I've only read two books on the list - "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (#39) and Hexbear's favorite "1984" (#16!)
No Grapes of Wrath 😞 Any omissions you feel should've been included or works that are too high/low on the list?
At the bottom of the list is a "see all votes" list of the authors and other people asked to make a top 10.
I've read some? of The Metamorphosis recently, not sure how I got sidetracked or even if I finished it. Got a few pages into Catch-22 back in high school but I didn't connect with it.
Not even sure where to begin in filling in the holes in my classics and modern gems of reading. The classic Black writings of Walker, Baldwin, and Morrison maybe? Jump right into Moby Dick? Maybe some female writers?
I also struggle to read books like I used to as a voracious bookworm teenager; with phones, Hexbear, YouTube, and streaming taking up much of my free time when I'm not working or parenting. I'm currently past the halfway mark in East of Eden but I've been working on that for a couple of months now.
Funny I read Moby Dick and it did not strike me at all, meanwhile The Great Gatsby was just what I needed. I read them both while I was out sailing on a tall ship too, so the mood was totally Moby Dick. I'd be interested in hearing why you like Moby Dick so much. I felt like it was a book that screamed for an editor. Like a sort of rough second draft or something.
I love every word of moby dick. I love every pointless meandering digression. I don’t know. I don’t know if you’re a writer, but I am, and maybe it’s just a writer’s novel in a way…like he just breaks every rule, and he’s also so intense and so passionate, and who the fuck gives a shit about starbuck? Ishmael, Queequeg, and Ahab are all you need. I loved it. I also read part of his memoir (?) about going awol in the south pacific and falling in love with the indigenous culture he found there and I also thought it was good. But I haven’t closely read moby dick in awhile. Ditto for the great gatsby.