1

Nice list ... not sure about Cormac McCarthy ...

This list making is catching ... now I feel like making my own ...

2

Hi Joe,

While my own reading habbits differs somewhat from yours, I'm right beside you when it comes to Calvin and Hobbes. It's one of those wonderful comics that you can enjoy as a kid, then come back years later and realize that you still enjoy them, but on an entirely different level.

Here's an appropriate sample:

Calvin on Academic Writing

3

Starship troopers, one of Heinlein's best and one if my favorites as well. Congratulations on liking such a good book, maybe there's hope for you yet, Joe. ;)

4

Good list, man. Cool to see Eco on there. Foucault's Pendulum only barely missed making my own.

Thanks for the link!

5

If you are going to list comic strips...

Gary Larson, The Far Side.

Sometimes there is more fo a story in the absence of a story (the very ambiguity of that last phrase must mean that it is in some way meaningful/insightful, right?)

6

I tried to make such a list once, and decided that it wasn't possible: some days I want to look out one window and some days I want to look out another.

FWIW, my wife says Frazz is like Calvin grown up.

7

Don't forget The Lion's Paw, by Robb White. I discovered this book when I was in the sixth grade, along with Where the Red Fern Grows.

8

39. The Complete Adventures of Curious George -- H. A. Rey (My first introduction to God's greatest comedic creatures: monkeys.)

Actually I think that the title "greatest comic" should go to the monkey's relatives. Us. They are far more quirky.

If you liked Starship Troopers for the social and political ideas, you might try Robert Heinlein's "For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs". It was actually the first novel he ever wrote, written in 1938, but it was not really published until after he passed away. It contains seeds of many of the ideas he worked out in his other books. It's really only the thin veneer of a novel, its mostly social commentary.

9

after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. This is an an especially useful axiom for 20th century literature . . .

It's a useful rule for any century, to the residents of that century.

The "test of time" hasn't been applied to contemporary literature, because . . . well, it's contemporary. There are probably only a hundred or two hundred 19th-century novels that still get read very often - but we don't yet know what the 200 best 20th-century novels are, let alone the 200 best of the second half of the century, let alone the 200 best of just this year (in which tens of thousands will be published). So of course any novel you're likely to read from 100 years ago is probably better than any novel that's popular today: you're pitting known masterpieces against works that haven't met sustained critical scrutiny. But that would be true at any point in the history of literature.

If you somehow got a list of all the novels published in 1905 and picked one at random, it would almost undoubtedly be much worse than anything by Jonathan Franzen. But if you only compare today's novels to Where Angels Fear to Tread (E.M. Forster), The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton), or Man and Superman (G.B. Shaw [play]), all published 100 years ago this year, few would stand up, and fewer still would be left standing 100 years from now. But that doesn't mean today's literature overall is worse than that back then - only that we haven't spent 100 years whittling it down to the 5 best titles anyone will ever remember.

10

BTW:

If you liked A River Runs Through It, and you also like non-fiction, read Young Men and Fire, also by Norman MacLean. It tells the story of the Mann Gulch Fire - a watershed tragedy in the history of the Forest Service, in which almost a whole platoon of smokejumpers died after being caught on the downwind side of a racing brush fire. It changed forest firefighting tactics forever.

MacLean visits the fire site decades after the tragedy, working out by careful observation exactly what happened, sometimes down to a matter of seconds, with compelling evidence, in order to resolve controversies over the events. He also profiles the individual firefighters and their actions. The whole thing is written in brilliantly exacting and thoughtful prose - it remains the best piece of non-fiction writing I know, and it raises the actual event far above the significance of being just a forest fire accident. A really fine book.

11

Starship Troopers ... Not to be confused with the horrible film adaptation by Paul Verhoeven.)

Starship Troopers: the Movie.
* Set designs by Albert Speer & Associates, Architects.
* Costumes by House of Goering, AG.
* And a general "look" best summarized in five words: National. Socialist. German. Workers. Party.

Amazing what an Anointed and Enlightened director (who's pissed off at the common rabble for not worshipping His Masterpiece Showgirls) plus a lot of Peruvian Marching Powder can do...

