My Favorite Books
I Consider These Authors 20th Century Intellectual Titans
My friend Allison Knight (who sat next to me at “Almost Maine”) issued a Facebook request that her readers name their 10 favorite books.
You may be interested in my reply.
I now realize that if my attention had not been turned primarily to fiction, I would have remembered to add the non-fiction titles “The Devil In The White City” and “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt And The Fire That Saved America.”
“No One Writes to the Colonel” by Gabriela Garcia Marquez.
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," by Robert Louis Stevenson,
“Notes from Underground” by Dostoyevsky.
“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.
“Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman.
“A Wizard of Earthsea” by Úrsula Le Guin.
“The Hobbit” by Tolkien.
“The Mind Parasites” by Colin Wilson.
“Tools for Conviviality” by Ivan Ilich.
“The Chosen” by Chaim Potok.
“Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe.
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," by Robert Louis Stevenson,
“Notes from Underground” by Dostoyevsky.
“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.
“Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman.
“A Wizard of Earthsea” by Úrsula Le Guin.
“The Hobbit” by Tolkien.
“The Mind Parasites” by Colin Wilson.
“Tools for Conviviality” by Ivan Ilich.
“The Chosen” by Chaim Potok.
“Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe.
The Bonus Round:
“The Silver Chair,” by CS Lewis.
“The Tao Te Ching” By Lao Tze (Lionel Giles’ Translation).
“The Great Divorce” by CS Lewis.
“The Devil‘s Arithmetic” by Jane Yolen.
“Orthodoxy” by GK Chesterton (excepting the poorly-informed chapter “The Ethics of Elfland).
“Technopoly” by Neil Postman.
“Oliver Twist” and lots more by Dickens.
“The Rebellion of the “Masses” by Jose Ortega y Gasset.
“San Manuel Bueno, Mártir,” by Miguel de Unamuno.
“Call It Sleep,” by Henry Roth.
“Cajas de Cartón” by Francisco Jiménez - the whole trilogy.
“El Tesoro de la Sierra Madre," and anything else by Bruno Traven, especially his short stories.
Traven's "Macario" -- preferably read in Spanish -- is, by my lights, in a class of its own. Brilliant!
“The Silver Chair,” by CS Lewis.
“The Tao Te Ching” By Lao Tze (Lionel Giles’ Translation).
“The Great Divorce” by CS Lewis.
“The Devil‘s Arithmetic” by Jane Yolen.
“Orthodoxy” by GK Chesterton (excepting the poorly-informed chapter “The Ethics of Elfland).
“Technopoly” by Neil Postman.
“Oliver Twist” and lots more by Dickens.
“The Rebellion of the “Masses” by Jose Ortega y Gasset.
“San Manuel Bueno, Mártir,” by Miguel de Unamuno.
“Call It Sleep,” by Henry Roth.
“Cajas de Cartón” by Francisco Jiménez - the whole trilogy.
“El Tesoro de la Sierra Madre," and anything else by Bruno Traven, especially his short stories.
Traven's "Macario" -- preferably read in Spanish -- is, by my lights, in a class of its own. Brilliant!
Ronald Dahl is another deep well (including his very quirky short stories for adults). Oddly, I do not recommend “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “James and the Giant Peach.” At the top of my Dahl list are “Matilda,” “The Witches, “Danny, Champion of the World,” and “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” To get an idea whether you will like Dahl's adult stories, here's a PDF of "Taste," which I consider superb: https://www.hffmcsd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=281&dataid=1201&FileName=taste.pdf
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