"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

I don't know who said that, but it's a quote I've always remembered. It was brought to mind today when I discovered another CD I had missed when doing some ripping recently: Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother.

This album always reminds me of something from when I was attending college at what was then Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason had recently been released, and the so-called music critic of the school's newspaper wrote a "critique" of it. First he said that he had listening to this album only once, while at a friend's house during a party(!?). Then he went on to mention two previous albums. One he called "Medal", which it isn't, it's Meddle. Then he said the title track took up all of Side 1. No such thing. The track to which he was referring is actually titled "Echoes," and it takes up all of Side 2. Then he referred to "Adam Heart's Mother." He was so obviously and egregiously ignorant that I never read another word he wrote again.

This album holds a special place in my heart because of the final track: "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast."

Letters to Middle Earth

Builder discovers priceless Tolkien postcard:

A demolition man stripping a fireplace from the former home of "The Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien stumbled across a postcard to the writer dated 1968, and hopes to sell it for a small fortune.

Stephen Malton, who runs Prodem Demolition in Bournemouth on the south English coast, was working in the house in the nearby town of Poole before it was bulldozed to make way for a new construction project.

"Before we demolish a house we do an internal strip out," Malton said Tuesday.

"One of the main features was a fireplace, and upon removing that we came across three postcards. The third one was a postcard dated 1968 and addressed to J.R.R. Tolkien."

Malton said research on the Internet suggested that the carved wooden fireplace with marble inlay, a feature of the house when Tolkien lived there from 1968 to 1972, was already worth up to $250,000.

"To tie in both the fireplace and the postcard, we are talking about a price of around $500,000 for the combined pair," the 42-year-old told Reuters by telephone.

This paragraph has the ring of stupidity:

Tolkien had achieved fame by the time he moved to Poole in 1968. His epic "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, already popular before the hugely successful film adaptations appeared, was published in 1954-55.

Yeah, by...oh...several decades.

They think the postcard might have been sent by Lin Carter.

1001001

I've been using yourmusic.com to replace some of my old classic rock LPs with CDs. I had all the old Rush albums on vinyl, but wanted digital copies. Today I received Grace Under Pressure. I remember when I first got the LP I wasn't terribly impressed with it. But I like it more and more as time goes by. It's now among my favorite Rush albums.

There was something odd, though. I was able to get every one I wanted via yourmusic.com--even Caress of Steel!--except for one: Power Windows. It seems very strange to me that they don't have it in their catalog. I think I'll buy it as an mp3 download from Amazon. It'll take a while to download, but what the hey.

I should clarify that when I said "all" I really meant all their studio albums. I'm not really that big on repackaged compilations or live albums. I will buy compilations if it's for someone I'm interested in but don't have all their individual studio albums yet. And I might buy a live album if it has something on it that wasn't released on any other album.

Still to come: Rush, Caress of Steel, and Signals. I thought I already had Signals on CD, but in going through my collection when I was ripping them I realized I didn't have it.

My first Rush album was 2112. Purchased in 1982 while in college.

Smarter than the Party

"But what I'd like you to answer is this: why do you think you are entitled to your own thoughts? Against those of the majority of your Collective? Or is the majority's will sufficient for you, Comrade Taganov? Or is Comrade Taganov becoming an individualist?"

[...]

"It's all right with me, Comrade Taganov. I have nothing more to say. Just a little advice, from a friend: remember that the speech has made it plain what awaits those who think themselves smarter than the Party."

--from We the Living by Ayn Rand

Although I am on vacation this week, I have not really done any extra reading, being more focused on being entirely without focus. However, I did make a big dent in We the Living today. I will be glad to finish this book. In its pages is an invaluable lesson on the evils of collectivism, but it is so depressing.

On the lighter side, my son discovered a heavily condensed children's version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court which struck him as interesting, and I've been reading to him from it before bedtime. It's still a little beyond his reading level. My daughter found my old battered copy of Harriet the Spy last night. When we moved into our new house, we put one shelf in the hallway between their rooms and crammed it with children's books. I have many books that I bought in years past with the thought, I might have a kid someday who will want to read this.

