an imperfect list
You guys probably remember the Big Read list of books, because it was, like, yesterday. (Well...a few days ago.) Anyway, I complained a lot and then schiarire told me to make my own...so I did. Not of 100 books, but of 30 - which is a good start.
Things to keep in mind:
- I cheated. A lot.
- My parameters were, basically: fiction (novels and short story collections), poetry (single poems), and drama (single plays). However...I didn't quite keep to this. My illegal non-fiction pick is So Worth It, because as far as I know there aren't any other books like it. (Except...for parts of Nietzsche. I guess? SPOILERS!) That means there is no philosophy, no history (for the record, At the Hands of Persons Unknown would be at the top of any history book list), no literary criticism (not including Aspects of the Novel or "The Name and Nature of Poetry" pained me), no creative non-fiction (i.e. Me Talk Pretty One Day, although it is excellent). Also, no math, no science, no biographies, no religious texts. No memoirs (no Hons and Rebels, but you should read that anyway!).
- Some of these books I haven't read yet! Haha, but that is part of the whole thing. The guideline was <25% of books could be ones you hadn't read yet. In a list of 30 books, that means 7.5...so there are 7 books on there that I haven't read.
- Despite my complaining about the Western focus of that list (and lists like it), I am not very well read outside of Western literature. Fairy tales, mythology - I have some experience with those. But sometimes diving into modern literature makes me turn funny colors because it is so fucking daunting, so while I've read some short stories by non-Western authors, I haven't read entire collections of their work. Therefore, although I think my list is more varied than the other one...it is still embarrassingly Western. Like, I am mortified.
- Reading that comment thread will help you figure out how I arrived at this list, if you are puzzled by it.
- Order is not important. Except...it kind of is. Anyway, they are listed this way for a reason but not always very good or permanent reasons.
- You guys should make your own lists!
01. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
02. Howards End - E. M. Forster
03. “First Fig” - Edna St. Vincent Millay
04. Antigone - Sophocles
05. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
06. The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky - Vaslav Nijinsky
07. A Riddle of Stars - Patricia A. McKillip
a. The Riddle-Master Of Hed
b. Heir of Sea and Fire
c. Harpist in the Wind
08. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
09. The Trojan Women - Euripides
10. “The Second Coming” - W. B. Yeats
11. The Last of the Wine - Mary Renault
12. “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” - John Keats
13. Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
14. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
15. Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare
16. Regeneration Trilogy - Pat Barker
a. Regeneration
b. The Eye in the Door
c. The Ghost Road
17. The Homecoming - Harold Pinter
18. Arcadia - Tom Stoppard
19. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
20. “XXXVI (White in the moon the long road lies)” - A. E. Housman
21. Woman Hollering Creek & Other Stories - Sandra Cisneros
22. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
23. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
NOT YET READ:
24. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
25. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
26. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
27. Chéri - Colette
28. Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
29. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
30. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Things to keep in mind:
- I cheated. A lot.
- My parameters were, basically: fiction (novels and short story collections), poetry (single poems), and drama (single plays). However...I didn't quite keep to this. My illegal non-fiction pick is So Worth It, because as far as I know there aren't any other books like it. (Except...for parts of Nietzsche. I guess? SPOILERS!) That means there is no philosophy, no history (for the record, At the Hands of Persons Unknown would be at the top of any history book list), no literary criticism (not including Aspects of the Novel or "The Name and Nature of Poetry" pained me), no creative non-fiction (i.e. Me Talk Pretty One Day, although it is excellent). Also, no math, no science, no biographies, no religious texts. No memoirs (no Hons and Rebels, but you should read that anyway!).
- Some of these books I haven't read yet! Haha, but that is part of the whole thing. The guideline was <25% of books could be ones you hadn't read yet. In a list of 30 books, that means 7.5...so there are 7 books on there that I haven't read.
- Despite my complaining about the Western focus of that list (and lists like it), I am not very well read outside of Western literature. Fairy tales, mythology - I have some experience with those. But sometimes diving into modern literature makes me turn funny colors because it is so fucking daunting, so while I've read some short stories by non-Western authors, I haven't read entire collections of their work. Therefore, although I think my list is more varied than the other one...it is still embarrassingly Western. Like, I am mortified.
- Reading that comment thread will help you figure out how I arrived at this list, if you are puzzled by it.
- Order is not important. Except...it kind of is. Anyway, they are listed this way for a reason but not always very good or permanent reasons.
- You guys should make your own lists!
01. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
02. Howards End - E. M. Forster
03. “First Fig” - Edna St. Vincent Millay
04. Antigone - Sophocles
05. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
06. The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky - Vaslav Nijinsky
07. A Riddle of Stars - Patricia A. McKillip
a. The Riddle-Master Of Hed
b. Heir of Sea and Fire
c. Harpist in the Wind
08. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
09. The Trojan Women - Euripides
10. “The Second Coming” - W. B. Yeats
11. The Last of the Wine - Mary Renault
12. “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” - John Keats
13. Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
14. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
15. Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare
16. Regeneration Trilogy - Pat Barker
a. Regeneration
b. The Eye in the Door
c. The Ghost Road
17. The Homecoming - Harold Pinter
18. Arcadia - Tom Stoppard
19. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
20. “XXXVI (White in the moon the long road lies)” - A. E. Housman
21. Woman Hollering Creek & Other Stories - Sandra Cisneros
22. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
23. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
NOT YET READ:
24. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
25. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
26. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
27. Chéri - Colette
28. Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
29. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
30. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez