.      Catch 22 9.      Catcher in the Rye 10.  War and Peace 11.  Gone with the Wind 12.  The Grapes of Wrath 13.  The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy 14.  Dracula 15.  Anna Karenina 16.  The Wind in the Willows 17.  Emma 18.  David Copperfield 19.  Memoirs of a Geisha 20.  Anne of Green Gables 21.  Far from the Madding Crowd 22.  A Handmaid’s tale 23.  Lord of the flies 24.  Sense and Sensibility 25.  The curious incident of the dog in the night time 26.  On the Road 27.  Bridget Joan’s Diary 28.  Count of Monte Cristo 29.  The Secret Garden 30.  The Bell Jar 31.  The three musketeers 32.  The Little Prince 33.  1001 Nights 34.  The Tale of Genji 35.  Germinal 36.  Oscar and Lucinda 37.  My name is Red 38.  Lolita 39.  Ulysses 40.  Madam Bovary 41.  Robinson Crusoe 42.  Middlemarch 43.  Where the sidewalk ends 44.  The Shining 45.  The autobiography of Malcom X 46.  Slaughterhouse-Five 47.  Little house on the prairie 48.  In Cold Blood 49.  The five people you meet in heaven 50.  Brave New World 51.  Treasure Island 52.  The Quran 53.  About a Boy 54.  Jasper Jones 55.  Cloudstreet 56.   Murder on the Orient Express 57.  The adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn 58.  The Kite Runner 59.  Enders Game 60.  The Princess Bride 61.  The Golden Notebook 62.  Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World 63.  Giovani’s Room 64.  Holes 65.  The Namesake 66.  The Trial 67.  Fahrenheit 451 68.  Dante’s Inferno 69.  Beowulf 70.  Fight Club 71.  Three Weeks 72.  The Age of Innocence 73.  The Crucible 74.  The Scarlet Letter 75.  The Picture of Dorian Gray 76.  Don Quixote 77.  Death of a Salesman 78.  All Quiet on the Western Front 79.  Oliver Twist 80.  A Wrinkle in Time 81.  Siddhartha 82.  The Fall of the House of Usher 83.  The Lorax 84.  The Sound and the Fury 85.  The Odd Couple 86.  A Clockwork Orange 87.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 88.  The World According to Garp 89.  The Three Musketeers 90.   I know Why the Caged Bird Sings 91.  How to Lose friends and alienate people 92.  The Elements of Style 93.  Three Blind Mice (AC) 94.  Butterfly Burning 95.  The River Between 96.  Wild Swans 97.  The Samurai’s Garden 98.  Battle Royale 99.  Moby Dick 100.  Shakespeare’s Sonnets

[whatwoulddelanydo]