The Historical Works of John Litel

Yesterday I read about a short historical drama called Give Me Liberty at The War On Guns. Is was a 1936 dramatization of Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. Patrick Henry is my favorite of what we have come to call our "founding fathers," if you can consider him that, so I was immediately interested and intrigued. The commenter had seen it on Turner Classic Movies, but noted that it is not available on DVD. Never being one to accept anything as truth until I have verified it myself, I began doing some research.

I had never heard of the character actor John Litel before, but he had a long and busy career between 1929 and 1967. Photograph thanks to Cinefania. While searching for anything that might lead me to this short, I read a brief mention that Litel had made several such short historical dramatizations, so I began searching further. Here is what I've found.

As previously mentioned, Give Me Liberty appears to be the first such short he made. I discovered that Warner Brothers makes it a practice to package various vintage shorts, as well as commercials, newsreels, etc., with their classic movie DVD releases. All the shorts are from the same year that the movie was originally released. Give Me Liberty can be found included with Errol Flynn's 1936 version of The Charge of the Light Brigade. This disc is also part of The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, vol. 2. Full details of all the extra features included on this disc can be found at DVD Times. (Not a direct link, just scroll down).

Next we have The Declaration of Independence, a 1938 short in which Litel portrays Thomas Jefferson. This featurette can be found included on the DVD release with Edward G. Robinson's 1938 movie A Slight Case of Murder. This disc is also included in the box set of Warner Brothers Pictures Tough Guys Collection. Details also at DVD Times (scroll down). Litel also plays a part in the movie.

In 1939 Litel played an uncredited voice role as the voice of Patrick Henry in the Warner Brothers cartoon Old Glory. This is one that I'm sure many readers will remember. It's the cartoon in which Porky Pig dreams that he is talking with Uncle Sam. I have a hunch (and it is only a hunch) that Litel's role was actually just an edited-in snip of Give Me Liberty. Old Glory may be found included with Loony Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, the Errol Flynn Signature Collection, vol. 2 as mentioned above, or the single-disc of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939, Errol Flynn and Bette Davis). As usual, full details at DVD Times. When it comes to details, this website has already proven itself indispensable.

Also in 1939 we have The Bill of Rights. Once again Litel portrays Patrick Henry, although in an uncredited role. This short is included with John Wayne's 1939 Allegheny Uprising, which is also part of The John Wayne Film Collection. DVD Times once again has all the details.

I believe he made other historical shorts, but these are all the ones dealing with the founding of the United States, which is what this post is focused on. I don't own any of these DVDs yet, but I have ordered the one with Give Me Liberty. Once I receive it I will be able to positively confirm if the short is indeed included on it.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have further information or if you feel I've made any mistakes.

UPDATE: The short in question is on the DVD. All these shorts are also available as downloads from Netflix, according to Keller City Limits.

No, I'm pretty sure that's not what I meant

First shelf

I just finished putting the first shelf plus some scattered odds & ends into Shelfari, and I'm at 134 tomes. I had some empty space so I started a "books to read or re-read" shelf.

There were a few books that I didn't bother adding to Shelfari; they are too uninteresting and I need to get rid of them.

I went through the whole thing so far and added ratings to everthing that I've read. Three stars means "liked it." Less than 3 are degrees of not liking it, more than 3 are further degrees of liking it.

There are very few books I've read that I can say I really didn't like. I consider most books a learning experience, even if they aren't very good reading. That said, there are even a very few that I've thrown into the garbage, lest someone else accidentally waste a few precious hours of their lives reading it.

Visitor Maps

I was just checking Statcounter and thought I'd take a look at the most recent visitor maps. Here's the map for Blogonomicon. (Click to enlarge for both).

Typical, I'd say. Most hits from the United States. Understandable, since most traffic here comes from people who originally started coming here for gun-related posts.

The map for The Briar Files is interesting.

