Robbie Dillon asked me about the top ten books that stuck with you last week and Ive given it some thought. Today, on International Literacy Day, Ill respond, because Ive met people who are illiterate and there are few things I can think of that are sadder than being robbed of the ability to share in the joy of reading. When I say collected works, below, I mean I have read them all. Please feel free to tell me about your favourite book(s), Natalie Trish Sophie Sophia 1. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller A book pointing out the ridiculousness of arbitrary rules. And war. 2. The Doctor is Ill - Anthony Burgess Burgess plays with language and pronunciation in this book, it gave me great pleasure to read it, most of the dialogue needs to be spoken to be understood. 3. Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn As dark as it gets, an insidious critique of the communist state. 4. The collected works of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle Well, ok, *mostly* the Sherlock Holmes things, his spirituality stuff really didnt turn my crank. But Holmes? A foul-tempered, highly intelligent detective. Nothing better than that in this world. 5. The collected works of Oscar Wilde Wilde was always an outsider, a rebel, and an unparalleled observer of the human condition. 6. The collected works of Edgar Allan Poe Poe did way more than spooky stories. Did you know he invented Sherlock Holmes? Well he did. Also, he was a drunk, and you gotta love a drunk. And spooky stories that can still scare the crap out of me. 7. The collected works of Ian Fleming Anachronistically James Bond is still the coolest spy ever. Oh! wait! 8. The Spy Who came In From the Cold - John LeCarre LeCarré is clinically dry to read, but the sum of the piece is so impactful, and stark. Angstful. 9. The collected works of Earnest Hemingway Papa is the antithesis of LeCarré, but far more moving, a single phrase or a paragraph is where the words hit you between the eyes, or in the gut. 10. The collected works of William Shakespeare. This is one collection Ive not been able to get through in its entirety. like the Bible, I find myself impatient when I am unable to understand the archaic language. That said ive seen most of the plays performed, which is how they are supposed to be consumed, anyway, so there!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 13:40:16 +0000
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