this is hard. i will answer by listing the 5 most memorable books in my life that i hope other people would read: the bell jar, the sun also rises, into the wild, the bluest eye and SARAH PLAIN AND TALL. (that's for leslie)
Just finished reading "Unaccustomed Earth" and recommend reading that. But, I think we're going for classics here, so "Pride & Prejudice", "A Tale of Two Cities", "The Hobbit", "And Then There Were None/10 Little Indians", "Great Gatsby"
With Andrew one million percent on Gatsby. Best book I've ever read, bar none. I can't even think of four other books I've read and loved that I think anyone else would love. Maybe The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and the Lord of the Rings series...but not much else.
Although, Leslie, you'll be happy to know that I'm finally reading Harry Potter...
Oh, wait. Charlotte's Web...tell me that shouldn't be required reading for every child on earth.
I'm going to cheat on this with 2 great compliations (i.e. like suggesting a greatest hits for an album list).
1. The Bible, it's got good lessons and any rational person who reads it should be able to refute the crazy right wing justifications for shitty policies.
2. Bartlett's Quotations, so much wisdom in one book.
3. Lend Me Your Ears, this is a compilation of some of the greatest speeches in history...from Jesus to Obama (yes, put those two together on purpose).
4. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The fact that I, as a fairly anti Sci Fi person who also thinks Python is overrated (but still funny), recommends this should say something.
5. Hmmm, need a 5th book. I'm blanking...i guess to balance my first pick and since the question revolves around Death, I'd probably say something like the Tao Te Ching
I'm going to cheat and list 10 because I can't narrow it down.
To Kill a Mockingbird Paradise Lost Aesop's Fables Of Mice and Men Atlas Shrugged The Odyssey The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Don Quixote Good Night Moon Where the Wild Things Are
1: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (For the ladies, at least. This is probably my favorite book of all time). 2: Don Quixote 3: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren 4: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 5: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Props to Leslie for the Free to Be You and Me reference! I had the record as a kid and still love it. Hell yeah, non-conventional gender roles!!
11 comments:
this is hard. i will answer by listing the 5 most memorable books in my life that i hope other people would read: the bell jar, the sun also rises, into the wild, the bluest eye and SARAH PLAIN AND TALL. (that's for leslie)
Just finished reading "Unaccustomed Earth" and recommend reading that. But, I think we're going for classics here, so "Pride & Prejudice", "A Tale of Two Cities", "The Hobbit", "And Then There Were None/10 Little Indians", "Great Gatsby"
With Andrew one million percent on Gatsby. Best book I've ever read, bar none. I can't even think of four other books I've read and loved that I think anyone else would love. Maybe The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and the Lord of the Rings series...but not much else.
Although, Leslie, you'll be happy to know that I'm finally reading Harry Potter...
Oh, wait. Charlotte's Web...tell me that shouldn't be required reading for every child on earth.
I'm going to cheat on this with 2 great compliations (i.e. like suggesting a greatest hits for an album list).
1. The Bible, it's got good lessons and any rational person who reads it should be able to refute the crazy right wing justifications for shitty policies.
2. Bartlett's Quotations, so much wisdom in one book.
3. Lend Me Your Ears, this is a compilation of some of the greatest speeches in history...from Jesus to Obama (yes, put those two together on purpose).
4. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The fact that I, as a fairly anti Sci Fi person who also thinks Python is overrated (but still funny), recommends this should say something.
5. Hmmm, need a 5th book. I'm blanking...i guess to balance my first pick and since the question revolves around Death, I'd probably say something like the Tao Te Ching
I'm going to cheat and list 10 because I can't narrow it down.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Paradise Lost
Aesop's Fables
Of Mice and Men
Atlas Shrugged
The Odyssey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Don Quixote
Good Night Moon
Where the Wild Things Are
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Stranger by Albert Camus
I read crap now so all of my books are from my childhood/adolescence:
The Giving Tree
Night
The Diary of Anne Frank
To Kill a Mockingbird
Free to Be You and Me
1: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (For the ladies, at least. This is probably my favorite book of all time).
2: Don Quixote
3: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
4: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
5: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Props to Leslie for the Free to Be You and Me reference! I had the record as a kid and still love it. Hell yeah, non-conventional gender roles!!
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Timequake - Kurt Vonnegut
Oh, the Places You'll Go - Dr. Seuss
Where the Wild Things Are, Cash by Johnny Cash, Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye....and big ups to Cate for Goodnight Moon!
I'm late to the party, but I'd say ...
The Alchemist
Animal Farm
The Illiad
1984
Of Mice and Men
... And for good measure... the short story, The Lottery.
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