I know I'm belatedly jumping on a popular meme, but I suppose it's better late than never...
...
Anyway, here's my list (right) of the 25 novels I think you should read before you die. Of course its just a snapshot of what I'm thinking at the moment and at least for me these things change all the time. (Next month I imagine it'd be a totally different list). One rule I gave myself was limiting my choices to 1 novel per author. I was also a little bit reluctant to include stuff that I've just recently read. I think The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell is a modern classic, but will I think that a year from now? I don't know...My final rule was not to include books that I think everyone has already read in school "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Things Fall Apart", "Catcher in the Rye" etc. (Maybe this is a bit of a naive belief, but one lives in hope). I do appreciate this is largely a Western Anglophone list but that's the culture I grew up in and you are certainly free to make a list of your own.
...
So why should you read these 25 novels? Well, it won't make you a better man (or woman), it won't always be fun (parts of Ulysses do drag), but I think it will enrich your experience of life on this little planet of ours...
...
Anyway, here's my list (right) of the 25 novels I think you should read before you die. Of course its just a snapshot of what I'm thinking at the moment and at least for me these things change all the time. (Next month I imagine it'd be a totally different list). One rule I gave myself was limiting my choices to 1 novel per author. I was also a little bit reluctant to include stuff that I've just recently read. I think The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell is a modern classic, but will I think that a year from now? I don't know...My final rule was not to include books that I think everyone has already read in school "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Things Fall Apart", "Catcher in the Rye" etc. (Maybe this is a bit of a naive belief, but one lives in hope). I do appreciate this is largely a Western Anglophone list but that's the culture I grew up in and you are certainly free to make a list of your own.
...
So why should you read these 25 novels? Well, it won't make you a better man (or woman), it won't always be fun (parts of Ulysses do drag), but I think it will enrich your experience of life on this little planet of ours...
48 comments:
I've read five and started about ten or twelve. The ones that I loved are the Wodehouse, Lucky Jim and The Big Sleep. I 'd put The Fall for the Camus and Hard Times for Dickens but you're choices are good uns.
The only books I remember reading at school were A Kestrel for a Knave and Rogue Male but I didn't go much. If we'd had the books you mentioned I might have gone more.Maybe.
I've read about half of these. The somewhat discouraging thing is that even most of these I'd have to read again to decide whether I like them now. Just read Decline and Fall a couple of weeks ago as it happens. Very enjoyable.
I didn't really care for Vanity Fair, though I really loved Thackeray's The Newcomes.
I also didn't really like Confederacy of Dunces, though I might like it better now that I've actually been to New Orleans. I did like finding the little statue of Ignatius J. Reilly there and recognizing it.
Paul
Yeah the big thing is to start them isnt it? Even if you give up at least you'll have gotten a flavour. Although that would be a same in Lucky Jim's case because the comic climax comes at the end.
Seana
I loved Vanity Fair, in fact it might be my favourite Victorian novel. I didnt see Becky as a villain at all, just a smart girl on the make.
You didnt like Confederacy? I dont know, I thought it was really really funny.
Well, I have to say, I think Becky Sharp is probably your kind of girl. It was strange not to like it, after liking the Newcomes so much, but it might have been the strain of reading it for a reading group.
Confederacy of Dunce I'm fully prepared to think I just read at the wrong time. I know I was just out of college when I read it. Actually I should probably read it again for the flavor of the city if nothing else.
So are these in order from least to best, or just all at the same level. Because if the first, I really ought to bump A Suitable Boy up my own list.
Paul, A Kestrel for a Knave and Rogue Male were not part of the American curriculum. Do tell.
Seana
Yeah there is a rough and ready sort of order. So if you had a year to live or something I'd rec 10-1, even though some of the longer books are in there. But I do like the rule that says if you're at page 50 and not enjoying yourself feel free to give up and move on to the next book.
