Posted on 09/18/2008 6:41:41 PM PDT by PotatoHeadMick
Recommended lists of ‘essential’ reading are the most pernicious ‘to do’ lists of all. Lists of physical achievements or magical holiday destinations or wonderful restaurants or fabulous hotels make you feel like your life has been wasted; a list of great books you should have read makes you feel like your brain has been wasted. Most people embarking on a journey into a new book will feel they have to hack through a hundred pages of dense undergrowth before their conscience will allow them to give it up as a lost cause. But how many people feel secure enough in their own judgment even to do that? How many times have we all ploughed on to the end to find there’s actually no treasure after all? A book, even a useless one, can take several days out of your life so it’s a big investment. The best way to fight the massed ranks of recommended books is with an offensively glib and, if possible, ill-informed reason for not bothering with them.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
Well, it’s something that’s published into book form and then forced upon us in high school English... that qualifies as a book to me.
I like your list better than theirs.
Not long ago I read “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and absolutely loved it. FWIW...
Pride & Prejudice, OTOH, is the best romance novel ever.
“These days I am lucky if I have time to read the day on my underwear.”
That is absolutely brilliant. Did you originate this saying?
You should try Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" - and if its the movie you want to see, rent the 1963 version, NOT the 90s version (which sucks big time).
It’s a snooty article. Haven’t read 3 of them, but I liked the rest, and read them for fun, not class.
But War and Peace does go on a long, long time...
...IF you want to be a shallow Madison Ave.-worshipping twit.
This list is too eurocentric. No “The Sound and the Fury”? Come on....
I swear we must be twins :) Jane was one hell of a wordsmith.
“High school books I was forced to read, and still think are stupid in my adulthood:
1. Catcher In The Rye. Dumb. “— I never identified with Holden Caulfield
“2. Death of a Salesman. Pointless. “Ditto
“3. Grapes of Wrath. Depressing and pointless.” Haven't read it, but have read Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat. Both are entertaining, but end on a down note.
“Books I hated in high school but now appreciate:
1. 1984 “ I found it the most depressing book I have ever read. Very valuable, when you realize he was depicting Soviet Russia.
“2. Animal Farm “ Another depressing book, in a more humorous vein. Again, the Russian Revolution in parable form.
“3. Brave New World. “ Extremely prescient, anticipating modern society and science.
I can't see the point of a “don't read” list. If the book's premise is crummy, or its writing is crummy, don't finish it.
When I read very long books (War and Peace, Ulysses, etc., I read them for a set amount of time every day or for an entire chapter, whichever works best for me. I've breezed through several mammoth tomes that way. I read Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings, which is over 700 pages in just a few week, and The Executioner's Song, which is over a thousand pages, in about the same time (on a Norman Mailer kick at the time).
Somebody should introduce the author to Robert Jordan. A 12 book (so far) series. Most of them longer than War and Peace.
Will there be anymore? Didn't he pass away last year? Will they get someone to finish The Wheel of Time series?
9: Lord of the Rings – J R R Tolkien ——Disagree
8: For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway ——Disagree Read this one and then you have read them all.
7: À la Recherche du Temps Perdu – Marcel Proust —— Disagree One sometimes needs to discipline one's brain.
6: The Dice Man – Luke Reinhart ——huh?
5: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson -—Agree Made me want to blow my brains out.
4: The Beauty Myth – Naomi Wolff Agree -— Pop feminism
3: War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy Disagree ——If I can do it you can do it.
2: The Iliad — Homer -— Really disagree. Foundational for Western lit
1: Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen Disagree. Fun book and a snapshot into a different era.
1. 1984 “ I found it the most depressing book I have ever read. Very valuable, when you realize he was depicting Soviet Russia.
“2. Animal Farm “ Another depressing book, in a more humorous vein. Again, the Russian Revolution in parable form.
“3. Brave New World. “ Extremely prescient, anticipating modern society and science.
These three books plus
The Earth Abides
The Long Walk
The Lord of the Flies
are mandatory reading for my homeschooled children in their sophmore year.
Mrs. Milton found him boring too. He's a little bit long-winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible.
Awesome Book. Long Walk? Is that the King/Bachman Book about a Walking Contest?
Same here. But my exceptions are probably a little longer.
So which nonfiction books would you say were a waste of your time? I’m having trouble coming up with some. The cool thing about nonfiction is that if you wade through the drudgery when you don’t like it, at least you learned some history.
Here are 10 nonfiction titles that I recommend TO READ...
1) “Intercept UFO” by Renato Vesco. It’s not what you think, very surprising book about how flying saucers are secret weapons.
2) “Late Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsay. Highest selling title of the entire decade of 1970’s. Changed my life.
3) “Jesus: God, Ghost or Guru” by Buell & Hyder. The basics — that Jesus claimed to be God. Simple, clear reading.
4) “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell. Reinforcement of #3.
5) Nam (Some collection of first person stories about soldiers in Viet Nam. I found it compelling. I wonder if there’s a corollary for Iraq? )
6) “The Ultra Secret” by Winterbotham. How the brits broke the NAZI code.
7) “Excess Heat: Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed” Beaudette, C.G. Read it here for free:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/BeaudetteCexcessheat.pdf
8) “Don’t Let Science Get You Down, Timothy: A Light-hearted (but Deadly Serious) Dialogue on Science, Faith, and Culture” by Jean Drew and Sandi Venable (Two of my favorite Freepers, pinging them also. I haven’t read the book all the way through yet.)
9) “The Spymasters of Israel” forgot author.
10) “Hackers” by Steven Levy in the same vein, “Fire in the Valley” and “Hard Drive”
Then there’s Biographies: Wright Brothers, Hudson Taylor, Brother Andrew, Corrie Ten Boom, Thomas Townsend Browne, Chuck Yeager, Chesty Puller, Congressional Medal of Honor winners, Bismarck, Hitler, Napoleon, Caesar, Christopher Columbus, Francis Drake, Audie Murphy, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla, Bill Gates.
Actually, that's what I thought it was!
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz
It has just been reissued. About a Polish officer and others who walk from Siberia to freedom during WWII.
Got the 100th! Never heard of the dice man book.
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