On being well-read…that’s all subjective but I recently saw a list of 100 books–classics we should have read by now according to…someone. I read two or three books a week and have done so for years, but apparently not so much from the list designated as most worthwhile by Central Command.
I have read a lot of “classics” (whatever that’s supposed to mean to you) I suppose and there were a bunch from the Top 100 List I was really glad I had read. I loved The Great Gatsby and Crime and Punishment and Lolita, for instance. But I won’t be making a point of reading some of what someone else has decided is a must. I tried Middlemarch and it’s not my cup of pee. It’s just not happening. It was a ghastly foray among some bookstore shelves.
Besides, many of the Must Reads for me wouldn’t be old enough for The List. I love Fight Club and most of Kurt Vonnegut’s work and Bright Lights, Big City. You won’t find The Color of Light on anybody’s top 100 probably, but for my reading time, William Goldman is The Shit, man. (Princess Bride, too.) The Color of Light is about an aspiring writer so, you know, that makes sense, plus it hit me at just the right time.
So…top 100 is a bit impractical,but what’s on your top ten must-read, God-I-loved-that-book list? What’s on your desert island list? Please do share.
Filed under: book reviews, Books, favorite books
C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m 
If I were to be exiled to, say, space, or a remote island, or a different plane of existence, the one book I would beg to take for my sanity and soul would be Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. I’m not entirely sure why. I do know this novel affects me profoundly every time I read it, and I’m going on close to a dozen times now.
Interesting. If I were exiled to a desert island, I’d be depressed because, presumably, no Wifi. I think I’d want to have Portnoy’s Complaint with me. Even miserable, I think it could still make me laugh.