The Unbearable Banishment: 15 books—in no particular order

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

15 books—in no particular order

I like to read memes but I don’t participate very often. But this one was too good to pass up. It’s from Annie.

List 15 books that will always stay with you. And don’t take too long to think about it. It has to be spontaneous.

I reread my list and some of the choices seem pretty pedestrian and obvious, but it is what it is. They don’t call them classics for nothing. I thought of throwing a ringer in like Das Kapital or Ulysses to sound like a big smarty-pants but it would have been a lie. Play along, if you'd like

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit by Charles Bukowski

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Journey to the End of the Night by Céline

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Will You Please Be Quiet Please by Raymond Carver

If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien

Ironweed by William Kennedy

Barrel Fever by David Sedaris

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

8 Comments:

Blogger Sid said...

To kill a mockingbird ... 2nd favourite book EVER. I just want to go home and read it right NOW.

June 3, 2009 at 7:47 AM  
Blogger The Unbearable Banishment said...

Sid: The only reason I read today is because of that book. I wrote to Harper Lee once explaining how much her book meant to me. I told her I am a better father because of it. I received and immediate heartfelt, handwritten response. She's a recluse, so I was surprised to hear from her. I still have the letter.

Second favorite? What's number 1?

June 3, 2009 at 8:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

my list (on facebook) includes mostly books read before i was 25...

from my childhood, Trumpet of the Swan, Harriet the Spy, Island of the Blue Dolphins (a MUST "read to" book for your daughters around 3rd grade age...).

from high school, Autobiography of Malcolm X, Communist Manifesto, Prayer for Owen Meany, Player Piano/Cat's Cradle...

and yes, i had to have a Sedaris book. mine was "Me Talk Pretty Someday" because i realized that there were some families more fucked up than mine...

June 3, 2009 at 6:57 PM  
Blogger A Free Man said...

Five or so of those would make my list as well.

June 4, 2009 at 12:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Man, good list. Good list. I agree with several of those.

June 4, 2009 at 2:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If I Die in a Combat Zone is one of my favourites too. Have you read The Things They Carried?

June 4, 2009 at 4:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't believe I left "Mockingbird" off my list. But Gatsby, I loathed.

Cool that Ms. Lee wrote you.

June 4, 2009 at 11:50 AM  
Blogger Blues said...

good picks. I might think of doing this meme myself.

June 4, 2009 at 4:26 PM  

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