#1 The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe

So the project begins...and I chose my first read to be Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" for a few different reasons...

1. Anything written by Poe is completely appropriate for this time of year especially with Halloween rapidly approaching.
2.I love every morbid word Poe wrote. To me, his stories are fascinating and give me the chills. I absolutely love it.
3. It's very very short, so it didn't take long to read. I wanted to feel like I accomplished something so I wouldn't get discouraged early on in the project.

This is my second or third time reading this story, but I still love it.

First, I want to point out what I noticed about the title. I love how it can be interpreted as the fall of the literal house where Usher lived or the decline of the Usher family descendants. Very interesting...

I also love how the narrator is unnamed. It definitely makes the story even more mysterious.

Now let's get into the story..So, the narrator gets the letter from Roderick. This part always bothers me!! I feel like the narrator should be suspicious or at least ask some questions before just packing up and heading to Roderick's house. I mean...c'mon! He hasn't talked to him for years! The narrator is either a) extremely naive or b) a helluva good friend. Personally, I vote a, but you can decide for yourself...

So the unnamed narrator gets to his house and let's be honest...it sounds pretty creepy. Of course, it's Poe, so the descriptions are dark and not to mention very very verbose. I loved his description for the what he calls "the master's studio." It gives me chills thinking about what this room probably looked like. And it definitely gives me that dark, gloomy, empty feeling I think Poe wanted his readers to feel...
"Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered."

So not only is the house a wee bit on the creepy side, but Roderick is a little, well...different himself. I would definitely describe him as intriguing in a morbid way. Poe has a way of describing him as physically very ugly and scary, but I think it intrigues his readers very much. Physically, Roderick is not the norm, and he is mentally deranged as well. He is crazy with depression over the loss of the only other surviving relative, lady Madeline.

After a few days of staying at the house of Usher, you think that maybe the narrator would be creeped out enough to leave. Maybe make up an excuse and book it? But no, he doesn't...I always wonder why...maybe he would feel guilty for leaving? Or maybe he is afraid to leave or crazy himself. I mean, if it was me, I probably would have turned around and went home upon arriving, but if the narrator did that we wouldn't have much of a story now would we? I guess he stays to build up tension for the reader. It works. Points: Poe 1. Robyn 0.

I think it's fair to say that the narrator is at least a little uneasy and anxious about staying with Roderick. I believe he thinks Roderick is crazy and mentally ill because he refers to him as a "hypochondriac" twice.

So, things are weird already, but they get worse. Roderick tells the narrator that Madeline is his twin and he wants to preserve her body in a vault in the basement wall! Weirded out yet, Mr. Narrator? I guess not enough because he helps make arrangements to help Roderick preserve her body in the vault.

And they preserve Madeline successfully. But both the narrator and Roderick become more uneasy, to the point where neither of them are getting any sleep at night. One night, the narrator is awakened by lights outside, decides that he is fed up with staying in the mad house, gets dressed, and ponders leaving when Roderick disturbs his thoughts. Roderick is feeling disturbed as well and the narrator reads to him to calm him down. But as he is reading, he notices two creepy things...1. what he is reading is corresponding with strange noises in the house and 2. Roderick is shaking and mumbling. He seems beyond stressed.

So finally Roderick explains to the narrator that the noises he is hearing is Madeline trying to escape from the vault because they burried her alive! Basically, the narrator is like...What?! And then Roderick is like..."Oh, she's at the door now." The door breaks down, Madeline is there covered in blood, and she basically mauls her brother. She dies in the struggle, he dies of fear. The narraot gets the hell out of there...finally!!

As he is running out of the house, Poe uses great symbols. First, the narrator says that the moon is blood red. I really liked this because it symbolizes the bloody death of him and Madeline that he always feared. To me, the moon is just a smbol of "their fate being sealed." And of course, as the narrator is riding away, he hears a crash, turns around, and sees the house has completely crumbled to the ground. This is absolutely brilliant! The title is now complete. The actual house has fallen down and of course all of the Usher family is now deceased.

I absolutely love this story! To me, the symbols are completely brilliant, the descriptions literally give me the chills, and the story is morbid yet frightening. Poe is brilliant! I'd give this story a 10 out of 10 ranking.

1 book down, 1000 to go!
Only a lifetime left to read the rest!

The Start of a Major Project

Today I went to the library just to look around and spend some quiet time skimming through some books. As I walked down one of the aisles, I came across the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. "Woah," I thought, "seems like a lofty goal, but one I would love to try!"

So here I am with the book and I'm thinking...Ok, so when am I gonna read all of these?? My second thought...well, it's definitely gonna take at least a few years.

So, maybe I should try 100 per year? No, that's almost a book every three or four days.
But 50 books a year will take about 20 years....
Hmm...healthy medium? How about 75 in a year?
I mean afterall, I have until I die to read them all...
So basically I decided to shoot for reading 65 of the books in exactly one year...Yes, I know this is crazy, but I love reading and I think it is very important way of learning.

So, I went through this book....I've read about maybe 15 of these books? Not that impressive but hey, it's not like I've even read 1001 books in my lifetime.

And so the project begins. I'm settling for reading 65 of these books by this date next year.

Somehow I will do it. I'm gonna stick this one out! I will write about them as I finish them.

Maybe you want to do the project too? =D