re: 20/20 list
Cecilia A. Baader (cbaader@my-Deja.com)
Thu, 28 Oct 1999 16:42:12 -0800
Good Evening, 'fishes.
The books that one loves. I'm a bit later than everyone else, but Bruce _did_ say, the books that one loves, sometime before the millenium. Given my usual turnaround, this timing is really quite good.
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald, _The Great Gatsby_
I don't think I need to explain this one.
2. J.D. Salinger, _Nine Stories_
I don't know the number of times I've reread this. I give it to everyone I know when I have to buy a gift.
3. John Irving, _A Prayer for Owen Meany_
I know that it's fashionable these days to hate John Irving, but I love this book. It's the reason why I will never wear a white dress to a baseball game.
4. Harper Lee, _To Kill a Mockingbird_
I read this when I was twelve. And again when I was fifteen, then nineteen, then twenty two, then... well, you get the idea.
5. Virginia Woolf, _To the Lighthouse_
I can never really forget how Mr. Ramsey could never get past R...
6. Henry James, _The Ambassadors_
Lambert Strether is my very favorite fifty year old man. I still think that he's daft, but I have hope that he'll someday jump on a boat again.
7. Diana Gabaldon, _Outlander_
Well, you did say the books that one loves. This brings together my favorite themes: magic, time travel, and the Loch Ness monster.
8. C.S. Lewis, _The Chronicles of Narnia_
If ever something formed the way I think about things, I think that this series is it.
9. Laura Ingalls Wilder, _Little House on Plum Creek_
Camille's list made me put this one in here. I read and reread her books until they were falling apart. This one is my favorite because it's the one where Nellie Olson gets leeches stuck to her legs.
10. J.D. Salinger, _RHTTBC & SAI_
I love how it rambles. Rarely have I run into a book that I felt was truer.
11. Ernest Hemingway, _The Sun Also Rises_
Bullfights, love affairs, and fishing. What more can you want out of Poppa?
12. J.D. Salinger, _Franny and Zooey_
Zooey in the bathtub, Lane rereading his letter at the station. I don't know how he does it.
13. Joseph Heller, _Catch 22_
Never has a single book made me belly laugh in one paragraph and cry in the next. Heller is a master.
14. Douglas Adams, _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_
This one cracks me up, no matter how many times I've read it. It kills.
15. L.M. Montgomery, _Rilla of Ingleside_
The Anne of Green Gables series is another that I read and reread as a little girl. This one is my favorite, although I don't know if I could pick a number two.
16. Rainer Maria Rilke, _Letters to a Young Poet_
I will forever remember his advice, and be glad that this compilation led me to his poems.
17. Toni Morrison, _The Bluest Eye_
Morrison's written more famous novels, but this one is my favorite. Pecola Breedlove is the most tragic little girl I've ever encountered between the pages of a book.
18. Jack Kerouac, _On the Road_
Pow! Dean-o, you make me want to dance...
19. JRR Tolkien, _The Hobbit_
Just typing the title makes me want to read it again.
20. William Faulkner, _The Sound and The Fury_
Poor sweet Caddy. And Benjy. And Quentin. And... well, it's well worth the read.
I hope that I never have to do this again. Yeesh.
Regards,
Cecilia.
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