Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Path: spies!sgiblab!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!UMKCVAX1.BITNET!CDELL X-Envelope-to: literary@ucf1vm.bitnet X-VMS-To: @LITERARY X-VMS-Cc: CDELL MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Message-ID: <01GRUUQWV9Z69S5JN8@VAX1.UMKC.EDU> Newsgroups: bit.listserv.literary Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 22:39:36 -0600 Sender: Discussions about Literature From: "VALENTINE M. SMITH" Subject: An expanded reading list from one who likes to read (LONG! 685 lines!) Comments: To: literary@ucf1vm.bitnet Lines: 687 Dear Readers - One of my list members asked me for a "seminal list of books" I would or could suggest to people for reading. This list may not be seminal, but does represent books that have influenced me or that I liked. So, this list of 300 (actually 380-382) books are what I would suggest this month, (100 more than when I last sent this list out this summer) as I contend no such lists are the same from any given month to any other given month. They are not in order of preference, they are not ranked in any way, though they do reflect my interests and tastes - lots of history, some fantasy and science fiction, some novels, a sprinkling of many things. The list could have just as easily been five hundred books. VMS 1) Stranger in A Strange Land - Robert Heinlein 2) Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein 3) Job, A Comedy of Justice - Robert Heinlein 4) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William Shirer 5) Peter the Great - Robert Massie 6) Nicholas and Alexandra - Robert Massie 7) Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain 8) the Dune series (6 books, especially _Dune) - Frank Herbert 9) The First Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders 10) The Lord of the Rings trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien a) The Fellowship of the Ring b) The Two Towers c) The Return of the King 11) The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien 12) The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien 13) God Is An Englishman - R.F. Delderfield 14) the Robot series (7 or 8 books) - Issac Asimov 15) Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson 16) Robinson Crusoe- Daniel Defoe 17) Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift 18) The Guns of August - Barbara Tuchman 19) The Embarassment of Riches - Simon Schama 20) Citizen - Simon Schama 21) a trilogy by W. Bruce Lincoln a) In War's Dark Shadow b) Passage Through Armageddon c) Red Victory 22) The Art of War - Sun Tzu 23) The Discoverers - Daniel Boorstein 24) The Creators - Daniel Boorstein 25) The Story of Civilization series - Will and Ariel Durant (11 books - flawed a bit, but good writing) 26) The Frontiersman - Allan Eckert 27) Einstein, The Life and The Man - Ronald Clark 28) An American Melodrama, The Presidential Campaign of 1968 - Chester, Hodgeson and Page 29) The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder 30) House - Tracy Kidder 31) The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test - Tom Wolfe 32) The Fatal Shore - Robert Hughes 33) The Wise Men - Issacson and Thomas 34) The Glory and the Dream - William Manchester 35) Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter 36) Metamagical Themas - Douglas Hofstadter 37) The Scarlet Mansion - Allan Eckert 38) Cadillac Desert - Marc Reiner 39) The Uses of Enchantment - Bruno Bettelheim 40) the Travis McGee books (21-22 altogether) - John D. McDonald (the only series I've REALLY liked) 41) Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins 42) Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins 43) Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Tom Robbins 44) the Mars series (9 books) - Edgar Rice Burroughs 45) Thurber - Burton Bernstein 46) The Thurber Carnival - James Thurber 47) The Outline of History (usually in 2 volumes) - H. G. Wells 48) First and Last Men - Olaf Stapleton 49) Starmaker - Olaf Stapledon 50) THe Army of the Potomac trilogy - Bruce Catton a) Mr. Lincoln's Army b) Glory Road c) A Stillness at Appomatax 51) The Complete Works of O. Henry 52) The Best of Roald Dahl 53) The Mabonogien (the Guest edition is the best I've seen) 54) Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Malory 55) The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers - Paul Kennedy 56) The Best and the Brightest - David Halberstam 57) The Powers That Be - David Halberstam 58) The Reckoning - David Halberstam 59) The Imperial Presidency - Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. 60) THe Cycles of American History - Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. 61) Naked Lunch - William Burroughs 62) Junkie - William Burroughs 63) The Nine Nations of North America - Joel Garreau 64) Cyteen - C. J. Cherryh 65) Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll 66) I, Claudius and Claudius the God - Robert Graves 67) the Narnia books (7 books) - C.S. Lewis 68) Damien - Herman Hesse 69) To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 70) Crime and Punishment - Fedor Dostoevsky 71) Gilgamesh the King - Robert Silverburg 72) Tom O' Bedlam - Robert Silverburg 73) Earth - David Brin 74) The Complete Sherlock Holmes - A. Conan Doyle 75) Kim - Rudyard Kipling 76) A Fine and Private Place - Peter Beagle 77) The Folk of the Air - Peter Beagle 78) The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Hasek 79) The Merlin Trilogy - Mary Stewart a) The Crystal Cave b) The Hollow Hills c) The Last Enchantment 80) Don Quixote de la Mancha - Miguel Cervantes 81) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 