ten most important books

[heresluck]

A while back, truepenny and Mirrorthaw and I were talking about books over dinner (...yeah, there's a surprise) and Mirrorthaw brought up the notion of one's own Ten Most Important Books. Not favorite books, or best books, but the most important. Truepenny pointed out that such a list requires not only picking the most important books but deciding what "

Comments

[ex_greythist387]

Re: Mists, your experience intrigues me because I had a similar one; I've used my diss as an excuse to develop my interest in iterative redaction as well (not what I call it). Mists actively repels me now, however, not because it's become popular fantasy but because Agenda has closed my access-gate. I can reread the Darkover books, most of which aren't as carefully considered, so I don't understand my own reaction. Oh well, my loss. :) I'm teaching a composition course on the Arthurian tradition this term, actually, which ends with White and starts in the sixth century.

(here via truepenny's list of ten)

[heresluck]

You used the phrase "iterative redaction." You win.

I'm teaching a composition course on the Arthurian tradition this term, actually, which ends with White and starts in the sixth century.

Oh, oh! I want to take this class! What texts are you using exactly?

[ex_greythist387]

Thanks. :) We're on fifteen-week semesters, else this wouldn't work. In reading order:

a few chapters of Gildas' Ruin of Britain, trans. Winterbottom
a few chapters (skipping the St. Germanus stuff) of Nennius' British History, trans. Morris
the relevant page from the Welsh Annals at the back of the Nennius
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, trans. Thorpe
Chrétien's Knight of the Cart, trans. Owen in Arthurian Romances
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. Borroff
two weeks' worth of Malory's Morte Darthur, ed. Cooper (she modernizes spelling somewhat, which helps reading speed; she also excises bits, but since I had to excise more bits I decided that was okay)
Morris's "Defence of Guenevere"
Tennyson's Idylls: "Dedication," "Coming of Arthur," "Pelleas and Ettarre," "Guinevere," "To the Queen"
most of White's OaFK (hated cutting it down, but I love the earlier texts more and didn't want to remove one or rush the reading pace unduly)
the last chapter of his Book of MerlynJohn M. Ford's "Winter Solstice, Camelot

[heresluck]

I've read very few of these -- thanks for the list!

I can't imagine myself teaching an Arthurian class, honestly; I just don't have enough background in stuff before 1700. I *can* imagine myself doing an Arthurian section in a class organized more broadly around contemporary retellings of old stories (e.g. King Lear and A Thousand Acres, assorted fairy tales, in addition to the stuff I'm covering in the diss), in which case I would love to teach Mists of Avalon. The length might be prohibitive, though, especially since I'd also love to do Once and Future King (I like the idea of examining *multiple* contemporary versions).

[stakebait]

Hee! I went to nerd camp (CTY, right?) too, and applied to Middlebury and didn't go. :)

Mer

[fitzcamel]

Me too! (well, except for the Middlebury part ;) ). Also here via Truepenny.

[stakebait]

What years/campus?

I was Dickenson, 87-89.

[fitzcamel]

Hamilton, 96-97
Dickinson, 98-00 (I'm young for my year)

Mark

[par_avion]

You're mention of retold stories makes me curious if you've read Wicked, and what you thought. If you've discussed it here before, feel free to tell me to go search.

I'm proud of you for standing up to your professor. (Not that that really means anything since you don't know me and it was awhile ago.)

Little Women would also be on my list. I didn't own that many books, and reread this often. I read it again this winter, and despite the adverbs running amuck, I still cry when Beth dies, because it hurts Jo so much.

[heresluck]

I've seen Wicked, but not read it yet. Is this a tacit recommendation? *g*

And thank you for the comment re: the professor. It would have been a more meaningful thing if I'd had any respect for him, but he was a pretty unimpressive specimen, so it wasn't so much standing up to him as giving him the logical smackdown. Heh.

[tzikeh]

If you haven't read Wicked, and you have a love of retold stories, I recommend it. Of all of his retold stories, that is by far the best and most engrossing.

I also have a huge predilection for this ... sub-genre? And now I think we should do a meme about the best retold stories. ;)

[par_avion]

Have you read the Neil Gaiman short story "Snow, Glass, Apples" ?

I loved it. If you like this subgenre, that story alone is worth the cost of his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors.

[anonymous]

Great meme.

Gideon Strauss
http://gideonstrauss.com

[insert lame subject here]

[awakenedmisery]

Awesome reading about books since I'm what... a complete book geek? *blushes* I'm actually in a play with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe so I suggest you read that since my director's done it three times and thinks that it's a great adaption. Written by Joseph Robinette, published by the dramatic publishing company. I plan on reading The Mists of Avalon soon since I saw the Mini-TV Series and was amazed at the storyline. Reading the Fellowship of the ring now too, awesome books. Nice to see some people like the same kind of books as I do. :$ I'll try and read the other ones sometime if I can find them too ^_^