Dontja get tired of all these lists you find on Facebook and elsewhere, grabbing your attention as gimmicks to get clicks for advertisers? The ones that irritate me most are the ones that proclaim "The 100 books you must read," or some version of that.
I'm a sucker and click on them, and come away even more irritated. Who are these people who say you should read something or another, without regard to personal tastes, and with a narrow view of literature?
They throw in a few classics, sure, but then the last one I saw included four Cormac McCarthy Books. Really? Instead, I looked at my blog's list of favorite books, and only one was included--Heart of Darkness.
Here are some of my other favorites: Blue Highways, The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Last Running, Leaves of Grass, To Kill a Mockingbird, Farenheit 451, Death Comes for the Archbishop. A River Runs Through It. All Harry Potter, anything by John McPhee and Ray Bradbury, Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I could add more--Huck Finn, Moby Dick, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, Foundation by Asimov, 13 Days to Glory by Tinkle (about the Alamo), The Man Nobody Knows (about Jesus) by Barton, The Old Man and the Sea, Grapes of Wrath, Tale of Two Cities, The Great Gatsby, Tony Hillerman's work, The Last Picture Show.
See, you can keep adding books as they come to mind, and I'm adding ones that are meaningful to me, are favorites, not to impress people. Yes, I'd add one by McCarthy, but not four.
Suggestions?
Blue Highways is a book I've read four times. The last time, earllier this year, I read it and then read it right through again. Anybody that says that they are from New Mexico who has not read Death Comes to the Archbishop, great book. And Tony Hillerman and his daughters books are almost as good.
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