SUNY at Buffalo (home of the Kelley Collection) has issued a list of “48 Good Books.” The idea is that an undergraduate student would have this list to inspire them to read a book per month for their 4-year stay. The details on the selection process and the complete annotated list can be found here. Here’s just the stripped-down list:
1. Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging Times by Paul Rogat Loeb
2. Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 by Shelby Foote
3. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
4. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. He, She and It by Marge Piercy
6. The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era by Michael Mandelbaum
7. Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris
8. Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher
9. Bread Givers: A Novel: A Struggle Between a Father of the Old World and a Daughter of the New by Anzia Yezierska
10. Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie by O. E. Rolvaag
11. Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
12. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
13. The Dark Child by Laye Camara
14. The Physician by Noah Gordon
15. The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
16. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
17. Confessions by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine
18. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
19. Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
20. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
21. Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
22. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
23. The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne
24. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
25. The Tempest by William Shakespeare
26. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
27. Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
28. The Aeneid by Virgil
29. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
30. Farm hands: Hard Work and Hard Lessons from Western New York Fields by Tom Rivers
31. Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston by Ernest Callenbach
32. Ain’t No makin’ it: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by Jay MacLeod
33. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
34. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
35. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
36. Darkness Spoken: Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann by Ingeborg Bachmann
37. A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
38. Eating Fire: Selected Poetry 1965-1995 by Margaret Atwood
39. Madame Curie, A Biography by Eve Curie
40. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
41. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
42. The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
43. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
44. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
45. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Phillips Feynman
46. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
47. Austerlitz by Winfried Georg Sebald
48. The Death of Woman Wang by Jonathan D. Spence
Some curious choices and such a dry list. He, She and It by Piercy is far from her best book-and a dated choice. The Madame Curie bio?
Margaret Atwood is far from the best poet to choose if they only want one or two also. The Good Earth is dated if not racist. I wonder how old the librarians are that chose these books.
It wasn’t just the librarians who came up with these choices, Patti. If you go to the list website (library.buffalo.edu/48goodbooks) there’s an explanation of the selection process. I agree: some of the choices are weird.
While I think it’s a great idea for college freshmen to start their college lives with the goal of reading a (non-class-related) book a month, I have to agree with Patti–this list seems a little bit of a catch-all and rather dated. Perhaps it’s a case of too many cooks, if these were consensus picks. Of course, with any list, there are going to be complaints about what is and isn’t on it–but some of these picks just seem very, well, curious (and not in a particularly good way) to me.
I was disappointed that there was no Anthony Trollope on this list, Deb. And some of the current books chosen like Mandelbaum’s THE FRUGAL SUPERPOWER, will become dated fast.
If you wanted to make a list of “books that will turn students off of reading” several of these choices would be good picks. I like the idea (and a few of the choices) but some of the picks are odd, to say the least.
There might have been a bit of “political correctness” at play in the making of this list, Jeff.
I bet they could pick 48 books out at random from the Kelley Collection and get a lot more enjoyment and entertainment than these choices would give.
Thanks for the kind words, Jeff. Yes, I’m sure many of those undergrad would be entranced by KISS MY WHIP!
Another list I’m not on.
This list is certainly incomplete without THE COYOTE CONNECTION, Bill.
I wasn’t going to mention the political correctness angle–but now that you did I can think of some better choices even with my inept multicultural reading. WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith would be a good place to start.
I find it hard to believe that such a list like this wouldn’t have a Gabriel García Márquez title on it, Patti.
Most of these wouldn’t be my choices.
This list is an odd mix of classics and trendy current books, Beth. I’ve read many of the classics, but some of the current books hold no interest for me.
My list would include LUD-IN-THE-MIST, the GORMENGHAST Trilogy, THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES, THE KILLER INSIDE HIM, BLEAK HOUSE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, some kickass juvenile and young adult titles, and certainly KING LEAR in place of the tempest. And, oh, yeah, THE COYOTE CONNECTION would top the list.
I like your suggested titles, Jerry. I thought THE TEMPEST was an odd choice. KING LEAR, HAMLET, or one of the comedies would have been a better choice.
No Cordwainer Smith? Bah!
And no Jack Vance, either, Stan.
Well, I liked The Killer Angels, didn’t like Ecotopia, and I wonder what translation of Virgil should be used.
If any of these 48 books gets a non-reader reading, then I give props to the list-makers.
Like you, I’m not a fan of ECOTOPIA either, Drongo. I like Allen Mandelbaum’s translation of THE AENEID, but Robert Fitzgerald’s translation and Robert Fagles translation both have charms of their own.
Islandia? Rise and Fall of the Third Reich? Dickens? The Right Stuff? Biography of MLK? Poetry of Whitman, Ferlinghetti? Faulkner? James Joyce? Kurt Vonnegut? John Irving? Hemingway?
And for heaven’s sake, why is Waiting for Godot still on ANYONE’S reading list???
I was scratching my head over WAITING FOR GODOT, too, Rick. I’d be hard pressed to name a more over-rated work.
Well, George, in answer to your last comment, THE GOOD EARTH comes immediately to mind in that wise. Even given that the Beckett isn’t a book or a work of prose, per se.
I’m with you on THE GOOD EARTH, Todd. I’ve always found Samuel Beckett a difficult read.