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"Read the Best Books First"
"Read the Best Books First"
POSTED 5/12/2018
Henry David Thoreau advised his contemporaries to "Read the best books first, otherwise you'll find you do not have time." Today, there are numerous "best books" lists available on the internet for every taste, but what Thoreau was really getting at was books that give insights into how to live well.
Henry David Thoreau advised his contemporaries to "Read the best books first, otherwise you'll find you do not have time." Today, there are numerous "best books" lists available on the internet for every taste, but what Thoreau was really getting at was books that give insights into how to live well.
His fellow 19th century writers, Emerson and Tolstoy, gave their personal guidelines for what qualified as a best book.
His fellow 19th century writers, Emerson and Tolstoy, gave their personal guidelines for what qualified as a best book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's wrote: "Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre. What a great treasure can be hidden in a small, selected library! A company of the wisest and the most deserving people from all the civilized countries of the world, for thousands of years, can make the results of their studies and their wisdom available to us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson's wrote: "Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre. What a great treasure can be hidden in a small, selected library! A company of the wisest and the most deserving people from all the civilized countries of the world, for thousands of years, can make the results of their studies and their wisdom available to us."
Noting that "the most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life," Leo Tolstoy decided that he had "to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament." He developed his "Calendar of Wisdom" over a period of 17 years. In it, he provides thoughts from the great writers and thinkers as well as his own insights for every day of the year. As a place to start a quest to "read the best books", Tolstoy's "Calendar" seems as good as any.
Noting that "the most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life," Leo Tolstoy decided that he had "to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament." He developed his "Calendar of Wisdom" over a period of 17 years. In it, he provides thoughts from the great writers and thinkers as well as his own insights for every day of the year. As a place to start a quest to "read the best books", Tolstoy's "Calendar" seems as good as any.
In addition to the "wisdom books" recommended by Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Emerson, we could also add to our best-book-reading-list works of fiction and non-fiction that provide insights into ourselves as well as the world and peoples around us. The Guardian (U.K.) and the Encyclopedia Britannica's "Great Books of the Western World" are inclusive lists, albeit confined to Western culture. The "Modern American Library" lists are limited to the past century or so and almost exclusively are works by American and British writers. Links to the lists are below.
In addition to the "wisdom books" recommended by Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Emerson, we could also add to our best-book-reading-list works of fiction and non-fiction that provide insights into ourselves as well as the world and peoples around us. The Guardian (U.K.) and the Encyclopedia Britannica's "Great Books of the Western World" are inclusive lists, albeit confined to Western culture. The "Modern American Library" lists are limited to the past century or so and almost exclusively are works by American and British writers. Links to the lists are below.
Note: There has been an explosion of scientific knowledge in the century and a half since those writers advised us to read the best books. Some of these "useful and necessary" science-oriented books are included in the best lists - but unfortunately few are from the sciences noted in E. O. Wilson's The Origins of Creativity - paleontology, anthropology, psychology, evolutionary biology, and neurobiology. (See March 21, 2018, post in Mind and Spirit.) Another area with little representation in the lists is poetry. Just three books of poetry written after the Middle Ages are included. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Paul Celan's Poems, and Giacomo Leopardi's Complete Poems are in the Guardian's Top 100 Books of All-Time.
RJC, May 12, 2018
Encyclopedia Britannica's "Great Books of the Western World"
The Guardian's Top 100 Books of All-Time (Fiction)
The Guardian's 100 Greatest Non-fiction Books
Modern American Library's 100 Best Novels
Modern American Library's 100 Best Non-fiction
Right: Images of the First Edition covers are from Wikipedia.
A comparison of the Modern American Library lists with the "all-time" Guardian lists can only provide a selection of works from English-language authors since ~1900. That said, below are books that appear on both the M.A.L. and Guardian lists.
A comparison of the Modern American Library lists with the "all-time" Guardian lists can only provide a selection of works from English-language authors since ~1900. That said, below are books that appear on both the M.A.L. and Guardian lists.
Fiction on Both Lists
Fiction on Both Lists
Ulysses by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
1984 by George Orwell
1984 by George Orwell
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Non-fiction on Both Lists
Non-fiction on Both Lists
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
The Double Helix by James D. Watson
The Double Helix by James D. Watson
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Non-fiction on Both Lists (continued)
Non-fiction on Both Lists (continued)
The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich*
The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich*
The Making of the English Working Class - EP Thompson
The Making of the English Working Class - EP Thompson
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey
Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn
The Character of Physical Law* by Richard Feynmann
The Character of Physical Law* by Richard Feynmann
The Golden Bough by James George Frazer
The Golden Bough by James George Frazer
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
*I have included Feynmann's The Character of Physical Law and Gombrich's The Story of Art even though these specific titles appear only on The Guardian list. The Character of Physical Law covers much the same ground as Feynmann's Six Easy Pieces on the MAL list. The Story of Art is one of the most popular books on art ever written. Art and Illusion which appears on the MAL list is a more specialized work by the same author.
A 'very premature' 21st century literary canon and PBS viewers choose America's favorite novel
A 'very premature' 21st century literary canon and PBS viewers choose America's favorite novel
POSTED OCTOBER 23, 2018
Looking for something to read?
Looking for something to read?
The September 17 issue of New York magazine had an article on the best books, so far, of the 21st century. New York asked several dozen critics and writers "to name several books that belong among the most important 100 works of fiction, memoir, poetry, and essays since 2000" and then tallied the results. The most named book from the panel was "The Last Samurai" by Helen DeWitt: "Ask a set of writers and critics to select books for a new canon, and it shouldn’t come as a shock that the one most of them name is a novel about the nature of genius. It is also, more precisely, a novel about universal human potential." Other top mentions (deemed "The 12 New Classics") included Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections", Roberto Bolaño 's "2666", Ian McEwan's "Atonement", and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels.
The September 17 issue of New York magazine had an article on the best books, so far, of the 21st century. New York asked several dozen critics and writers "to name several books that belong among the most important 100 works of fiction, memoir, poetry, and essays since 2000" and then tallied the results. The most named book from the panel was "The Last Samurai" by Helen DeWitt: "Ask a set of writers and critics to select books for a new canon, and it shouldn’t come as a shock that the one most of them name is a novel about the nature of genius. It is also, more precisely, a novel about universal human potential." Other top mentions (deemed "The 12 New Classics") included Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections", Roberto Bolaño 's "2666", Ian McEwan's "Atonement", and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels.
Simultaneously and coincidentally, PBS was conducting its "Great American Read" event, in which they asked their viewers to vote for their favorite books from a list of 100 . Hosted by Meredith Vieira , The Great American Read was an eight-part series that "explored and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels as chosen in a national survey." This evening, PBS revealed the top vote-getter - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: "A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime." The other finalists (top 5) were Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and three series Outlander (Diana Gabaldon), Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), and The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien). You can view the complete results at the link below right.
Simultaneously and coincidentally, PBS was conducting its "Great American Read" event, in which they asked their viewers to vote for their favorite books from a list of 100 . Hosted by Meredith Vieira , The Great American Read was an eight-part series that "explored and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels as chosen in a national survey." This evening, PBS revealed the top vote-getter - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: "A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime." The other finalists (top 5) were Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and three series Outlander (Diana Gabaldon), Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), and The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien). You can view the complete results at the link below right.
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