If there are two things that tickle my OCD-like tendencies, those would be books and lists. And especially lists of books.
Here are "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die". (via)
There are plenty of authors I would count among my favorites (Murakami, Saramago, Garcia-Marquez, McEwan, Dick, and even Heinlein and Palahniuk), some I've only read a bit of but thouroughly enjoyed (Roth, Eco, Atwood), some I've never read but always meant to (Greene, Wolfe, Rushdie) and many, many more that I've never considered or heard of.
Which is good, because I sure would hate to run out...
I do find it heartening to know that I've covered a respectable 9.5 (I'm in the middle of The Cloud Atlas) of the 69 listed in this century so far, but I'm way behind the curve on the 20th.
Before that...I just can't be bothered. My theory is that film and then especially TV forced people to write much better novels in order to make a living at it.
Oh, and the fact that Alan Moore's The Watchmen is on the list kind of makes it for me. I would have also included Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, mainly because it's the first thing I remember reading where the idea of writing with a particular style really clicked for me (I think I was 11 or 12).
Addendum--I finally had a moment during a lull in the lab to go through the entire list...it appears that I have read 52 books on the list in all (not counting the one I'm currently reading) and only 7 of those are from earlier than 1900 (and I'm pretty sure I read all of those in school).
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6 comments:
Anything by Graham Greene.
Definitely on my "to read" list (that was the Greene I was referring to).
You forgot the favorite thing of us OCD-types...checking things off lists and seeing where we stand. It think I've read between 50-55 (lost track and didn't feel like going back).
End of the Affair. Awesome.
Movie's not bad either.
The list does not include any Alice Munro. Shame Shame.
Amy Hempel was there though...who we will be seeing on Monday!
Yeah...I knew you'd notice that. I'm pretty sure a dude wrote that list.
I know there are women out there who dig Robert Heinlein, Dashiell Hammet, Earnest Hemmingway, and Chuck Palahnuik...but probably not many that like all of them...
With that in mind, the ommissions that struck me most were Tom Robbins, Robert Anton Wilson, and Ayn Rand.
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