Reading List: The Scarlet Letter

During the holiday season my mother and I decided that we would form our own kind of book club duo. We decided that we would read a classic piece of literature together and discuss it every day.

First off let me describe to you how awesome it's been to read classics after years of reading textbooks with a little bit of children's fiction here and there! I loved reading classics when I was a teenager, so it was definitely an easy decision to begin this project.

So far we have read five books: The Bostonians by Henry James, Howards End by E.M. Forrester, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and finally The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.


Let me just say that I promise never to reveal any important parts to any story that I read. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone! Everyone has their own reading style, and should read books not based on my opinion, but on your own.

So I just finished The Scarlett Letter and I found it to be pretty good, although not my favorite book. I have never been a big fan of Nathanial Hawthorne. I find his writing style to be somewhat boring. I did think that this story was much better than his other major work The House of the Seven Gables. The story is good, although I don't think that you get the know the main characters very well. The overall theme was way ahead of its time, and I'm sure it had some controversy at one point during the time of publication. Either way, I think that it's a great read, especially if you are in to historical fiction during the time of the Puritans.