#754 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Tuesday September 19)
Good morning,
A couple of years ago, Lauren and Jake gave me a great Father’s Day present. It’s called Storyworth and, while I haven’t seen the end result yet, I recommend it. Every week for 52 weeks, I’m presented with a question to answer. Generally, these questions are about events in my life and interests. They ultimately are bound in a book.
On question was “What are your favorite books?” I got started and then got a little carried away in making a list. Here’s an initial random, non-definitive, list of many of my favorites. I’m sure I’ve missed some…
FICTION
The Plague and The Stranger, by Albert Camus
Metamorphosis and The Trial, by Franz Kafka
The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
1984, by George Orwell
The Gentleman from Moscow, by Amor Towles
Freedom and Scandalmonger, by William Safire
Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, and Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein (but many of his other books as well)
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut (and many of his others)
The Alienist, by Caleb Carr
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Hotel New Hampshire, by John Irving
Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye is in second place)
Centennial, by James A. Michener
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Underground Railroad, Harlem Shuffle, and The Nickel Boys, by Colin Whitehead
The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley’s People, and most of John le Carre’s books
Manhattan Beach and most of Jennifer Egan’s books
The Mandibles, Should We Stay or Should We Go, We Need to Talk about Kevin, and all of Lionel Shriver’s books
Maus, by Art Siegelman
The March, World's Fair, and others by E.L. Doctorow
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
A Man in Full, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
The Martian, by Andy Weir
The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, and The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair (as much for their historical significance as their literary significance)
An Officer and a Spy, and Fatherland, by Robert Harris
The Plot Against America and most of Philip Roth’s books
Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
The Travis McGee novels, by John MacDonald (a guilty pleasure when I was younger)
Treasure Island (the first book I loved)
Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (and its subsequent volumes)
Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride
Trust, by Hernan Diaz
BIOGRAPHIES
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris (and its two successive volumes)
Mornings on Horseback, by David McCulloch
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, The House of Morgan, The Warburgs, and Grant, by Ron Chernow
Frederick Douglass, by David W. Blight
Truman and Adams, by David McCullough
Eisenhower, by Stephen Ambrose
Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose (about Lewis and Clark and their remarkable journey of exploration)
Eisenhower in War and Peace, by Jean Edward Smith
American Lion, Jefferson, by Jon Meacham (about Andrew Jackson)
Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Washington, a Life, by Ron Chernow
The Last Lion, William Manchester's three volumes on Winston Churchill
The Robert Caro biographies of LBJ, especially Master of the Senate
The Orientalist
Any of the many biographies I’ve read of Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Benjamin Franklin I’ve read over the years
Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
Leonardo DaVinci, by Walter Isaacson
HISTORY AND NONFICTION
The Best and the Brightest and The Fifties, by David Halberstam
Simon Winchester’s books
The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry
What Hath God Wrought, by Howe (and the other volumes of the Oxford History of America)
Galileo's Daughter, by Dava Sobel
Devil in the White City, Thunderstruck, In the Garden of Beasts and all of Erik Larson’s books
John McPhee’s books about geology and deep time
All the President’s Men, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Balkan Ghosts, by Robert Kaplan
The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
On Tyranny, by Timothy Snider
The Making of the President (the first one but even the later ones)
All the Truth is Out, by Matt Bai
Many of the plays of Shakespeare, of course (e.g., Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, King Lear, MacBeth, Richard II, Henry IV, parts I and II, Henry V)
Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer
WRITING
Elements of Style, by Strunk & White
Eats Shoots and Leaves
There probably are others. I just can’t think of them right now…!
Have a great day,
Glenn