Essential Classics to Read – a personalized list
Posted: November 22, 2011 Filed under: Heart - Poetry/Literature, Mind - Philosophy/Science, Soul - Art/Religion | Tags: Art, Books to Read, Christianity, Don Quixote, Great Expectations, King's Men, Literature, Prayer, reading list, Religion and Spirituality 17 Comments »
Reading is prayer, and all prayer is about pain – naming it, sharing it, coping with it, and learning from it. Good writing knows this truth; bad writing avoids it. To risk in an emotional way, then, is a righteous calling towards an awareness and expansion of possibility and potential. To avoid such risk is to believe in zero-sum domination of the spirit.
Better yet, reading is a prayer said during the war of life. I often think of General George S. Patton’s famous prayer when I’m asked to define reading heavily:
“God of our fathers, who by land and sea have ever lead us to victory, please continue your inspiring guidance in this the greatest of all conflicts. Strengthen my soul so that the weakening instinct of self-preservation, which besets all of us in battle, shall not blind me to my duty to my own manhood, to the glory of my calling, and to my responsibility to my fellow soldiers. Grant to our armed forces that disciplined valor and mutual confidence which insures success in war. Let me not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes have lived. If it be my lot to die, let me do so with courage and honor in a manner which will bring the greatest harm to the enemy, and please, oh Lord, protect and guide those I shall leave behind. Give us the victory, Lord.”
I thought about these things after a friend recently asked me to create a list of essential classics to read. Like any list, mine is personally quirky and redemptive. What follows are 43 books I chose across six genres: classics, memoirs, novels, poetry, self-help, and short stories.
Which would you add or delete and why?
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- All the King’s Men
- Blood Meridian
- Brave New World
- Don Quixote
- Dubliners
- Ficciones (English Translation)
- Fifth Business
- Food Rules
- Great Expectations
- Grendel
- How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry
- How to Read and Why
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
- Invisible Man
- Lolita
- Love in the Time of Cholera
- Mating: A Novel
- Men Without Women
- Miss Lonleyhearts
- Moby-Dick
- My Invented Country
- My Life in France
- Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems
- Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
- Sophie’s Choice
- The 48 Laws of Power
- The Artist’s Way
- The Big Book of NLP, Expanded
- The Charterhouse of Parma
- The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- The Crying of Lot 49
- The Lottery
- The Magic Mountain
- The Maytrees: A Novel
- The Secret Agent
- The Success Principles
- The Things They Carried
- The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer
- Vow to Poetry
- Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass
- Wislawa Szymborska: Poems New and Collected
What a great list. I was happily surprised to see Wislawa Szymborska — a poet many seem to be unaware of. Her poem “View with a grain of sand” really shook me and changed my perception of the corporeal world. And I also love Harold Bloom’s “How to read and why”, “Moby Dick”, “Lolita”, “Dubliners”, and “Grendel”. Surprisingly, never been all that fond of Mr. Whitman — I see him as a bit of a show off, like it’s all a pretense. I also didn’t like “Invisible Man”, an opinion which I know really puts me on the outs in the literary community, but alas, I suppose it is better to be honest!
I was so taken with the complete poems of Szymborska that I read them straight through, twice! I’ve taken some flak for the Bloom pick, but it really did help me understand the Classics (Moby Dick, Don Quixote, BLood Meridian, The Magic Mountain). I think Grendel is a fantastic way to get to know a great teacher and writer and some Nordic mythology. I also get what you’re saying about Whitman, but his poetry was so different from everything up to that point, and so uniquely American that I had to consider it. I even went back and reread some and found I still liked it.
I’m so glad you stopped by to add to the discussion, Beverly! Keep doing great things and let me know how to help.
Oh, and I meant to ask why “The Great Gatsby” isn’t on this list?