Well, I've read about half of the top ten, so there's a chance that even with a year to live I might be able to do it. I have read a fair amount of Faulkner and a fair amount of Joyce and a fair amount of Steinbeck, and even a fair amount of Seth. But unfortunately not these. Or perhaps fortunately, as it means I have something to look forward to.
Seana
I'm already having a rethink...I cant believe I forgot about Cormac McCarthy, although it was much cooler back in the 80's when I was the only person I knew who had heard of him...I'd certainly have Blood Meridian in there, somewhere in the teens I think.
Yeah, my friend Jim Thompson (no, not that Jim Thomson) had heard of him and raved about him by then too.
All the same, I'm glad you put him in the teens, since that means I won't have to deal with him for awhile. I only read All the Pretty Horses, and as I've probably said here somewhere before, it was not my favorite.
Love this, because some I was on the fence about, you just pushed me over to committing to read. Where there any by Cormac McCarthy that were close and didn't make the cut? And I can't criticize because I haven't read most of these, but "Cloud Atlas" is going to be at the top of my list for a long time.
Dennis
I second you on Cloud Atlas. Fantastic book. Another modern classic.
Hmmm McCarthy...my favourites are: Blood Meridian, Child of God, Outer Dark and All The Pretty Horses.
Seana
Blood Meridian is a very intense ride.
Seana, we just had books around the classroom and everyone had to pick one. Most people went for the Pan Book Of Horror stories and a book called The Goalkeepers Revenge.A Kestrel for a Knave was made into Ken Loach's best film, Kes.It made me cry but in a good way. Rogue Male is a ripping yarn about a plot to kill Hitler.
There are loads of famous writers that I've never read like Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway. I'm sure I'd like them. The only Waugh I've read was A Handful Of Dust, which I loved.
Handful of Dust was in a two for one paperback of Waugh that I read Decline and Fall in. They were both great.
I've seen a few Ken Loach movies, but hadn't heard of Kes. I'll check it out.
Steinbeck comes up a lot in California one way and another, although the book I enjoyed the most at the time was Travels With Charley, which was nonfiction. Of course, I was maybe thirteen, and actually read it just before we were headed home on a family road trip, so I have no idea how it holds up.
I always liked Wodehouse’s stories better than his novels. I haven’t read Summer Lightning, though.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Yes, I was a bit surprised that one Wodehouse novel could be singled out.
Love love love Pride and Prejudice. How many times is it acceptable to read the same book? Also Keira Knightly does not deserve to be on the cover of such a classic.
I've read it three times, Frankie.
I believe I've read it twice, but god knows how many television and movie versions I've seen of it over time. It's a little like Jane Eyre that way. No one ever seems to want to say, "Sorry, it's been done."
Seana
The big problem with the Jane Eyre adaptations is that Jane is supposed to be plain, not pretty, yet they keep casting attractive actresses.
In my teens I read every Steinbeck, fiction and non (even that weird one about Russia). For me the standouts are: Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle, Tortilla Flat, To A God Unknown.
Paul
Ken Loach's best film if you ask me.
Frankie
Its about 3 times for me too. Emma three times as well.
Peter
I think its my favourite because its so self contained and funny. He didnt need Jeeves to be hilarious.
Three times each for me with Emma and Pride and Prejudice as well (and twice for Sense and Sensibility).
Summer Lightning is now on my list.
And you'll remember, of course, that Emma's last name is Woodhouse.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I remember reading (I think) an Adrienne Rich essay about Jane Eyre, and it stood out to me that she was attractive to Rochester without being pretty. There are actresses who could do this convincingly, I think.
I read that Russian travelogue of Steinbeck's too. Don't remember a thing about it. I remember somehow learning about how The Red Pony went down in about second grade and being traumatized about it. Then Of Mice and Men was standard freshman fare and I was traumatized all over again. I liked Cannery Row and Tortilla Flats, though.
Jane Eyre casting wouldn't be the biggest compliment for an actress would it? "We feel you will be just right for the part as you are quite plain ma darlin"
Kidnapped is a beaut, and Decline and Fall is hilarious. Have you read "Let It Come Down" by Bowles?
