By Michelle Berger
2011 is here.
With a new year comes new goals, new endeavors and new interests.
So, for all you avid and recreational readers out there, it”s a good time to be drafting your 2011 reading list. Sure, there are plenty of contemporary best sellers and fad books topping the lists right now, but honestly, why not make this the year you introduce the classics into your lives or give them a second chance; hey, we all had the bad literature in high school experience, but what you may have disliked then, you could have a better understanding and appreciation for now.
As I mentioned in a previous article, the classics are gradually being removed from educational institutes and personal libraries all across America and/or being subjected to illogical and ridiculous censorship and scrutiny; look up issues surrounding “Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill A Mockingbird” for more information.
Now”s the time to be experiencing the mavericks of literature and pop cultural icons before they completely disappear. And so, let me give you two books to consider for your reading list. Enjoy.
“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.”
I grew up on this book. I read it over and over again and even had the audio book for my cassette player.
Good times, good memories.
This collection was the first in a series of short stories published by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a monthly British magazine called “The Strand” circa 1891. “The Scandal In Bohemia” kicks off the tales and reveals the comical story of the only person who was ever able to outsmart the world”s greatest “freelance consulting consulters detective.”
For those of you who saw Guy Ritchie”s film in 2009 and were wondering just who the heck Irene Adler was, this is the story of how Holmes and her met. The story I highly recommend is “The Case Of The Copper Beeches.” Prepare to be seriously creeped out by a most unsettling family and their extreme demands, I”ll let you figure it out. What is great about these stories are, of course, the mysteries, with plenty of twists, turns and shocking results.
Another area of interest for you all is that many images on Sherlock Holmes you have spent your life accepting are in fact, false. His physical appearance: never ever does he wear a deer-stockers hat and a plaid London Fog coat with a pipe hanging in his mouth; that image was first introduced by Hollywood. His intelligence: he”s actually a grade school dropout and can barely add, subtract or spell. His mannerisms: he”s an extreme eccentric who spends most of his time practicing martial arts and playing with his chemistry set. His occupation: he”s not a detective ? ooh, that completely debunked everything didn”t it?
Why have we all come to believe he”s a detective or consultant for the police?
Could it be that so few people have actually read the books that they”ve made assumptions based on what they”ve only heard?
Well, now”s the opportunity to get away from hear-say. Give this book a read, I guarantee you”ll love it.
“The Scarlet Pimpernel”. You get everything with this book, action, adventure, mystery, espionage and romance. This is definitely one of the most influential books of pop culture in both America and in Europe, with plenty of references and conceptual images from it plastered all over the place and for all you comic book, cartoon, movie buffs out there, this book was one of the major influences for the creation of Batman.
Written by the Baroness Emmuska Orczy in 1905, the story is set during the French Revolution and deals with the horror of the French republic abusing their newly found power to persecute and murder innocent men, women and children whose mere association with aristocrats or royalty is enough to deem them traitors.
Now, don”t fret, there are absolutely no spoilers here as this is simply a prologue to the much bigger plot: A mysterious man simply known as the Scarlet Pimpernel has been rescuing the condemned and defeating the corrupted and hypocritical revolutionaries during the night.
The officials have sworn to put a stop to this and send Chauvelin, a brilliant spy and assassin to discover who the Scarlet Pimpernel really is.
He manages to deduce that the “Hero” is an English aristocrat and that he could be one of 20 men.
Hmm, sound like someone we know: wealthy playboy by day, cloaked hero by night? And so, sailing to England he meets with Marguerite St. Just, a French noblewoman who married an Englishman, and forces her to help him discover who of the 20 men, the Scarlet Pimpernel is.
Unfortunately, they are all dear friends and loved ones of Marguerite and now she has to choose a side or concoct a plot of her own.
It gets silly and scary and you”ll love how it ends.
When Michelle Berger is not writing, she”s usually re-enacting famous fight scenes from Kung-Fu flicks. Reach her at mberger_om@yahoo.com.