That’s a fair question, Beverly. The simple answer is because I don’t really understand it or it’s alleged greatness. For me, The Great Gatsby is a nice period piece and nothing else. In fact, I tend to think of F. Scott Fitzgerald as slightly over-rated. I’m more interested in his relationship with Zelda and the tragedy of his life than anything he wrote.
You tell me, why should The Great Gatsby be anEssential Classic To Read?
Sorry in advance for this tangent, but “The Great Gatsby” should be an essential classic because Jay Gatsby doesn’t stand in as an emblem for a time, but for all of us at all times. He shows the haziness of “the self”, its innately fragmentary nature, and the way we shift and change throughout our lives whether for others, for money, for acceptance, for societal approval, etc. He is a dichotomy of what is wholly pretense and wholly real, what is an enigma and what is already known. Reaching for the green light when it is already behind us: we all live this way, like Jay Gatsby, not realizing our passions and desires are ever elusive. We all fantasize and dream up elaborate schemes for what our lives will be, not unlike Gatsby’s dreams of Daisy, which never come to fruition. Then, there is also the importance of the Valley of Ashes, a metaphor which is not merely referential to the roaring 20′s — look at the utter materialization and decadence of our current culture. And of course, the focus on the destructive and selfish danger of “new money” is applicable to the economic polarization of our current society. And then, most importantly and simply, are the beautiful diction, poetic-style, and use of imagery. I could honestly go on and on…
The Divine Comedy for its glimpse into a world that is both totally alien and vitally important to what we are today. I would follow that up with Lewis’ A Discarded Image to understand that world better.
The Divine Comedy? Really? I read it a few months ago and didn’t get much out of it that I couldn’t get out of a more modern book. You’ll have to tell me more? And I’m off to look up the Lewis book. Thanks for adding to the list!
Sorry this took so long, The short answer is I don’t have an answer. I wanted to take the weekend to come up with a good one but other than what I offered I found that I don’t have one. Why? I just don’t read as much as you do and as much as I might want it otherwise, this probably isn’t going to change in the near future. All of this means that I’m going to try to reread The Comedy and try to give you a better answer, but it’ll probably take a while. Years maybe.
This is a great list. I am reading Blood Meridian right now, and it is brilliant. But you left our Middlemarch! (My favorite book). And the Inferno (or Divine Comedy as a whole). I’m with you on Maytrees and Invisible Man. I would add one or two by Toni Morrison. Never heard of Big Book of NLP. I do love lists…..
Isn’t Blood Meridian spectacular? Middlemarch and Morrison are worthy additions. My thinking was this, the book had to contribute something that I couldn’t find elsewhere in Literature. So I’ll have to think about this some more. Let me know when you get around to NLP. It’s really terrific, but can be a chore to wade through. Still, I guarantee you’ll never go back to old thinking if you read up on it!
Sean that is a wonderful list. I just spent two days downloading books from Gutenberg for my 2012 year reading. I would love to share it with you sometime. it is on Goodreads. Big hugs.
Okay, it is absolutely wrong that I felt so excited when I read All the King’s Men. I don’t get Isabel Allende though, I try and I try.
That reminds me, I need to read more Warren.
Leaves of Grass – yes! Essential.
(I still need to read it chronologically…)
What a wonderful list–I’m going to head to Librivox and start downloading. I’m catching up on my US classics this year (as an Australian I have quite a few gaps in my American reading), and will think about what I might add to the list.
I got a lot of good ideas looking at this list. I like it because it feels fresh.
You have created an interesting list (I’m intrigued to see several poetry books here), but I would have to add something by Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged, most likely) and Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore). Those writers are very important to me. Oh, and C. S. Lewis, too.
I wonder if I could ever compile such a list; I’m afraid it would be exceedingly long and meandering. Yours is rather succinct.
Love seeing Brave New World on here, but I wasn’t impressed by The Crying of Lot 49. I agree wholeheartedly with Beverly about The Great Gatsby, I’m doing a reread of it now and love it.