Greatest Books of All Time: Huck Finn

So, Time released their opinion of the top 10 greatest books of all time. It made me start thinking about the books I have read, and which I would put on my own top 10 list. I'll have to get back to that. In the meantime, here's their list:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch by George Eliot
    

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1578073,00.html#ixzz1JNPALQ8q

I've been thinking of reading these books (obviously shorter books first due to severe time constraints with trying to finish classes this summer), and commenting on them via the blog.
I'm going to start with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because despite Kenz's opinion that Mark Twain was racist (who knows, they all pretty much were back then, right?), and even refused to read this classic when she was younger, I love Twain's humor. It's been a while since I read it last, but I remember liking it. Now I'm looking forward to reading it in a new light, with some context and contrast with current racial issues, and maybe even try to tie in The Help somewhere.


This is a boring side note, but riding public transportation has made me think seriously about how I treat others, especially those who are difficult to deal with on many levels. I am also working with my local Red Cross chapter to launch an outreach program that targets Spanish speakers (Utah's largest minority population) in order to make services more accessible to them and to increase their support and involvement in the Red Cross and community. I suppose that circumstances have had me thinking seriously about how we treat one another in society, both on the macro and individual level, and what I feel I can do better.

So, in that context I'll begin The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on Friday, and plan to finish within a month. Anyone interested in reading and ranting along? I like to make connections with current events, if that makes it sound more interesting. But if this all sounds boring, feel free to skip related posts.

** I should also mention that after riding on a steamboat in Hannibal, Missouri, I have had a strange obsession with the idea of making my own raft one day and riding it down the Mississippi. **