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I’m trying to start a list of books I have read/re-read recently that I recommend.
Right now, there isn’t much here, but hopefully in a few years, there will be! I
know I always have trouble finding a good new author and have resorted to wandering around
bookstores asking random strangers, which works pretty well - in fact I highly recommend
it! So . . . if you are looking for a good book - I hope this helps. Although, for some
reason they keep making movies out of books I enjoy, which frankly has me a bit worried...
One more thing, with the exception of Iris Murdoch (whose prolific genius enabled her to
pen more than 25 novels - more than I have had time to find and read as yet), I’ve
read and enjoyed most of what each of these authors have written; for brevity I mostly
list only my favourite selection from each author. If you are curious, I most identify
with some mix of Andrew Wiggin, Danny Saunders and Homer Hickam.
| Title | Author | Genre |
|---|
| The Fencing Master | Arturo Perez-Reverte | Mystery/Lit |
| Motherless Brooklyn | Jonathan Lethem | Mystery/Lit |
| The Subterraneans | Jack Kerouac | Character Lit |
| Angelo | Jean Giono | Literature |
| Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton | Literature |
| Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger | Kids Literature |
| The Chosen | Chaim Potok | Kids Literature |
| Under the Net/The Sea, The Sea | Iris Murdoch | Literature |
| 68 Stories From the New Yorker’s First Fifteen Years,
1925-1940 | Various | Various |
| Catch 22, Portrait of An Artist as an Old Man | Joseph Heller | Lit/Autobiographical Fiction |
| Diary of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle | Nora Barlow (Editor) | Biography |
| Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman | James Gleick | Biography |
| Beautiful Mind | Sylvia Nasar | Biography |
| Rocket Boys | Homer Hickam | Biography |
| Elegy for Iris | John Bayley | Biography |
| The Professor and the Madman | Simon Winchester | History / Biography |
| Goedel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid | Douglas R. Hofstadter | Historical Analysis/Biography |
| Making of the Atomic Bomb | Richard Rhodes | History |
| Cuckoo’s Egg | Clifford Stoll | History |
| 1984 | George Orwell | Dystopic Sci Fi |
| Enders Game | Orson Scott Card | Science Fiction |
| The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | Silly Science Fiction |
| Letters from a Young Poet | Rainer Maria Rilke | Uhhhh |
I have had good luck with New York Times Editor’s Choice and Notable Books.
Links are provided to local copies of those lists and also to the lists themselves on the New York Times website.
They are provided here in case something tragic happens and they are lost forever from the New York Times’ own website.
Editor’s Choice of the Year
Remote
Local
Notable Books
Remote
Local
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January Magazine also came out with an interesting
list at the end of 1999 of books as an attempt to answer the question "Which
books, published during the 20th century, did you
appreciate the most?". You might not agree about the contents of the list. However, it is worth a looksee.
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One might also choose to look at a list that caused quite a bit of stir when it came out in
The New York Times on Monday, July 20, 1998. This is the list. Here is the article about the list. Here is a local copy of the list. Here is a local copy of the article. Related, Random House also provides the list (along with a reader’s list. They also provide a list of nonfiction books.
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One last set of very amusing lists of books can be found in bits here, here and here. Fully 1/3 of the best hundred of the century can be found within these lists! Canterbury Tales, Candide, Call of the Wild, Frankenstein, Tom Sawyer, Little Red Riding Hood are some of the highlights. Sounds like a great set of lists, doesn’t it? Funny thing, these lists all contain books that have been either BANNED or challenged!
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