Seana
Although the first Mrs Rochester is supposed to be quite attractive in both J.E. and Wide Sargasso Sea.
Frankie
Well they just cast Jennifer Garner as Miss Marple which is got to be a bit weird.
Roy
No but I have meant to. I'm reading The Moon and Sixpence at the moment. It might be a nice companion piece.
Arh, yes, Jennifer Garner. The natural replacement for Geraldine McEwan. I can see what they did there.
I think my list would change depending on the week. For me, the big missing name on your list Nabokov; I'd probably add "Pale Fire".
Although I'm also blown away every time I re-read Calvino's "Invisible Cities"; the writing is just so gorgeous (or, to be fair, Weaver's translation is gorgeous). On the other hand, it can seem precious (I guess it's like "Pale Fire" that way -- my nephew, who's a very serious reader, didn't like either one).
And then sometimes I feel like I'm too young to make a list like this anyway. I haven't read enough Agnon, and the little I did was great; would he make the final cut after I've read more? And I haven't read Proust yet, and, and, and...
And then I look at my actual reading, which is probably 80% not great literature and I get depressed...
After the torrid Bertha, a nice plain English girl probably sounded like a good plan.
Gav
Yeah I'd go along with Pale Fire. Still holds up very well.
maybe I was crabby at the time of reading Ulysses but all it did was anger me.
Loved A Suitable Boy though. I don't spend enough time with other bookish people other than you all here. 'hang'. So it's a nice surprise to know (of) another person who liked it too. My brother said he lost days of sleep from reading A Suitable Boy, but after being devoured by the section about the Pakistan/Indian partition, he stopped reading it. The last part angered him.
Sheiler
There's only one problem with A Suitable Boy
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
she doesnt marry the most suitable boy. That pissed me off too.
I know I'm going to hit that damn spoiler if I linger here too long, but I think Ulysses has to hit you on the right day. I'm not exactly crazy about Joyce's whole attitude about women or even the feminine myself, but as a language guy, he's aces. Or even better.
seana, there are indeed years when I can't get through something but then later I'll pick up the same old book and won't be able to put it down. I am definitely that kind of reader.
I have adopted a perverse attitude to endings in really good books, in that they have to have spoiled endings. I'm just realizing this now. And conversely endings in movies cannot have the same kinds of endings. Except for that Tom Hanks movie Cast Away which felt about right with the ending. Which my brother hated.
Sheiler
Your brother's right about Cast Away, there could have been a fucking satellite phone in that unopened box.
Sheiler, Ulysses can still incite anger both ways, apparently. At any rate my blogging pal PQ has an excellent rant going against a Ulysses, why bother? piece in Slate today.
Seana, I am re-reading On the Road because a)I haven't read it since the 1990s b)I'm too poor to buy another book and c) I'm too lazy to find another book to check out of the horrible library at MIT. All of their covers are boarded up with utilitarian blank blue covers.
Meanwhile this take down on the Slate article makes me think I should re-read Ulysses instead. Thanks for that.
I'd be interested to know what you think after a second read of On the Road, Sheiler. I probably should too someday. I understand the romantic appeal of it all, just not the literary one. And I don't think it was really by an adult, or for them.
Seana, I'm 44 pages into it and suspect that you're right about the adult part. The narrator is so enthusiastic ... about enthusiasm. I had forgotten about the tone, which is weird because I've always been more drawn to something more like, say, Doris Lessing's Summer before Dark.
I have nothing against Kerouac's ability to spark enthusiasm for seeing a bit of the world and becoming less insular. My real objection is that there is so little sense of responsibilty towards the other people they meet along the way. Especially the women people, but not them alone. The Ugly American wasn't only rich and didn't only go abroad.
Seana, I had that same criticism when I took the class that required me to read On the Road.
Lately I see the writing differently though. It seems ... juvenile.
David
I'm glad you liked it. We may be the only people to have read it in a while.
Post a Comment