If one tried to construct the Temple of Literature from only the fifty “pillars” below, it would collapse spectacularly. Nevertheless, here is a contingent group of titles that, to paraphrase Christopher Higgs, if I hadn’t read and reread over the years, I wouldn’t be myself. How much that is worth, I’m not sure. 1)   Djuna Barnes—Nightwood 2)   Charles H. Kahn—The Art and Thought of Heraclitus (an edition of the fragments with commentary) 3)   William Shakespeare—Sonnets, Tragedies, most of the Comedies . . . 4)   Eileen Myles—Inferno, The Importance of Being Iceland. 5)   Charlotte Brontë—Jane Eyre, Villette 6)   Jane Austen—Emma, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion 7)   Marquis de Sade, 120 Days of Sodom, Julliette 8)   Shoshana Felman, “Turning the Screw of Interpretation” (from Writing and Madness) 9)   Herman Melville—Moby-Dick, Billy Budd, The Confidence Man, and the shorter works 10) Sir Thomas Browne—Urn Burial, Religio Medici, correspondence 11) Walter Pater—The Renaissance, Imaginary Portraits, “A Child in the House,” Marius the Epicurean 12) Richard Hughes—A High Wind in Jamaica, In Hazard 13) George Eliot—Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda 14)   Michel Foucault—The History of Madness, The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things 15)  Joanna Russ—The Female Man, We Who Are About to . . ., On Strike Against God, “Souls,” The Two of Them 16)   Guy Davenport—Tatlin! The Jules Verne Steam Balloon, Da Vinci’s Bicycle, The Death of Picasso, Twelve Stories, A Table of Green Fields, Eclogues, The Geography of the Imagination, The Hunter Gracchus, Every Force Evolves a Form, A Balance of Quinces, The Balthus Notebook 17)   Jacques Derrida—Of Grammatology, Writing and Difference, Dissemination, Glas 18)   Roger Zelazny—His short fiction in four volumes. 19)   F. Scott Fitzgerald—The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, the short stories 20)   Nathanael West—Miss Lonelyhearts, A Cool Million, The Day of the Locust, The Dream Life of Balso Snell, 21)   Henry Roth—Call it Sleep 22)   Virginia Woolf—To the Lighthouse, The Waves, Flush, The Years, A Room of One’s Own 23)   Vladimir Nabokov—Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire 24)   Mark Twain—Huckleberry Finn, The Diary of Adam and Eve 25)   Christina Stead—The Man Who Loved Children 26)   Baruch de Spinoza—Ethics, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus 27)   William Faulkner—The YoknapatawphaCounty sequence of stories and novels 28)   W. H. Auden—The Sea and the Mirror, The Age of Anxiety, The Selected Poems 29)   Ron Silliman—The Alphabet 30)   Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell—From Hell 31)  Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill—The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (series one & two) 32)   Marilyn Hacker—First Cities, Selected Poems 1965—1990, Squares and Courtyards, Winter Numbers, Desesparanto, Names 33)   Junot Diaz—Drown, The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, This Is How You Lose Her 34)   Willa Cather—My Ántonia, Song of the Lark, A Lost Lady, My Mortal Enemy, Not Under Forty, Collected Stories (Library of America) 35)   Jean Genet—Our Lady of the Flowers, Miracle of the Rose, A Thief’s Journal, Funeral Rites, Querelle de Brest, The Maids, Deathwatch, The Balcony, The Blacks, The Screens 36)   James Joyce—A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Ulysses 37)   Gertrude Stein—Lectures in America, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, How to Write, Three Lives, Wars I Have Seen, Ida, Lucy Church Amiably, The Making of Americans, Tender Buttons 38)  John Livingston Lowe—The Road to Xanadu: A Study In The Ways Of the Imagination 39)   Erich Auerbach—Mimesis 40)   John Keene—Annotations 41)   Honoré de Balzac—Lost Illusions 42)   Gustave Flaubert—Sentimental Education 43)   William Gaddis—The Recognitions, Carpenter’s Gothic 44)   Brian Evenson—The Wavering Knife (contains “Barcode Jesus,” one of the finest American short stories of the last sixty years) 45)   Theodore Sturgeon—collected short stories in 13 volumes (1938—1987, indispensible reading) 46)   Thomas M. Disch—Camp Concentration, On Wings of Song, Getting into Death (stories), The Man Who Had No Idea (stories), Fundamental Disch (stories, librettos, and essays) 47)   Samuel Beckett—Malloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, More Pricks Than Kicks, all the plays 48)   Malcolm Lowry—Under the Volcano 49)  Walter Benjamin—The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire, Brecht, The Arcades Project 50)  William H. Gass—Omensetter’s Luck, The Heart of the Heart of the Country, On Being Blue, Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife, The Tunnel, all the nonfiction. Some Corinthian Capitals for the 50 Columns Above: 1)    Susan Sontag—I, etcetera The flatness of Sontag fictive prose is seriously off-putting to many readers—and many serious readers at that. She wanted to make her points through architecture, rather than music or ekphrasis. And in this collection of short works, she did. Along with “The Way We Live Now,” they are exemplary. I read and reread them and I always learn from them. 2)    Glenway Wescott—The Pilgrim Hawk This is another miracle of narrative architecture. One corner is left un-built—the one that would have fixated around the homosexual fascination the young chauffeur exerts over the entire party. (The fact that there is so clearly room for it is what suggests that it is there, under the rest of the text.) Right now, you have to fill it in for yourself, but the rest is right there, as pristine as you’d expect to find it in Jane Austen. 3)    Michael Cunningham—The Hours This is one of the most important novels in the development of the American novel because it answers a challenge first articulated by Leslie Fiedler in his 1960 work, Love and Death in the American Novel. Claimed Fiedler, the novel as a genre must strive to encompass a rich set of deep and resonant relations between a man and a woman. And until the historical situation much improves in terms of equality, the cross-gender friendship at the center of this book is about the best we can hope for that is not just lies and/or simple fantasies. 4)    Longus—Daphnis and Chloe One of the oldest novels and one of the most effective. This is romance stripped to its bones; it’s quite wonderful and filled with narrative magic. 5)    Hugo Von Hofmannsthal—The Lord Chados Letter Whenever I feel myself straying near writers’ block, I read this witty farewell to literature by a young medieval much too full of his own accomplishments, and I go dancing away and back to the writing desk and get happily to work again. 6)    Leonid Tsypkin—Summer in Baden Baden. This astonishing chronicle of pathological gambling addiction is breathless and frightening, and is made more so when we realize that it is the great novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky who was so afflicted. With our return to the present, the ending is heartbreaking as we meet the scholars who are, themselves, addicted to their pursuit of the minutiae of Dostoevsky’s life, and what they have put at stake to pursue their obsessions and make this story recountable. This great short novel is by a Russian doctor and scholar who wrote only one.

“For Big Other on William H. Gass’s Birthday,” by Samuel R. Delany

Maybe if I read all these I’ll be able to soak up an iota of Delany’s greatness.