Amidst the Y2K insanity (and stupidity), there were numerous lists of things to close out the Twentieth Century…the best this, the top 10, etc. One caught my attention around 1998 because I was voraciously reading novels to kill my remaining time in North Carolina (sold the TV). I downloaded the list for laughs, figuring I probably had read a couple. It blew my mind that I had seven! So I saved the list in a Word file but lost it during the many Mac migrations I’ve made since then. How I’ve tried to find it over the years, sporadically.
Earlier this week, I brought it up with Somara in our many debates over what is a good novel. Leave it to her to find the legendary list online in a matter of minutes. If public libraries weren’t on the skids, Somara would be a great reference-desk person. Sadly, most morons in charge of the purse strings think Google is good enough. Never mind my gripe about Google and its ilk understanding the context of a question, I was thrilled she found it. How did I know it was the same list? It had Ragtime by E. L. Doctrow plus Gore Vidal was on the committee to decide.
Click here to see it and it’s on the left, not the right which is skewed by Randroid douchebags who spammed the judging to inflate the numbers of their false prophet’s screeds. There is a little justice. The link to her biggest steamer goes to The Fellowship of the Ring, another chore of a novel to get through.
What have I read on this? Oddly, a couple were voluntarily and not as assignments in high school or college:
Grade/High School:
- The Great Gatsby (and at least one more time in the last 10 years)
- Brave New World
- The Catcher in the Rye (twice, not by choice)
- Heart of Darkness
- The Call of the Wild
Voluntarily:
- 1984
- Ragtime
Not a bad job I’d say. There were several I tried to read yet I just couldn’t get through them, namely Henry James whose The Wings of the Dove is an awesome premise, made a fantastic movie starring Helena Bonham Carter but was bogged down in verbosity.
Don’t be shy, post away on what you’ve read and elaborate on your favorites. The Great Gatsby is definitely one of mine. Why? It captures the zeitgeist of the Roaring Twenties even if it’s an atypical experience for the average American in 1926 (my grandparents didn’t live it up like Daisy or Gatsby…they were too busy working). I hope to write more about this for another reason soon but it will be covering a novel closer to my heart.
I’ve read 23, and probably started around five more. At least half of the list I will not bother with unless I get a lifetime jail sentence. My favorites of the ones I read are A Room with a View and Main Street.