Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits

By Jack Murnighan

Feel bad about not reading or not enjoying the so-called great books? Don’t sweat it, it’s not your fault. Did anyone tell you that Anna Karenina is a beach read, that Dickens is hilarious, that the Iliad’s battle scenes rival Hollywood’s for gore, or that Joyce is at his best when he’s talking about booze, sex, or organ meats?

Writer and professor Jack Murnighan says it’s time to give literature another look, but this time you’ll enjoy yourself. With a little help, you’ll see just how great the great books are: how they can make you laugh, moisten your eyes, turn you on, and leave you awestruck and deeply moved. Beowulf on the Beach is your field guide–erudite, witty, and fun-loving–for helping you read and relish fifty of the biggest (and most skipped) classics of all time. For each book, Murnighan reveals how to get the most out of your reading and provides a crib sheet that includes the Buzz, the Best Line, What’s Sexy, and What to Skip.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 19, 2009
• ISBN: 9780307459879

Jack Murnighan

Jack Murnighan has a Ph.D. in medieval and renaissance literature from Duke University. His book, Beowulf on the Beach helped tens of thousands of readers rediscover their love of the classics. His two previous books, The Naughty Bits and Classic Nasty, were critically acclaimed tours of sexuality in the history of literature. He lives in New York City.

Reviews for Beowulf on the Beach

[bnbooklady · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve always considered myself to be pretty well read, but in the years since I graduated from college, I’ve begun to realize exactly how many of the classics I missed out on, and I’ve been looking for a way to incorporate more of them into my reading. I want to re-read some of the ones that I didn’t quite “get” as a teenager, revisit the ones that left indelible impressions, and fill in the gaps by (finally) picking up the ones I’ve always been ashamed to admit I haven’t read.Maybe you’re like me, or maybe you don’t exactly want to read the classics, but you want to want to. Whatever the case, look no further. Jack Murnighan’s Beowulf on the Beach is the perfect motivator and companion for your journey. The subtitle—What to Love and What to Skip in Literature’s 50 Greatest Hits—says it all. Murnighan, a writer and literature professor with a Ph.D. in medieval and renaissance works, tells it like it is. He loves the books he’s selected, and he wants to spread the love and help readers understand and appreciate why the classics are so important.Throughout Beowulf on the Beach, Murnighan is funny, irreverent (he refers to Jesus as “His Shagginess” at one point), and passionately committed to the cause of converting readers to the classics. He reminds us of the importance of reading slowly, digesting each work line by line, and re-reading when it’s necessary. His love for these great books is palpable and impossible to ignore, and he wants us to learn how to read them in a way that will make us love them just as much as he does.You know there’s at least one classic you want to read and have been making excuses about. Go buy it. And Beowulf on the Beach. And read them together. Why? Because Jack Murnighan makes the classics seem not just accessible but inviting, exciting, and unmissable.Go on. You know you wanna.Read my full review at The Book Lady's Blog.

[melrailey-412132 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Beowulf on the Beach is a fun, quick little read. Murnighan uses his background in medieval and renaissance literature to give readers his opinions of some of the best classic books or pieces of literature. He does quick little synopses of the stories, plot lines, best lines, and the things that you should skip in the books (and you won't miss anything by skipping those parts of the books). I enjoyed seeing another opinion on some books I really loved and getting a good idea of what other books I might (or might not) want to tackle in the near future. It was an entertaining book that inspired me to read some classic literature. I just don't know if it will be any of the ones recommended by Murnighan.

[silvernfire · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I credit this book with telling me about some books I'd never heard of, and telling me more than I knew about others. I got along better with the author when he was discussing all the books I'd never read; whenever I had read the book, I ended up wincing at his description of it. His love for his favorite books is clear, and it's just as clear to me that we don't have the same tastes in literature. Which is probably why I kept rolling my eyes at the "What's Sexy" section for every book. Sure, often it's funny, and Murnighan knows there are other things to appreciate about a book besides its sex scenes (if any). But the idea that people will only read a classic if it has sex in it got annoying pretty quickly.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's perhaps inevitable that I wouldn't get on with this book, for three reasons. One, I'm an academic type. Two, Beowulf genuinely is my idea of a beach read. Three, in his words, I sit down to pee.

No, no. I don't mean that in a derogatory, 'women always argue' way. I mean that Jack Murnighan keeps going on about 'Man Lit', and how amaaaazing it is that he managed to find anything worth reading in Pride and Prejudice, and how all women are going to be all starry-eyed over Darcy, and whatever.

The very idea that there has to be something 'sexy' about the books to keep a reader's interest strikes me as quite guy-centric -- or not so much that as it's a very consistent idea of what's sexy, or even more generally, what might draw a reader. No mention is given to the compelling nature of David and Jonathan's love for each other, for example.

There's possibly a fourth point, in that this is the literary canon of primarily dead white men. It's European to the extreme. It perhaps wouldn't be such a dealbreaker for me if it advertised itself as such, but considering the title is 'Literature's 50 Greatest Hits'...

Naturally, I disagree on other levels with his ideas of what to skip, and I don't really get on with his flippant tone. About all I credit this book with is encouraging me to pick up some of the classics I previously gave a miss -- but I already had that vague intention in mind anyway.

(Oh, and if you don't want to view the Bible as a literary document, avoid.)

[391_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I mostly enjoyed this book, and I thought Murnighan's passion for literature was sweet, but I also got annoyed more than a few times when his arguments became either condescending or dismissive.

[virginiagill · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My copy of this book has become a well thumbed resource. I not only enjoyed reading it but loved rediscovering books I thought I hated, and plunging head first into ones I thought were just too difficult. Thank you Mr Murnighan!

[debnance_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I do not think there could be a person on earth (1) who obviously loves reading as much as I do, yet (2) who has completely and totally opposite reading tastes. Let me make one thing clear: Jack is a GUY. He is looking for action in books. Plot. Fighting. Killing. Plunder. You know. That sort of stuff.I could care less about plot. I want to get inside people’s heads. I want to understand people. A group of intriguing people, sitting around in chairs, talking? Excellent book for me. So Beowulf at the Beach had nothing for me. Jack looked at fifty classics and showed all the violence and action you didn’t know was there. The good news is that I think I can safely cross about twenty books off my list of Books to Read Before I Die. I’m just not interested in ever reading Blood Meridian or Lolita or Tropic of Cancer or, really, Faulkner. I can get that on the six o’clock news or the latest blockbuster movie. So that is a kind of usefulness, Jack. Thank you for that.

[amyelizabeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While I have yet to read the entirety of this book, I have read his sections on the books I own, and I thought his descriptions were spot-on. I really enjoyed his take on the classics, especially his sections of his favorite quotes and "what to skip." Not that I would skip anything just because he said I could, but it's nice to know that there really are parts of the classics that are just not relevant to the story. I will be using this book in the future when I pick up the rest of the classics Jack evaluates.

[jmaloney17 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was curious what a prof. of lit. would think about the classics and if the ones I avoi are really worth reading. Beowulf in particular is one I avoid. I of course had to read the Grendal bit in college, but I have been avoing the rest. Thank goodness Murnighan said that I do not need to read the rest of it.One other book I was interested in reading about was [Madame Bovary]. I hated that book. Well, Murnighan hates it too. I am so glad he agrees with me.This is not the greatest book in the world, but I enjoyed reading it to see what he thinks about certain books. One thing he said that made me feel better is that no one will understand everything written in these books. This is especially true for [Ulysses] and a few others he mentions. He says not to worry about it. That is just the way it is.