[PotatoHeadMick]

Check out his list and see if you disagree with him.

[mathprof]

He must work for Obama (or more likely the guy with the high IP, Biden). How stupid. “À la Recherche du Temps Perdu – Marcel Proust”, and the Iliad are fabulous.

[randomhero97]

How can LOTR be on the list? Can the dudes that suggested these books even read?

[GOP_Party_Animal]

10 Books Not To Read Before You Die

A great idea for an article. Too bad he screwed it up by deriding Tolkien and Homer. Maybe this guy should be writing for Cracked or Mad Magazine.

[Cicero]

Sounds like a real twit.

Actually he’s right not to read three of these books:

6: The Dice Man – Luke Reinhart

5: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson

4: The Beauty Myth – Naomi Wolff

But he’s wrong about the rest of them. Very wrong. Except maybe À la Recherche du Temps Perdu. I think you can get away with reading the first volume, and stop there.

[steelyourfaith]

I’ve read Tolkien & Hemingway and enjoyed it, so I don’t totally agree with his opinion, though I have no inclination to waste time with Naomi Wolff.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Check out his list and see if you disagree with him."

I can't. The Times Online is on my list of 10 newspapers not to read before I die.

[Radix]

I have not read most of the books on the list. I did read Lord of the Rings (cuz everybody else was reading it) and those books despite all of the hype....sucked, totally.

The movies were rather awful as well.

[machogirl]

(11) the audacity of hope
(12) dreams of my father (lotsa women, lotsa kids)

[nickcarraway]

I disagree with his take on the classics on this list. Pride and Prejudice? If one takes the time to read it, it's extremely valuable. Every conservative, especially, should read it.

I don't think Ulysses is a book for everyone, but I wouldn't dismiss it either.

The Illiad and War and Peace are both extremely valuable. Hemingway isn't my favorite, but I wouldn't put it on the "not read" list.

[McLynnan]

Being mentioned with Hemingway, Homer and Proust is really going to go to Naomi Wolff’s airhead.

[Sherman Logan]

With the exception of Tolkien (especially!), Tolstoy and Austen, I agree with the twit.

The author certainly comes across as a snobbish boor I’d walk a mile to avoid spending time with.

[muir_redwoods]

I have read five of them and don't regret it at all. Joyce, Tolkien, Hemingway, Proust and Homer are hard to match in any generation.

Of course, one has to be literate so maybe that's his problem.

[Revolting cat!]

Hairy Potty. Oh wait, that's seven books right there!

[GOP_Party_Animal]

High school books I was forced to read, and still think are stupid in my adulthood:
1. Catcher In The Rye. Dumb.
2. Death of a Salesman. Pointless.
3. Grapes of Wrath. Depressing and pointless.

Books I hated in high school but now appreciate:
1. 1984
2. Animal Farm
3. Brave New World.
All three of these sensitized and prepared me for modern-day liberalism.

[Question_Assumptions]

No Dickens?

[RichInOC]

1. My Life
2. It Takes a Village
3. Living History

[BilLies]

I, wit very few exceptions, limit my reading to nonfiction.

[Panzerlied]

I read the list.

I’m safe.

[GatorGirl]

I agree with 4, 5 and 6.

[Yardstick]

Then you realise it’s a bit dry and boring and the more you find out about Hemingway, the more you realise he was a bore too: a terrible macho bore obsessed with bullfighting, guns, boxing and trying to catch big fish; really quite a tiresome bloke you wouldn’t want to spend time with.

It seems to be the style in England these days to reject anything having to do with classical notions of manliness. They are so postmodern it's just precious.

Hemingway's short story about the fly fisherman is great. Just thinking about it makes me hungry for buckwheat pancakes and a handrolled smoke.

Joyce's Ulysses seems to be about the style more than the plot and so it seems acceptable to quit after the first third or so.

Tried but just can't get interested in hobbitses.