I don’t know what this says about me, but I’ve read all 50 of the selections Kevin Smokler recommends we reread. The 50 books are grouped by theme: “Youth and Growing Up,” “Identity,” “The Inner and Outer World,” “Love and Pain,” etc. with a short essay on each book. As usual, I would have made different choices. Obviously, some Political Correctness is in play in the book choices. But many of the books are well worth reading or rereading. Here’s the list of the 50 books:
1. Huckleberyy Finn-Mark Twain
2. Candide-Voltaire
3. A Separate Peace-John Knowles
4. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter-Carson McCullers
5. I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings-Maya Angelou
6. Reservation Blues-Sherman Alexie
7. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
8. The Age of Innocence-Edith Wharton
9. Surfacing-Margaret Atwood
10. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?-Philip K. Dick
11. Labyrinths-Jorge Luis Borges
12. The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath
13. Portnoy’s Complaint-Philip Roth
14. Cannery Row-John Steinbeck
15. And the Band Played On-Randy Shilts
16. Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen
17. A Doll’s House-Henrik Ibsen
18. Their Eyes Were Watching God-Zora Neale Hurston
19. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?-Joyce Carol Oates
20. The Scarlet Letter-Nathaniel Hawthorne
21. Billy Budd and Other Tales-Herman Melville
22. The Hound of the Baskervilles-Arthur Conan Doyle
23. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again-David Foster Wallace
24. “Master Harold”…And the Boys-Athol Fugar
25. Fahrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury
26. To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
27. The Bluest Eye-Toni Morrison
28. The Joy Luck Club-Amy Tan
29. The Metamorphosis-Franz Kafka
30. Maus-Art Spiegelman
31. The Phantom Tollbooth-Norton Juster
32. Against Interpretation and Other Essays-Susan Sontag
33. The World of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction-Walter Benjamin
34. As You Like It-William Shakespeare
35. Understanding Media-Marshall McLuhan
36. The Catcher in the Rye-J. D. Salinger
37. The Stranger-Albert Camus
38. The Lottery and Other Stories-Shirley Jackson
39. Slaughterhouse-Five-Kurt Vonnegut
40. Bastard Out of Carolina-Dorothy Allison
41. Song of Myself and Other Poems-Walt Whitman
42. Complete Poems-Emily Dickinson
43. Miss Lonelyhearts & Day of the Locust-Nathanael West
44. Pilgram at Tinker Creek-Annie Dillard
45. The Things They Carried-Tim O’Brien
46. Animal Farm-George Orwell
47. The Crying of Lot 49-Thomas Pynchon
48. The Remains of Day-Kazuo Ishiguro
49. Things Fall Apart-Chinua Achebe
50. The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald
Impressive. I’ve read 29 of them. The only one I’ve reread in recent years is #1.
Very good, Jeff! I would have made other choices for some of these authors.
Yet another list I’m not on.
Bill, I bet you taught several of these books!
33–but, in all honesty, there are very few I’d be willing to reread. Not because I didn’t like (most of) them the first time around, but because there are so many other books I haven’t read yet–including other books by some of the authors on this list.
Deb, 33 is a great number! Like you, I wouldn’t want to reread most of these “classics.” Too many books, too little time.
36.
Patti, 36 books is impressive! I wish the choices were a little more adventurous.
George, I have read many of these books though I have never reread any of them. I don’t reread books because i always have so many “new” books to read. I’ve been thinking of rereading TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD, though.
Prashant, TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD is a fixture in American High Schools. There’s no way to escape it.
I’ve read all the scifi selections, The Great Gatsby, and I reread To Kill A Mockingbird last year. Why isn’t Raymond Chandler on that list!!!
Exactly, Stan! No Hammett, either!
I’ve read all but 3 of them. I’ve re-read 9 of them. Not all of these were read when I was in school, however. Sherlock Holmes certainly never showed up then!
The only crime book I remember – not counting Crime and Punishment being assigned to read in school was Brighton Rock by Greene. Certain;y no Hammett, Chandler or others.
Rick, we were made to read Boswell’s LIFE OF JOHNSON in 9th Grade. The students, including me, were not prepared to deal with this type of literature. It was the wrong book at the wrong time. The experience turned plenty of my classmates against reading Literature forever!
While you were reading Boswell, George, I was reading Great Expectations and Tale of Two Cities.
Rick, Dickens is perfect for 9th Grade. LIFE OF JOHNSON is a great book, but more for college students.
No dewy-eyed youth, am I, but a bit younger than some who’ve commented…a number of these weren’t available when (“even”) I was in high school (the only one ever assigned was GATSBY, between my two HSes…). Of course, I’d read LABYRINTHS and several of the others before hitting high school…
Todd, I was reading ELMER GANTRY by Sinclair Lewis and Henry Miller on my own during High School. Most of the assigned books in school were uninspiring.
I’ve read 8 of them over the course of my lifetime, and two I started but put them aside.
Bob, I consider the most overrated book on this list to be THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.