Top Ten Works of Literature I’ll Definitely Have My Children Read

SOUM_5420_blog

if I ever do have children, that is...

I was tagged by Fadia quite a while ago for my “Top Ten” of anything. At first I was about to write my “Top Ten Beatles Songs”, but that list changes too rapidly as I adore all Beatles songs. So I decided on “Top Ten Works of Literature I’ll Definitely Have My Children Read”. So silly of me to think it would be easy to construct such a list!

I will not bore you with book reviews, those are a dime a dozen. Everyone writes a book review.

10- Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig's
Pure genius!


9- Oryx And Crake – Margaret Atwood
Dystopic and postapocalyptic, what’s there not to love?


8- Sherlock Holmes, the complete novels and sotries – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
There was a time at high school when I knew every one of his stories, word for word.


7- The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
This man is unbelievably witty!


6- Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
So beautifully written, it brings tears to my eyes.


5- The Vampire Chronicles – Anne Rice
Read them all during high school. Anne Rice, Virginia Woolf and Sir Arhur Conan Doyle shaped the manner in which I write and speak. Combining Sherlock Holmes, Mrs Dalloway and Lestat de Lioncourt would result in yours truly.


4- العبرات - المنفلوطي
The only Arabic book I read and respected. Read at the age of 13, all Arabic literature I attempted to read afterwards had no flavour.


3- Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
Unexpected and true. Never felt characters this alive before.


2- The Unbearable Lightness Of Being – Milan Kundera
It made me rethink my life.


Drum roll please!

1- Notes From The Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky
This book gave me unbelievable insight.



Books in the photo, Top to Bottom: Notes From The Underground, Mrs. Dalloway, Blackwood Farm, Sherlock Holmes Vol.I, Sherlock Holmes Vol.II, Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, Oryx And Crake, The Importance Of Being Earnest, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Anna Karenina, العبرات.

P.S. Yes, I own all the books in the photo.

P.P.S. I TAG EVERYONE WHO READS THIS TO WRITE A TOP TEN OF ANYTHING THEY ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT! xD

Comments

  1. lovely post ♥.. but if you could write a review on at least no.1 book that would be amazing.. and i totally love the picture... ♥♥
    i wanted to do the same, but i made a mistake i'll never repeat!!! i gave my books away :(..

    anyhow, it was great to see your top ten :D..

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  2. *takes notes*

    I need to get back into reading and this looks like an excellent place to start :D

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  3. I've read only two of the books on your list. Will start on the rest now. :)

    I still remember that moment 3 years ago when you first told me about Notes From The Underground. <3

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  4. Fadia: never give your books away hun!! EVER!!

    Abdullah: arent you a sweetheart! :D

    Ness: were we at Casper's? we most proly were... i remember the day you discovered the meaning of "spelunking" xD

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  5. Nice idea for a top 10. I have read 5 of them but not Canadian Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake though I have seen her interviewed about it, and read, studied and written on a number of her other works both prose and poetry. When I was a lit grad student I had a poster on my apartment living room wall of the comic strip she drew of herself as a English lit grad student (PhD, Ivy league...?Harvard), which was a hilarious spoof of herself and half the people in my classes.

    I may tag myself and do a top 10 literary reads! :)

    Thanks for sharing your impressive and eclectic list!

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  6. Chiara: Margaret Atwood is amazing, to say the least :D and please do! looking forward to reading your list! i'd love to tag everyone but wasn't sure how they'd take it.

    thus, I TAG EVERYONE WHO READS THIS TO WRITE A TOP TEN OF ANYTHING THEY ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT! xD

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  7. Souma--thanks, I was happy to be inspired rather than tagged. I will link back to this post when I do a related one. Hmmmm, knowing me is it possible that I could be as succinct as you were and keep to only 10...we shall see! :)

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  8. Yikes! seems like i have loads of reading to catch up on =P
    btw I LOVED the new header.. so original.

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  9. Hanan: yup, read and make a top ten list!! and thanx, i make my headers out of my own photography :)

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  10. I just put my post up on this, with the link to yours. It grew and it grew and it grew, so only Part I is done, and it is long but has "chapters" LOL :)

    Hope you will read and comment:

    http://www.chezchiara.com/2010/05/literature-and-culture-10-literary.html

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  11. How to pick a top 10 in books?? I will go back to my teens and early 20's and start there with books that have stuck with me and gave me much food for thought at the time. I don't think I could nail myself down to only 10 in my life now that I'm in my 6th decade. I have a love/hate relationship with Margaret Atwood but did like The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake. I will get the follow-up book "The Year of the Flood" when it comes out in paperback. I just enjoyed a book reading of The Year of The Flood!

    Atlas Shrugged by Anne Rand
    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
    1984 by George Orwell
    The Women's Room by Marilyn French
    My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
    The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
    War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
    Shogun by James Clavell
    Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

    Wendy

    ReplyDelete

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