82) The Manchurian Candidate - Richard Condon 83) Les Miserables - Victor Hugo 84) Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare 85) A Midsummer's Night's Dream - William Shakespeare 86) Hamlet - William Shakespeare 87) The Tempest - William Shakespeare 88) King Lear - William Shakespeare 89) MacBeth - William Shakespeare 90) David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 91) The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway 92) For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemningway 93) Islands of the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (posthumous) 94) White Lotus - John Hersey 95) The Wall - John Hersey 96) Mila 18 - Leon Uris 97) Exodus - Leon Uris 98) Trinity - Leon Uris 99) Mitla Pass - Leon Uris 100) Shogun - James Clavell 101) King Rat - James Clavell 102) The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsythe 103) War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 104) Fables and Fairy Tales - Leo Tolstoy 105) The Death of Ivan Ilych - Leo Tolstoy 106) Perestrokia - Mikhail Gorbachev 107) The August Coup, The Truth and the Lessons - Mikhail Gorbachev 108) The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov 109) Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov 110) V. - Thomas Pynchon 111) Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon 112) The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon 113) A Canticle for Liebowitz - William Miller 114) Little Big Man - Thomas Berger 115) Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown 116) Chaos, Making a New Science - James Gleick 117) A Nonconformist History of Our Times (5 volumes that I know of) - I.F. Stone a) The War Years, 1939-1945 b) The Truman Era, 1945-52 c) The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950-1951 d) The Haunted Fifties, 1953-1963 e) In a Time of Torment, 1961-1967 118) Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman 119) In Search of History, A Personal Adventure - Theodore White 120) The Making of the President, 1960 - Theodore White 121) The Once and Future King - T. H. White 122) Inside the Third Reich - Albert Speer 123) Trillion Year Spree, The History of Science Fiction - Brian Aldiss 124) The Foundation Trilogy - Issac Asimov 125) Stieglitz, A Memoir/Biography - Sue D. Lowe 126) The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Robert Caro 127) Ansel Adams, An Autobiography 128) Cosmos - Carl Sagan 129) Origins - Richard Leakey 130) America In Search of Itself, The Making of the President, 1956-80 - Theodore White 131) Lucy, The Beginnings of Humankind - Johanson & Edey 132) Coming of Age in the Milky Way - Tomothy Ferris 133) American Caesar - William Manchester 134) Broca's Brain - Carl Sagan 135) The Dragons of Eden - Carl Sagan 136) Practicing History - Barbara Tuchman 137) The March of Folly, from Troy to Vietnam - Barbara Tuchman 138) The Weaker Vessel - Antonia Fraser 139) The Holocaust - Martin Gilbert 140) The Holocaust - Nora Levin 141) The Monte Cristo Cover-Up - Simmel 142) Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 143) Animal Farm - George Orwell 144) 1984 - George Orwell 145) The New Russians - Hedrick Smith 146) The Russians - Hedrick Smith 147) Let History Judge (the 1989 edition) - Roy Medvedev 148) All Stalin's Men - Roy Medvedev 149) A Question of Madness - Roy and Zhores Medmedev 150) The Gulag Archipelago - Alexander Solzhenitzen (3 volumes) 151) One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn 152) Rebuilding Russia - Alexander Solzhenitsyn 153) The First Circle - Alexander Solzhenitsyn 154) August, 1914 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn 155) Now Playing at Canterbury - Vance Bourjaily 156) Giles Goat Boy - John Barth 157) The Sotweed Factor - John Barth 158) Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurty 159) Moby Dick - Herman Melville 160) The Cold and the Dark, The World After Nuclear War - Ehrlich, Sagan, Kennedy and Roberts 161) The Essential Ellison - Harlan Ellison 162) Night of the Cooters - Howard Waldrop 163) Siddhartha - Herman Hesse 164) Magister Ludi, or The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse 165) Life on the Mississippi - Mark Twain 166) Ulysses - James Joyce 167) The Taming of the Shrew - William Shakespeare 168) The Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust (7 volumes as I recall, I do not own this set, regretfully) 169) Tom Jones - Henry Fielding 170) The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe 171) The Fires of Spring - James Michener 172) Hawaii - James Michener 173) Across the Wide Missouri - Bernard DeVoto 174) Ten Days That Shook the World - John Reed 175) The Russian Revolution - Leon Trotsky 176) THe Russian Revolution - Richard Pipes 177) Stalin - Adam Ulam 178) Stalin, Triumph and Tragedy - Dimitri Volkogonov 179) Hitler, A Study in Tyranny - Alan Bullock 180) Hitler and Stalin, Parallel Lives - Alan Bullock 181) A History of the Arab Peoples - Albert Hourani 182) Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak 183) Babi Yar - Anatoly Kuznetsov 184) The Romanovs - W. Bruce Lincoln 185) All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren 186) Red Star Over China - Edgar Snow 187) Serial Murders and Their Victims - Eric Hickey 188) The Serial Killers, a Study in the Psychology of Violence - Wilson and Seaman 189) Serial Killers - Joel Norris 190) Hunting Humans, An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Michael Newton 191) Hunting Humans, Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers - Elliott Leyton 192) Seven Days in May - Knebel and Bailey 193) Going After Cacciato - Tim O' Brien 