Charles Kuralt's America. Little did we know this was to be his last legacy. A tour guide of the country.
Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Time travel? I don't think so. But what is it? One personality morphing through time and gender.
The Book of J with commentary by Harold Bloom He speculates that
J (for Yaweh in German) was a woman in Rehobam's court who wrote literature
for children. Literature became scripture. As with many of his books, this
one suffers from a lack of footnotes. Why does he have a problem with documentation?
The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher The chronicle of his 1963 walk through the Grand Canyon.
Don Quixote, Part I by Miguel de Cervantes There are some works for which commentary is meaningless. It is necessary to read the work. This is one of those works.
The List of Adrian Messenger by Philip MacDonald. Why are we chosen? Also a nifty movie.
The Faulkner-Cowley File by Malcolm Cowley He resurrected Faulkner's reputation by issuing the Portable Faulkner. This book is the correspondence between Cowley and Faulkner about that effort. I never fail to profit from reading the letters of great writers about their great works.
Sartoris by William Faulkner The first chapter of my revisit
of Faulkner since college. Where have I been all thing time? This is great
stuff and a blast to read. I am just old enought to have touched this old
South. There is much of it that makes me glad it has gone with the wind.
But, there is much we have lost.
The Art of Teaching by Gilbert Highet Please tell me someone like Highet still lives! H. Bloom perhaps, but Highet more reserved.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner A master stroke! Told from multiple perspectives, Benji's--a retarted person--is deeply insightful. The serious tragicomedy of Southern literature.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Light in August by William Faulkner
A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes. A book for me and you since you have read this far.
Biography of a Place by Harry Crews. Growing up in the Georgia piney woods 1935-1956.
Max Perkins by A. Scott Berg. Where would American literature be without Max Perkins?
The Ruined Cottage by William Wordsworth. A great poem and a precursor to The French Liuetant's Woman.
The Unvanquished by William Faulkner
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant are legion.
A Tidewater Morning by William Styron
Famous American Books by Robert Downs
The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman
Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman
The Waystation by Clifford Simak. The one work of science fiction everyone should read.
Project Pope by Clifford Simak. An odd one from the master.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Blue Nile by Alan Moorehead
The Strange Hours: The Excavation of a Life by Loren Eisley
Complexity by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Too bad this was not available as I was writing my thesis. I believe the notion of complexity would have enabled me to organize my thought into a readable, if not coherent, form.
South to a Very Old Place by Albert Murray. New York, Atlanta,
Mobile, Memphis by a native Mobilian that no one here seems to have heard
of. Harlaam's gain, Mobile's loss.
The Odyssey by Homer. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald also served as the husband of Flanner O'Connor's agent.
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. One down; how many to go?
Ill Wind by Nevada Barr. "Fun" mystery by an erstwhile National Park Service ranger.
Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr. "Fun" mystery by an erstwhile
National Park Service ranger.
Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman. Tops
The Common Reader--First Series by Virginia Woolf. The
best of a genre where what you are reading now is the worst.
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Faust, Part I by Goethe. The saddest line in all of literature ends this poem.
Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner
The Hamlet by William Faulkner
©1998, 2000 Ernest W. Seckinger Jr