List Of Top 25 Books To Read

[vt]

From a well known book store:

http://www.powells.com/25-books-to-read-before-you-die

[shiny!]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

Great! I'll have to check these out. She includes one book by Ursula K. LeGuin, but not my favorite of her's: The Dispossessed.

The Dispossessed is an exploration of property ownership, anarchy, capitalism, communism, democracy, and how all such ideals and philosophies are effected by human nature. It's one of my top 4 "re-read every couple of years books," along with Imajica, Skinny Legs and All, and My Family and Other Animals.

I'm interested in hearing others' favorite books.

[jk]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

Great! I'll have to check these out. She includes one book by Ursula K. LeGuin, but not my favorite of her's: The Dispossessed.

The Dispossessed is an exploration of property ownership, anarchy, capitalism, communism, democracy, and how all such ideals and philosophies are effected by human nature. It's one of my top 4 "re-read every couple of years books," along with Imajica, Skinny Legs and All, and My Family and Other Animals.

I'm interested in hearing others' favorite books.

i enjoyed several of gerald durrell's books and i agree, the left hand of darkness is good, but the dispossessed is better. however, that judgment may just reflect the fact that you and i are more interested in the intertwined political/economic/social realms than in issues of gender.

[shiny!]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

i enjoyed several of gerald durrell's books and i agree, the left hand of darkness is good, but the dispossessed is better. however, that judgment may just reflect the fact that you and i are more interested in the intertwined political/economic/social realms than in issues of gender.

Perhaps you're right about our interests making The Dispossessed more appealing to us. My Family and Other Animals should come with a warning label. I read it for the first time when I was sick in bed with a bad case of the flu. Do you recall the chapter with the scorpions in the matchbox? I laughed so hard it started me coughing. Couldn't stop coughing, couldn't stop laughing, couldn't breathe... If it's possible to die laughing, that book will do it for me.

[jk]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

Perhaps you're right about our interests making The Dispossessed more appealing to us. My Family and Other Animals should come with a warning label. I read it for the first time when I was sick in bed with a bad case of the flu. Do you recall the chapter with the scorpions in the matchbox? I laughed so hard it started me coughing. Couldn't stop coughing, couldn't stop laughing, couldn't breathe... If it's possible to die laughing, that book will do it for me.

the only book i can recall that did that to me was a collection of dave barry columns in which one piece described the oregon highway dept's attempt to blow up a dead beached whale.

[shiny!]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

the only book i can recall that did that to me was a collection of dave barry columns in which one piece described the oregon highway dept's attempt to blow up a dead beached whale.

Found it!

The Farside Comes to Life in Oregon
By Dave Barry (1990)

I am absolutely not making this incident up; in fact I have it all on videotape. The tape is from a local TV news show in Oregon, which sent a reporter out to cover the removal of a 45-foot, eight-ton dead whale that washed up on the beach. The responsibility for getting rid of the carcass was placed upon the Oregon State Highway Division, apparently on the theory that highways and whales are very similar in the sense of being large objects.

So anyway, the highway engineers hit upon the plan — remember, I am not making this up — of blowing up the whale with dynamite. The thinking here was that the whale would be blown into small pieces, which would be eaten by sea gulls, and that would be that. A textbook whale removal.

So they moved the spectators back up the beach, put a half-ton of dynamite next to the whale and set it off. I am probably not guilty of understatement when I say that what follows, on the videotape, is the most wonderful event in the history of the universe. First you see the whale carcass disappear in a huge blast of smoke and flame. Then you hear the happy spectators shouting “Yayy!” and “Whee!” Then, suddenly, the crowd’s tone changes. You hear a new sound like “splud.” You hear a woman’s voice shouting “Here come pieces of… MY GOD!” Something smears the camera lens.

Later, the reporter explains: “The humor of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell everywhere.” One piece caved in the roof of a car parked more than a quarter of a mile away. Remaining on the beach were several rotting whale sectors the size of condominium units. There was no sign of the sea gulls, who had no doubt permanently relocated in Brazil.

This is a very sobering videotape. Here at the institute we watch it often, especially at parties. But this is no time for gaiety. This is a time to get hold of the folks at the Oregon State Highway division and ask them, when they get done cleaning up the beaches, to give us an estimate on the US Capitol.

[wayiwalk]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

Thank you Shiny - this gave me a good laugh....I mean, it's been 45 years, so, not "too soon".

[sunpearl71]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

Found it!

Here's the Simpsons' tribute...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8njDFdXwqjQ

[Ellen Z]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

i agree, the left hand of darkness is good, but the dispossessed is better.

Both of them are on my personal list of favorites.

Today I happened to come across LeGuin's website, which has a TON of interesting material.
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/MenuContentsList.html

The University of Oregon will have a two-day symposium about LeGuin Dec. 2 - 3rd.
https://library.uoregon.edu/tiptree-symposium-2016
and the discussion will be available on the web afterwards.

The University of Oregon Knight Library, which houses LeGuin's papers, will have an exhibit of materials on display for a couple of months in conjunction with the symposium.

PS -- take a look at this!!!
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Reject.html

[vt]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

[jk]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Reject.html

orwell's "animal farm" was rejected by one publisher because they didn't do "animal books."

[Chris Coles]

Re: List Of Top 25 Books To Read

One book, in fact a trilogy, I came across by accident while doing some research into the WW1 poet Wilfred Owen. A quite exceptional description of the family life of the Owen family and includes possibly one of the most, to me certainly, emotional chapters. Journey from Obscurity by Harold Owen. And before you do I make one comment up front; Harold Owen, in the conventional sense as we know it today, was uneducated, yet the second volume won a major prize; a most talented author.

Whatever, do not buy an abridgment, find the early edition http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-searc...r/harold-owen/

and as I write I find that there is a fourth volume Aftermath, so much to read.