100 great American novels you've (probably) never read
So I noticed this book listed among the new ones the library has purchased, and I managed to find the table of contents online. Turns out that Karl Bridges is wrong. I've read 2.08 of these novels: Charles Johnson's Oxherding Tale (thank you, quals), Frank Norris's McTeague (thank you, orals), and the first chapter or so of Neal Stephenson's Big U (thank you, obsession and enabler brother).
I obviously have a ways to go.
I obviously have a ways to go.
posted by Brian at 9:37 AM
5 Comments:
You've also read Ceremony, as I recall. (I think that's one of the oddest selections for the list, since so many people have read that.
Wow. Aside from the same book that I "read" for Quals, I haven't read any of these. I am the target audience for this book.
This may count as the first time that 2 sentimental novels -- Sedgwick's A New-England Tale and Warner's The Wide, Wide World -- have been designated as "great American novels." Wowza.
You're right. I missed Ceremony. That's so odd that it's on there.
And I hadn't even noticed that some of the books came from so early in the nineteenth century.
I personally recommend that we reinstate the quals and that we use this as the list.
OK. I said "probably" to allow for the statistical probability that someone somewhere has read some (or all) of these books.
Aside from not liking my choice of "Ceremony" -- OK, in hindsight maybe it is well read -- did you like the book? Did you find it well-written and well-organized?
Karl Bridges
karl.bridges@uvm.edu
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