12

No Lord of the Rings? I know it's easy to be Tolkeined out after the three great movies and all but it still deserves mention. I do enjoy, though, the opportunity to read about titles I would not normally have encountered on my own.

I'll forgive you for failing to follow up with the philosophy discussion...

13

Also I have to give credit to Joe for not making every selection an Amazon link to his affiliate account...although that might have been a wise move for him ;)

14

Boonton No Lord of the Rings?

While I know that I'll be bashed for admitting this, I have to confess that I've never been able to make it through either the book or the three movies.

I don't know why that is the case. LOR has everything that I usually admire in a work of imaginative literature. But for some reason it just never seemed to stick.

I'll forgive you for failing to follow up with the philosophy discussion...

I'll pick that back up on Monday. I wanted to take time to digest some of the comments before I contined on to the next phase of the discussion.

15

"the inclusion of children's books and graphic novels might give the impression that it is rather lowbrow"

Disclaimer or no, this list confirmed a lot about the "intellectualism" on this site.

That is, despite the $.35 words and the abstractions used to describe basic theology; seems like everybody'd rather be off reading comics anyway.

Fine by me. I learned most of what I know about the Bible from reading and re-reading the "Picture Bible". That is, until I went to college and studied Christianity from an academic perspective.

16

I read a lot and have very eclectic tastes. So it always interesting to me to see how many of the books on these lists that I have never even heard of. Thanks for expanding my reading horizon.

17

"Starship Troopers: the Movie.
* Set designs by Albert Speer & Associates, Architects.
* Costumes by House of Goering, AG.
* And a general "look" best summarized in five words: National. Socialist. German. Workers. Party.

Amazing what an Anointed and Enlightened director (who's pissed off at the common rabble for not worshipping His Masterpiece Showgirls) plus a lot of Peruvian Marching Powder can do..."

As far as movies go, I liked it quite a bit. Much like Jurassic Park, the movies are great, but are crap compared to the books. The WWII look of the movie made it all the more enjoyable for me, about the only part that is NAZI-esque would be the costume design for the "games and theory" officers. Very gestapo. Still, you gotta hand it to the NAZIs, evil bastards they may have been, but they knew how to dress.

18

Enigma:

Years ago, an artist told me that the main difference between Fascists and Communists (i.e. "Fascism of the Right" and "Fascism of the Left") is that Fascists (of the Right) have much better taste in uniforms.

Another artist (before sinking into bitter alcoholism) wrote on his old website that "Fascism is Fascism, whether it comes wearing chrome epaulets and jackboots or tie-dye jeans and a Greenpeace T-shirt."

Still, I know the history and circumstances of Heinlein's original novel, written in the early Fifties, when Heinlein's WW2 experience was still fresh. The MI were based on the USMC, NOT the SS, and the war with the Bugs was Pacific island-hopping on a grand scale.

19

I liked the movie too, it was so over the top and so campy that you had to love it unless you're comparing it with a book (always dangerous to read books since the movies will always diappoint you). My biggest disappointment was Bonfire of the Vanities. Another interesting movie out of the book was Interview with a Vampire. I liked both the book and movie....I found the idea of a vampire struggle with religious angst and guilt over having to kill to live very interesting.

20

It tells the story of the Mann Gulch Fire - a watershed tragedy in the history of the Forest Service, in which almost a whole platoon of smokejumpers died after being caught on the downwind side of a racing brush fire. It changed forest firefighting tactics forever.

Actually, they were caught on the uphill side of the fire and were unable to outrace it. The few survivors (two or three if I remember right) lived because they did the counterintuitive thing--they moved toward the fire and took cover in an already burned over area. The fire could not burn already scorched land. There's got to be a theological allusion in that, by the way.

Still, a great book.

21

What, no Tom Clancy or Jerry Jenkins? ;-)

22

Ken:

Exactly. I was just saying that the nazi-esq costume design dosen't detract from the movie. The whole WWII flavor was a great bonus (I mean, come on, it was the war after all.)

