I credit Jude the Obscure as being the book that put me on my current reading path. Before, I read loads, but nothing of substance unless it was assigned in school. Then, I believe it was in the summer before my junior year in high school, I went to a bookstore in search of a something new. I have always been a horrible cover snob (and still am – I don’t judge a book by its cover, but I don’t buy it if I don’t like the art) and was drawn to a simple, blurry drawing of a man working in a wheat field. I think I decided to buy it because it mentioned the movie version starring Eccleston and Winslet who I loved (still do). Anyway, I bought it and read it and loved it. I was shocked by it, which is saying something for a book written over a century before. Afterwards, I started being much more strict about what I allowed myself to read. Thank you, Thomas Hardy, for saving me from a life of reading Stephen King and Chic Lit.

Even though the book is depressing and there is a pervading sense of hopelessness, I think it is really cool and well-written. It’s sad that society tore Sue and Jude apart.