the booklist of a lifetime

[lydia guay]

alright, so im making this booklist see? it's a list for people to take reference from, add to, check off of, whatever. it's a booklist of knowit or else. You know those books, that come up in analogies, and are referenced in other novels. You know, the classics, the good stuff. The books any educated nerd, or common smart alack has read? well im gonna read em all, every single one, then when im done, i turn to the great big world of books people havent' heard of, or don't already know how it's going to end. The thing is, google is not giving very many lists to work with here. I got one list, 1001 books long, but there are so many books on it, that i've never heard of before in my life! and futhermore, there are books I have read, that i know are good, but that aren't on the list. But no matter, we have to start somewhere. So here's what I'm proposing, lets take the starting list (which i have some what grown to resent -> ) and lets add to it, edit it, make it our own. See, i know what your thinking, "but lydia, i googled a booklist of 1001 books to read, and they already made a booklist, it was put together by all these scholars, and teachers and stuff" yeah, i know. But i think we should make one ourselves, one that we don't have to pay for, one that was put together by the people of the ning, and one that other nerdfighters might actually use!!

so i'll be reading the comments, and i'll be updating the list. To check for a book, click ctrl + f, to 'find' a book. And if anyone knows how to make a pdf file, or something of that sort, then i'll put the list up, and ya'll can have access to it as i edit it, and add to it, and all that.

And a note about book suggestions. I'm not talking about books that are necesarrily all that enjoyable, or that are super happy-go-lucky and fun to read (like the clique series, those kind of books are like soap operas) no i mean ones that make on think, that are important, influential. This list is the buildin blocks. the basics. You know, i for one don't think people should be running off reading a bunch of modern novels, if you don't know who big brother is. Or grabbing a bunch of love novels by nicholas sparks if you've never read jane eyre or pride and prejiduce (sp :P)

I'm asking for your brain power guys, show me what you've got up there.

[lydia guay]

oh jeez, and i was worried that i was the only one who cried! i finished it while walking around the grocery store with my mom, do you know how awkward that was!!

But the thing is (and i edited the post) that harry potter and looking for alaska, are really modern. Obviously my list is my list, and whatever you do with yours is toatally up to you. But if we can encourage people to start reading older novels, things that really did change modern literature, and influence soo many current writers, well then i think modern novels will mean more to them. And the modern novels that are crap will be more easily recognized :P

Since we know nerds are gonna read john's books, and we know that harry potter was an incredible series, why not start reaching into the older shelves, pulling out stuff that influenced the people who influenced us. It's like art, you know? study the masters, learn where it all came from. As far as im concerned, schools have slacked off on this majorly, so now it's our job. I have no idea what the book thief is, but i'll keep the title...zuzak....hehe...zuzak!! i love it

[Tamar]

ok i get it - but if that's the case then why is there no shakespeare?!? no joke - there is not one work of shakespeare on that list. i nominate romeo and juliet (if you don't think that's influential to literature you are seriously deranged) and hamlet. actually, i nominate every single play of his. shakespeare rocks - plus he came up with the best insults EVER!
and definitely read the book thief - i promise you won't regret it.

[lydia guay]

i think they kept shakespeare out because he wrote plays, but i totally agree, it should be on the list, also bryant on the other page brought up the thing about poetry, there's no poetry!!

ok, so im going to update the list, all updates will be on the last page.

if you are a reader of peotry, please suggest some names! i have no clue about peotry..but i think i remember that john thinks its a big deal. and you know how we trust whatever john says ;D

[Jessica]

Wow, that's a long list of books. I like this list as a starting point, personally: http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

Richard Bausch (writer) recently came to my campus and his advice on finding books to read is to find an author and read absolutely everything they ever wrote. For example, read everything the Bronte's wrote, or all of Jane Austen, or all of Emily Dickinson. (I have no idea why all of those exampkes are female.) I think its pretty decent advice.

[lydia guay]

that's interesting, because it seems to me, that this list specifically ommits certain books, if another book by the author has already been included. There's only one Chuck Palahniuk book (choke) even though he's written tens of bestsellers. And only one Kurt Vonnegurt! That makes my mind up, i should organize the list alphabetically by author, so all of the authors books can be in a nice line.

what authors do you like most?

[Changing Pridamant]

If we're including plays, I'd like to add Tony Kushner's Angels in America, which although it may not be popular outside theater circles is a fantastic play that deals with some extremely important issues. It tackles the complexities of religion, racism, and homosexuality in America, all the while grappling with the old and new values that our society has brought upon us. The HBO version is fantastic, and it stays nicely faithful to the original script, though I've found that I can finish reading the play in a shorter time than it takes to watch the series.

Markus Zusak's I am the Messenger is another fantastic book. It is the same genius of The Book Thief, only placed in a contemporary setting. Although it's complexity is quite different from Book Thief, I find it more relatable to a young adult audience.

I also was very affected by Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. It's an autobiographical graphic novel about growing up as a woman in Iran. What else can I say?

[lydia guay]

well, i'd like your opinion on something. I think i want to alphabatize it by author, so if an author has multiple books on the list, then they will all show up, one after the other. But im not sure if i should write last name, comma, firstname, - dashything, book title, or first name, last name, dashy thing title. Because we remember the authors names from how we read them left to right. But also if one where to scroll down the list, it would be more conveient to just see all of the last names lined up in alphabetical order, and not have t skim over the first name, first.

Sigh, abc'ing this is going to take forever.

[Brittaneee]

This is a book that while reading it I ever thought I would put on a list but thinking back it was very interesting and a worthwhile read:

A Chorus of Mushrooms - Hiromi Goto

It's kind of a weird style of writing and characterization but the story is interesting.

Another one I would say s Wicked by Gregory McGuire. I found it a little hard to get through at some points but I think that it is very interesting to read about the other story of Oz since the Wizard of Oz is such a well known story.

[lydia guay]

i never managed to finish wicked, but i totally agree that it was a good book. It's kinda cool how he molded a whole world around what another author had already written. Made it real, less dream-like.

and thanks for the title :D