194) The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera 195) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Vincente Blasco Ibanez 196) Toolmaker Koan - John McLoughlin 197) David's Sling - Marc Stiegler 198) Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut 199) The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes 200) The Shadow of the Winter Palace - Edward Crankshaw 201) The World According to Garp - John Irving 202) Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving 203) The Book of Daniel - E. L. Doctorow 204) Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow 205) Disturbing the Universe - Freeman Dyson 206) Weapons and Hope - Freman Dyson 207) A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving 208) Jedidiah Smith and the Opening of the West - Dale Morgan 209) The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey 210) One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 211) Democracy in America - Alexis d Toqueville (often in 2 volumes) 212) The Difference Engine - Gibson and Sterling 213) Good News From Outer Space - John Kessel 214) A Distant Mirror, the Calamitous 14th Century - Barbara Tuchman 215) The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural - Robert Darnton 216) Hidden History, Exploting Our Secret Past - Daniel Boorstein 217) The Mismeasure of Man - Stephen Jay Gould 218) Wonderful Life, The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History - Stephen Jay Gould 219) The Golden Bough - James Frazer 220) Modern History, The World from the Twenties to the Eighties - Paul Johnson 221) A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn 222) Passages - Gail Sheehy 223) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain 224) Blue Highways, A Journey Into America - William Least Heat Moon 225) Letters From the Earth - Mark Twain 226) Idylls of the King - Alfred Lord Tennyson 227) Mary Queen of Scots - Antonia Fraser 228) Cromwell: Lord Protector - Antonia Fraser 229) The Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron 230) archy and mehitabel - Don Marquis 231) The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk 232) Time Wars, The Primary Conflict in Human History - Jeremy Rifkin 233) Biosphere Politics - Jeremy Rifkin 234) A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 235) A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain 236) Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 237) Cannery Row - John Steinbeck 238) Peter Pan - James Barrie 239) John Brown's Body - Stephen Vincent Benet 240) The Matrix, Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide - John Quarterman 241) Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede - Brad Denton 242) Wrack and Roll - Brad Denton 243) The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 244) The Great Terror, A Reassessment - Robert Conquest 245) 334 - Thomas Disch 246) Oedipus Rex - Sophocles 247) Children of the Arbat - Anatoli Rybakov 248) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 249) Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabakov 250) The 900 Days, The Siege of Leningrad - Harrison Salisbury 251) The Nine Nations of North America - Joel Garreau 252) Rude Tales and Glorious - Nicholas Seare 253) Wilbur and Orville, A Biography of the Wright Brothers - Fred Howard 254) Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All - Allan Gurganus 255) Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson 256) Beloved - Toni Morrison 257) Hurry Sundown - K.B. Gilden 258) Russian Spring - Norman Spinrad 259) Little Heroes - Norman Spinrad 260) Darkness At Noon - Arthur Koestler 261) Libra - Don Delillo 262) Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell 263) The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco 264) Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco 265) Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank 266) Nightwork - Irwin Shaw 266) Rich Man, Poor Man - Irwin Shaw 267) Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes 268) Revenge of the Lawn - Richard Brautigan 269) Sombrero Fallout - Richard Brautigan 270) Lord of the Flies - William Golding 271) The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCulloch 272) Catch-22 - Joseph Heller 273) Warday - Whitley Streiber & James Kunetka 274) Nature's End - Whitley Streiber & James Kunetka 275) Failsafe - Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler 276) The Shoes of the Fisherman - Morris West 277) Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo 278) True Grit - Charles Portis 279) The Genius and the Goddess - Aldous Huxley 280) Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 281) Truman - David McCulloch 282) The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - James Gunn 283) The Stand (revised) - Stephen King 284) The Sunlight Dialogues - John Gardner 285) Freedom - William Safire 286) East of Eden - John Steinback 287) The Red Pony - John Steinback 288) The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck 289) The Bog People - P.V. Glob 290) Erewhon - Samuel Butler 291) The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone 292) The Dogs of War - Frederick Forsyth 293) Narcissus and Goldmund - Herman Hesse 294) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey 295) I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Hannah Green (later editions are under her real name, which I do not know) 296) The Brethern - Woodward & ? 297) My Life - Leon Trotsky 298) The Last Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky 299) Black Night, White Snow: Russia's Revolutions, 1905-1917 - Harrison Salisbury 300) Justice At Nuremburg - Robert Conot