More Hits from The List!

Exciting news!  I've actually started reading the books on The List!!  Well, I started one of them that is.  Yep, read 50 pages so far, and I'm really loving it!  It's actually been a few years since I've read a novel...most of what I've been reading is history books of all types, and I'd forgotten how fun it is to read a novel.  And what novel is it, you ask..."Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis!  More on this book later, but first, let me continue listing all the books currently on The List:

61.  Vanity Fair (Thackeray)...One of the few books to be named after a magazine.  A big, thick, English book.

62.  The Tin Drum (G. Grass)...I don't know much about this one.  German.  Made into a movie, I think, and there's a kid who plays drums in it.  Is it about the young John Bonham?   I will find out.

63.  An American Tragedy (T. Drieser)

64.  Sister Carrie (T. Drieser)...Two novels by a great American novelist whom I've never read.  They sound depressing, or at least tragic.

65.  My Antonia (Willa Cather)...I read "The Song of the Lark" years ago.  Pretty good.  Early prairie feminism.  I suppose I should add "Death Comes for the Archbishop", but I didn't.

66.  USA Trilogy (Dos Passos)...Three separate novels!  One of those early 20th century American writers who I've heard of but never read.  I have a vague notion that socialist politics will be mentioned.  Is this right, or am I way off base?

67.  Herzog (Saul Bellow)...Never read any Bellow.  This is probably NOT a biography of the German director Werner Herzog, but I won't know 'til I read it.

68.  Germinal (Emile Zola)...The great French naturalist author.  Never read him.

69.  The Hound of the Baskervilles (AC Doyle)...I've never read any Sherlock Holmes, so I had to add one for The List.  This should be a fun read.

70.  Snow Country (K. Yasunari)...This was on several "greatest books" lists I found on the web.  I have never heard of it before.  My interest is peaked!

71.  Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)...I have the feeling this one will be "Masterpiece Theatre"-esque.  But really I know nothing about it.  Is Waugh British?

72.  The Ambassadors (Henry James)...Oh God, more Henry James.  I'm dreading this one a bit.

73.  Treasure Island (RL Stevenson)...The classic pirate novel.  I should have read this 30 years ago, but better late than never.

74.  The Maltese Falcon (D. Hammet)...Is this really one of the greatest books ever?  Well, it's certainly a classic, and it's by a San Francisco writer, so I had to add it.  Should be a fun read.  I'll tackle this one after Henry James, as a reward.

75.  Native Son (Richard Wright)...I read parts of "Black Boy" in high school, and liked it.  Looking forward to this one.

76.  Lord of the Flies (W. Golding)...Saw the movie as a kid, and it scared the hell out of me.

77.  Winesburg, Ohio (Sherwood Anderson)...I'm originally from Ohio, so this hits a soft spot.  Another great American book from the early 20th century.

78.  All the King's Men (RP Warren)...Still another American novel, loosely based on the life of Huey Long.  Definitely looking forward to this one.

79.  The Decameron (Boccaccio)...I'd never heard of this one until last year.  A late medieval/early renaissance book about young people fleeing into the countryside during a plague outbreak.  To amuse themselves, they tell one another stories, chronicled in this book.  A lot of allegory, I'm guessing.  Still, I've heard good things about this one.

80.  Faust (Goethe)...Great German plays by a German genius.  I read "Sorrows of Young Werther" in college.  I think these are the only plays on The List.

81.  History of Rome (Livy)...Roman history by one who lived it.

82.  Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)...Doesn't everyone read this in high school?  Not me!  But I have read "The Grapes of Wrath", "Travels with Charley", and "Cannery Row".

83.  Lives (Plutarch)...More Roman history, about Roman dudes' lives.

84.  Journal of the Plague Year (D. Defoe)...More stories about the plague.

85.  Lives of the Poets (Samuel Johnson)...I read Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" recently, and it was great (but very long).  I figured I needed to read some of The Master.

Alright, I'll try to finish off listing the books on The List in my next post.