Friday, June 29, 2007

Classic Literature

All throughout college and seminary, I always expressed a desire to have free time to read some of classic works of literature. I promised myself that once I was done with school, I would certainly devote time to this. Well, I am happy to report that I am taking active measures to fulfill this goal. I have compiled a list of 100 great pieces of literature and I hope to get through the list in the next 3-5 years. I have put the list below in case you were curious about what I will be reading.

I started on the list and it is already paying off huge dividends. I am currently reading "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. This thought provoking book recounts American history with special attention given to the voice the oppressed. For example, the first part of the book focuses on the colonization and settlement of America through the eyes of the Native Americans. A quote in the first chapter has been rolling around in my head since I read it: "The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is."

Good Stuff!

  1. A People’s History of the United States Howard Zinn
  2. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles Haruki Murakami
  3. The New York Trilogy Paul Auster
  4. The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon
  5. Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
  6. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
  7. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
  8. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
  9. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  10. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
  11. Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky
  12. On the Road Kerouac
  13. Alice in Wonderland Carrol
  14. Brothers Karamozov Dostoevsky
  15. The Age of Innocence Wharton
  16. Don Quixote Cervantes
  17. Perfume Suskind
  18. Ulysses Joyce
  19. Anna Karenina Tolstoy
  20. Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor
  21. Cry the Beloved Country Paton
  22. Dracula Stoker
  23. The Eagles Die Marek
  24. Emotionally Weird Atkinson
  25. The Handmaid’s Tale Atwood
  26. Infinite Jest Wallace
  27. Kitchen Yoshimoto
  28. London Fields Amis
  29. Moise and the World of Reason Williams
  30. Movie Wars Rosenbaum
  31. Paradise Lost Milton
  32. Persuasion Austen
  33. Tortilla Curtain Boyle
  34. Visions of Excess Bataille
  35. Where the Wild Things Are Sendak
  36. Wild Sheep Chase Murakami
  37. Beloved Morrison
  38. Counterfeiters Gide
  39. The Bell Jar Plath
  40. Blind Owl Hedayat
  41. Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe
  42. The Count of Monte Cristo Dumas
  43. Dealing With Dragons Wrede
  44. The Earthsea Trilogy Le Guin
  45. The Ecology of Fear Davis
  46. Franny and Zooey Salinger
  47. History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides
  48. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Alvarez
  49. Kabuki: Circle of Blood Mack & Jiang
  50. Of Human Bondage Maugham
  51. The Satanic Verses Rushdie
  52. The Sheltering Sky Bowles
  53. Tristam Shandy Sterne
  54. Well of Loneliness Hall
  55. Wicked Pavilion Powell
  56. Collected Stories of V.S. Pritchett
  57. War and Peace Tolstoy
  58. Babel 17 Delany
  59. Dora Freud
  60. Empire Falls Russo
  61. For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway
  62. Girl in Landscape Letham
  63. Goodbye to All That Graves
  64. Ham on Rye Bukowski
  65. Life Like
  66. Mao II Delillo
  67. Random Family Leblanc
  68. Revolutionary Road Yates
  69. The Stranger Camus
  70. Humboldt’s Gift Bellow
  71. White Noise Delillo
  72. Atlas Shrugged Rand
  73. Bastard Out of Carolina Allison
  74. Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills Bukowski
  75. Delta of Venus Nin
  76. Fast Food Nation Schlosser
  77. Ficciones Borges
  78. Go Ask Alice Anonymous
  79. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Adams
  80. Iliad Homer
  81. On Photography Sontag
  82. Republic Plato
  83. Shockproof Sydney Skate Meaker
  84. Society of the Spectacle Debord
  85. Strangers in Paradise Moore
  86. The Sun Also Rises Hemingway
  87. A Wrinkle In Time L’Engle
  88. Dubliners Joyce
  89. The Breakfast of Champions Vonnegut
  90. No Logo Klein
  91. Aeneid Virgil
  92. Ariel Plath
  93. Charlotte’s Web White
  94. Curious George Learns the Alphabet Rey
  95. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute Paley
  96. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter McCullers
  97. Henry VIII Shakespeare
  98. I, Claudius Graves
  99. The Lost Continent Bryson
  100. Master and Margarita Bulgakov

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As an English major, you have made my heart sing. Murakami! Wharton! Marquez! Ah, there is so much good literture listed here. I have probably half the books on this list littered around my apartment, so if you ever want a loan, let me know.