"More than one every two days?" he said. "Can you even absorb that much? I mean, you could read the Bible in a year, but you couldn't really take it all in..."
"Right," I said. "I suppose you'd get a broad acquaintance, but I think if you're reading carefully, and you have other stuff going on in your life, I'd aim for more like twenty-six books a year. One every two weeks."
So then I thought, what twenty-six books would I recommend, or would I want to read, or listen to?
(Generally I follow no reading plan--it's almost entirely haphazard.)
When I thought of books that have meant a lot to me and shaped my thinking, I hesitate to recommend them to anyone because I haven't read them in sooooo many years.
I would have to have a Recommend list,
and a Reread list.
For inclusion on a year's reading list, I would recommend
1. Maus (I & II), Art Spiegelman's 2 vol. graphic novel about the Holocaust, which I've read again in recent years.
Night, by Elie Wiesel, who as a boy survived the concentration camps where his family died?
It was hugely formative for me––in eighth grade.
Haven't read it since.
I would put that on my Reread List, along with Sophocles' Antigone. Ever since Orange Crate Art chose that as a book (play) all incoming college freshman could read, I've wanted to reread it.
Other books I read ages & liked ago and would like to reread:
Candide, by Voltaire
Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
Nine Tailors, by Dorothy Sayers (though I still remember how the death was done, darn it!)
The Bhagavad Gita
So many to reread, come to think of it––must think more about which ones.
Also recommended:
2. Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White (I quoted it at my friend Barrett's funeral in 2011)
3. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson––a slightly wobbly first-novel that still makes me laugh out loud and is a great coming of age/leaving your family/religion novel
4. The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell, for a history of the funny, horrific, and paradoxically admirable wackos who settled the Puritan colonies. Human, all too human. Just like us.
5. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, another graphic novel (memoir) and coming-of-age book, about growing up in revolutionary Iran (Satrapi was born in 1969)––
especially topical now with the rise of tribalism
6. Gospel of John.
One of the great opening lines in literature:
"In the beginning was the Word..." [top image: "First page of John's Gospel from the Coronation Gospels, c. 10th century"]
Whether you consider this history or fiction or God's actual words, for real, it's worth checking out.
I'd put some essays on the list too. Maybe three or four would equal one book? It depends...
7. "Consider the Lobster", by David Foster Wallace
I could not get into Infinite Jest (sorry! I tried!),
but this essay is one of my favorite pieces of writing:
Let's think about how we have festivals for boiling living creatures alive!
You can read it online: PDF "Consider the Lobster" here.
And some poetry! But I have to leave now––will get back to this.
Anyone want to chime in with books or other writings they'd recommend?
. . . or books they'd like to reread?
