WWTBAM Bored

I subscribe to a series of newsletters from Early Bird Books, which advertises discounted books on Amazon and other retailers. These are often books from name authors at cheaper (e-book) prices. They often publish lists like this, which I check out to see if there is anything tempting I wasn't aware of before. This is their version of the 10 best books of all time (fiction only). It has some very arbitrary choices in my view.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Anna Karenina
The Color Purple
1984
East of Eden
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lolita
The Great Gatsby
Huckleberry Finn
One Hundred Years of Solitude

I'm bad, because I can't remember my response after reading, nor much of the substance after all these years. I agree, arbitrary.

Maybe To Kill a Mockingbird.
Why not Tom Sawyer?
Others, Gatsby, sorta boring.
Other dystopian books I've read were more moving.
Why not Tale of Two Cities?
Dr Zhivago?
Some Stephen King shit.
Norman Mailer
Jane Austen
Yadayadayada
Didn't read 100 Years.

This is a drab list.

When I was in college, lists like these always had Moby Dick on them, even in the top three.

Catcher in the Rye showed up once. I think most readers would put that one lower than Lolita.

SportsFan68 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 17, 2024 1:33 pm

When I was in college, lists like these always had Moby Dick on them, even in the top three.

Catcher in the Rye showed up once. I think most readers would put that one lower than Lolita.

I reread Catcher awhile back. It was annoying. Never finished Moby Dick.

Interesting aside and an example of having access to all sorts of books, a la Lolita, I read Colette books, not all, in junior high. They weren't on any reading list from school, just at the library.

Oh please, you puritan.