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Egan · 02-14-12, 11:03 AM

This is for a high school class?

*Puts on TLS reader's hat*

My dear boy, what a ghastly list....I can't imagine why any friend would recommend Lolita when there are far finer places to start with Nabokov...and Atlas Shrugged isn't a novel - it's something the right try to frighten liberals with (although it doesn't work because it's awful.)

*Takes of jaunty hat*

It wouldn't be a list of my first choices, although Catch 22 is a brilliant book. Out of the bunch of sorry characters you have there I would go with that one. Be warned, though, it's a book that seems to divide like no other; for every person I know who loves it, there is somebody else who hates it with a passion.

No Orwell? Unforgivable.

Especially seeing as you have Brave New World there which still seems to me little more than a pale shadow of Zamyatin's 'We.' I'd put Animal Farm on there, or even 1984, before Brave New World.

How about:

Tender is the Night - Fitzgerald

Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene

Animal Farm - George Orwell

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Ask the Dust - John Fante

I orginally put a couple of more left-field choices but these are pretty much the books I remember reading for various projects in school. (except for Ask the Dust which I believe to be the forgotten Great-American-Novel by a writer who is every bit as good as Fitzgerald.

Let us know what you read and what you thought. We expect at least 1500 worlds with double spacing and sources!

02-14-12, 11:03 AM	#14
Egan Admiral Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 2,020 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	This is for a high school class? Puts on TLS reader's hat My dear boy, what a ghastly list....I can't imagine why any friend would recommend Lolita when there are far finer places to start with Nabokov...and Atlas Shrugged isn't a novel - it's something the right try to frighten liberals with (although it doesn't work because it's awful.) Takes of jaunty hat It wouldn't be a list of my first choices, although Catch 22 is a brilliant book. Out of the bunch of sorry characters you have there I would go with that one. Be warned, though, it's a book that seems to divide like no other; for every person I know who loves it, there is somebody else who hates it with a passion. No Orwell? Unforgivable. Especially seeing as you have Brave New World there which still seems to me little more than a pale shadow of Zamyatin's 'We.' I'd put Animal Farm on there, or even 1984, before Brave New World. How about: Tender is the Night - Fitzgerald Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene Animal Farm - George Orwell A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole Ask the Dust - John Fante I orginally put a couple of more left-field choices but these are pretty much the books I remember reading for various projects in school. (except for Ask the Dust which I believe to be the forgotten Great-American-Novel by a writer who is every bit as good as Fitzgerald. Let us know what you read and what you thought. We expect at least 1500 worlds with double spacing and sources!