The Librarians' "Must Read" list has been released. The Llamabutchers have some interesting comments on the topic and, well, so do I. So, rather than just leave a huge comment, I figured I'd just make my own comments here.
The list is as follows - those that I've read are bolded, those I actually agree should be "must reads" are asterisked (*):
*To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
*The Bible
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
*Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
*The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the D'urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
*Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
*Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn
You know, there are some good books on there, but must reads? Um. No. And The Poisonwood Bible???? Sadly I have read this. What a freaking waste of my time. I'm told that Kingsolver has some other great books but due to the travesty that was TPB, I'll never be able to verify that for myself.
I actually loved The Grapes of Wrath but that's because when I started reading it for school, my grandfather sat me down and told me his life story and as he was an Okie sharecropper who left home after the 8th grade to ride the rails and eventually settled in Tulare, well, it made the book much more interesting and real because I knew someone who lived it. Given that, I agree that it's a really good peek into some of American history that we just don't really hear all that much about. Now, I will say I'm glad that Of Mice and Men isn't on there, not all Steinbeck is created equal.
Frankly, I'm surprised at the lack of what are typically considered "classics" on the list. No A Tale of Two Cities? Of all the Dickens I had thrust upon me, that is by far my favorite (and really the only one of the lot that I didn't consider amazingly painful to read.) Where is Twain? Where is Faulkner? (Even though I really don't enjoy reading Faulkner, if you're going to compile a "must read" list, you really ought to include one of his books, just for the sake of being well rounded.) And then if you want "modern classics", why not include Asimov's Foundation series and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Why is there nothing by Pearl Buck on there? I guess I'm surprised mostly that the list above is 1) so small and 2) less in synch with the books used in a fairly typical AP Lit class.That said, my final thought is that Winnie the Pooh rocks. And I do certainly agree that at some point in everyone's life, you really should give it a read.
I agree with you on Winnie the Pooh...and it's a much better read as an adult than as a child...what wit! What insight into human nature. It's awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis list is really more of a who's who in Britain, don't you think? It's surprising what did and did not make the list, as you pointed out. One book on there that was a surprise to me (a) because I thought nobody but me knew about it and (b) because it really doesn't hold a candle to the classics, was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. This was an absolutely hilarious and refreshing book, but I think it's only there because of its British origins. I think it's a must read, but not in the typical literary sense. And WHERE is C.S. Lewis???? Although some of his greatest writing is non-fiction and maybe the focus here was fiction (but then, why did the Bible make the list? This concerns me a bit :-\).
Gosh, absolutely where is Lewis! (And why didn't he enter my mind?) And while we're on the subject, where is L.M. Montgomery - everyone (even boys) needs to read Anne of Green Gables. Where is Little Women? Where is Madeline L'Engle? Where is...well, I could go on and on.
ReplyDeleteNeat about the Curious Incident though, I'll have to check it out. I'm always up for hillarious books. :)
I hadn't thought about it being a primarily British group, but that is an interesting thought. I'm not sure if the list is from the Brits or if it's just that I linked to the first article I found on it which happened to be from a British paper.
I'm so happy to see my favorite book of all-time (Jane Eyre) on this list.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this list. This will give me plenty of great reading material for a while. I do love classics.