Last December, I read James, by Percival Everett. The story loosely parallels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from Jim’s perspective. Since it had been 40 years since I read Huck Finn, I took the opportunity to do something I’m always putting off – re-read a book which had a great influence on me, my thinking and my own writing.
I quickly came up with a list of nine books I wanted to live with again and vowed to finish them all this year. At first, I went to my library for inspiration, and came up with, in chronological order:
Moby Dick or, The Whale
Huck Finn
The Great Gadsby
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Catcher in the Rye
Catch-22
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Gravity’s Rainbow
Lake Wobegon Days
Two more jumped into my head, read but no longer possessed:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lonesome Dove
I pondered why these eleven had made my list. Each is written in a striking and distinct voice. Each has a story which stayed with me after I finished the book. Each altered in some way how I looked at the world. Each influenced to some degree my own concept of writing style. Each was written more than 3 decades ago. Suspecting there might be a few more to make my evolving New Year’s resolution, I perused a few online ranking lists, and added:
Call of the Wild
A Confederacy of Dunces
Slaughterhouse Five
Either One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Sometimes a Great Notion
Hemingway alternatives Farewell to Arms or Sun Also Rises
Lonesome Dove
Dune
Seventeen novels – a prime number, for sure. I’ll report back as I finish each.