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Quick and dirty, so a few would probably change if I really thought about it. The top five are definite, the bottom five are off-the-cuff:
To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe Sometimes A Great Notion Ken Kesey All The Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live James A. Miller and Tom Shales 'Salem's Lot Stephen King Born Standing Up Steve Martin Silver Screen Fiend Patton Oswalt
Outstanding. Thank you. I'll add these to the list.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 1:53 pm Posts: 10283 Location: in the air tonight
Not in any order
1984 by George Orwell What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer On the Road by Jack Kerouac Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Professional by W.C. Heinz The Universal Baseball Assocation, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover Billy Phelan's Greatest Game by William Kennedy White Noise by Don DeLillo Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
and I could easily sub out any number of alternate Vonnegut, Kennedy, or Steinbeck titles for the one I actually chose for each of them. Only one non-fiction on the list. And all white male authors, and almost totally American
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47177 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
RIP Tom Wolfe. Ranking the works I've read:
The Right Stuff A Man In Full Hooking Up The Bonfire of the Vanities The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test From Bauhaus to Our House I Am Charlotte Simmons Back to Blood
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47177 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
durdencommatyler wrote:
RIP
Hate that I've still never read his work.
The WaPo obit hits the nail on the head:
Quote:
In almost everything he wrote, Mr. Wolfe examined what he called “status details” — the finer points of behavior, trends, fashion and the pursuit of prestige that, in his view, shaped the American social order. Sullen teenagers, Southern good old boys, arty urbanites, elite test pilots — all measured themselves by what their peers thought of them.
It's where he shined, and what makes his sweeping works of fiction so enjoyable. I know that The Bonfire of the Vanities is oft-cited as his strongest work, but I think that A Man In Full did a better job of weaving together an entertaining (and hysterical) pastiche that connected the dots from the poor, to the middle-class, to the 1%; from blacks to latinos to whites; from men to women; from young to old.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 7:41 am Posts: 19725 Location: Cumberland, RI
durdencommatyler wrote:
Do you guys/gals have a top 10 favorite books list?
Making this list gave me anxiety. Only one book from each author to keep things interesting:
Top 10:
Moby-Dick 2666 Infinite Jest Blood Meridian Hopscotch Ulysses Henry IV, Part I The Plague The Tenth of December Pale Fire
Ten More:
Tropic of Orange Swamplandia! Personal Days Train Dreams White Noise The Brothers Karamazov The Corrections The Portable Veblen Middlesex 100 Years of Solitude
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 11:28 pm Posts: 14542 Location: Space City
The Argonaut wrote:
Not in any order
1984 by George Orwell What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer On the Road by Jack Kerouac Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Professional by W.C. Heinz The Universal Baseball Assocation, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover Billy Phelan's Greatest Game by William Kennedy White Noise by Don DeLillo Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
and I could easily sub out any number of alternate Vonnegut, Kennedy, or Steinbeck titles for the one I actually chose for each of them. Only one non-fiction on the list. And all white male authors, and almost totally American
Cannery Row would be on my list.
_________________
dimejinky99 wrote:
I could destroy any ai chatbot you put in front of me. Easily.
Was just thinning out the bookshelf last night so this is fresh in my mind:
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia (Dennis Covington) Under the Banner of Heaven (John Krakauer) Population: 485 (Mike Perry) Blankets (Craig Thompson) Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) Drop City (TC Boyle) Plainsong (Kent Haruf) Driftless (David Rhodes) Naked (David Sedaris) Norwegian Wood (Murakami) (sentimental pick...I gave it to my wife when we first met because I thought it would make me look deep and sensitive)
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47177 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
not sure if you guys have not read tortilla Flat or what, but in case not:
it's the first book in the series set in cannery row, and it is a simpler and m more profound parable then cannery row, which is more of a character driven narrative. I don't understand why people are picking cannery row when, if they enjoy that story, tortilla flat basically delivers on the same vibe more effectively
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