23

No John Crowley? Little, Big is a masterpiece. Before anyone can believe in the Incarnation, they have to believe that a spiritual world --Christian or non-Christian -- can exist that overlaps the material world. Crowley makes it seem obvious that there is another story of the world.

24

Good list, good discussion. I'd add one John Grisham: The Testament. After the weird rich guy and in amongst the lawyer stuff it takes us to a distant, hot, wet, buggy place and presents a thoughtful comparison of simple faith lived fully vs. life wasted chasing the world's values.

25

The Fountainhead? Well, I guess since you include children's books in the list....

I loved this book and all the rest by Ayn Rand when I was a teenager. They are, obviously, however, something you grow out of.

26

Salman Rushdie, faddish? And yet Ayn Rand's paperweight masquerading as a novel is a serious work. It's not at all the ultimate cliche of what misanthropic, immature 10th-graders think is profound. Get real!

Nice pick on Ender's Game, however.

27

Salman Rushdie, faddish? And yet Ayn Rand's paperweight masquerading as a novel is a serious work. It's not at all the ultimate cliche of what misanthropic, immature 10th-graders think is profound. Get real!

Wait, a second. Who said that "The Fountainhead" was "serious work?" My criteria for the list was only that it be "a compelling story." Granted, some of the books mentioned (such as "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch") are both but that was not a requirement for being on the list.

I too think that Rand's Objectivist philosophy is juvenille and morally-bankrupt. But she wraps it in such an engrossing (though adolescent) story that it is hard not to fall under the books spell. The book came out in 1943 and is still read by more people every year than has ever read "The Satanic Verses." So I don't think we should dismiss it altogether.

28

Oh my goodness! Where the Red Fern Grows made me cry! While in fifth grade (a very long time ago!), I finished reading this book in class. I had my hands on both sides of my face, hiding the tears that were streaming from my eyes, and dropping on the pages of the book!

29

Where the Red Fern Grows is also the only book that ever made me cry. I remember sitting on my bed in the dim lamplight with the tears blurring my vision, amazed that a mere book could evoke such a response. One of those moments that will make you an avid reader for life.

30

I too, must admit Where the Red Fern Grows was the only book that made me cry. I think I was in 4th or 5th grade.

Excellent book. Now I'm going to go out and buy it for my 8 year old son.

31

Fascinating that an evangelical and a dyed-in-the-wool agnostic like me would have so much shared taste in books. Joe’s list brings back a lot of fond memories. I still remember my first hesitant admission of how much I liked a comic strip, only to discover that many adults greatly enjoy Calvin and Hobbes. And sci-fi, Heinlein et al, has been a fave of mine for forty years now.

Lists of favorite tv series can be fun, too. My current feel-slightly-guilty-about-loving-it series is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, available daily in reruns. (I tend to start viewing tv series long after their debut, as so few are interesting.)

32

Not only was I pleased to see Busiek's Astro City involved in the proceedings, but to see someone else at last call Moore's Watchmen overrated was a breath of freshness. Really, it's not often enough that I see someone willing to take a stand against that kind of mediocrity.

Hm, if you like Eco, you might like my carving of him.

33

*laughing*

Oh, Joe. The fact that you included Calvin & Hobbes...it only increases my admiration and liking for you even more!

While I've read quite a few of these books, I see several that I, too, shall have to add to my Wish List. ;) I've been meaning to read 'Lonesome Dove' for quite a while now, myself; I bought the miniseries on DVD for my fiance's birthday this past March. After watching it together (I'd never seen it), I was quite ready to watch it in its entirety all over again! I agree with you that Gus McCrae is one of the best literary characters to come along in some time - if the movie version of him is that fleshed out, they must have had a heckuva great character in the book (he is my fiance's favourite character as well - he spent a while talking about the book version, too).

I know this is a non-fiction book, and I know that I *am* a horse and Thoroughbred racing nut, but...Lauren Hillenbrand's 'Seabiscuit' really is a terrific book. It reads like a novel. I have to say the same for A.J. Langguth's 'Patriots.' But again, they're actual history.