There are more hits from Europe than there are from the United States. The number two country after the U.S. is France, thanks to Pipes et tabacs and Fumers de Pipe.

Thanks for all the traffic! Or should I say--merci!

It's a Zen thing...

...like how many babies fit in a tire.

I watched Waiting for Guffman today.

Christopher Guest is a genius.

And I didn't know he is actually a British baron.

Pink "gun" alert

Almost forgot, in the Alamo souvenir shop they have muzzle-loader-resembling pop-guns. A regular wood-colored finish for boys, and...pink! for the girls.

Pilgrimage

"The people died right here in this room, Daddy?"

"Some of them did."

We are on vacation this week. I had decided a few weeks ago that one day this week the kids should see the Alamo, since they had never been there before. As usual during the summer, the place was full of tourists. Someday I'm going to go when the weather is abysmally cold and miserable, both to cut down on the outsiders and to better get a feel for that cold March morning all those years ago.

"What part is this, Daddy?"

"The church building. It's called the chapel."

"Were they fighting in here too?"

"Yes...Can you feel the ghosts?"

A pause. "I think so..."

I don't know how many times I've been there--I've lost count. Surely more than a dozen, mostly when I was a kid. When I was very young I had no trouble "feeling the ghosts," in my young mind I heard their screams of anger and fear as they had fought and died. I still try to "feel the ghosts" and remember the carnage and violence that filled those tiny rooms in the last minutes of the battle.

"This is where the ladies and children stayed."

"There were little kids here?"

"Yes."

"Like me?"

"Yes."

Silence.

Although my daughter seemed to enjoy it, to my son it went beyond enjoyment into something perhaps approaching wonder and awe. He spent the most time studying the battle action panorama, asking me to lift him up so he could see it better. He is fascinated with maps; a realistic three-dimensional map such as the panorama was the best thing he had ever seen.

Although the pilgrimage to the Alamo is an essential part of Texiana, I didn't want to stop there. We had all day, and I wanted to show them what the real Spanish missions looked like. Tourists who go to the Alamo and stop there are cheating themselves; everyone should also at least pay a visit to Mission San José. So we drove across downtown to Saint Mary's and from there went south until we hit Mission Road. There are perhaps shorter ways to get there, but the winding road down alongside the river has always been my favorite path when visiting the missions. First we hit Mission Concepción.

Concepción is the second-best preserved after San José, and has lots of interesting architecture to look at. According to info at the site, it was the scene of many religious festivals way back before the walls began to crumble.

Mission San José was the largest of the original string of missions, and is still the best-preserved. This photo shows only the chapel and some accompanying walkways behind it, but all of the outer walls are still intact. This is really the one you need to see. Many people have trouble getting it into their head that there is really almost nothing left of "the Alamo," which was really Mission San Antonio de Valero. It's hard for some to imagine the vast, open acreage that was encompassed by the courtyard and the living quarters, what with downtown San Antonio crammed up against it on all sides. Seeing San José helps to solve that problem.

Here's a shot of the front of the chapel. When I get my own photos developed, I might be able to post some that show the vastness of the inner grounds. That oval window over the door is supposed to be a fairly rare architectural touch, from what I've read. I'm not an architecture buff or anything like that, I just enjoy the feeling of oldness from slowly walking these grounds. I can feel the weight of the ages in those old stone walls.

By the time we finished at San José it was past lunch time, but the kids were asking if there were any more missions. I told them there were two more, but they were small and there wasn't a whole lot to see there. "Can we see them anyway? Please!?" Well, of course. I was just playing the day by ear and doing whatever they wanted to do anyway, and if they wanted to see the other two, then off we would go.

I stayed on Mission Road, and had some fun occasionally with my own personal landmarks as we drove along. "You see that blue paint on that fence right there? I put that there so I could find the water meter." Heh.

Mission San Juan was never completed, and how there is almost nothing left to show where the outer walls were, or in some cases, would have been. There is now only this small chapel and the priest's quarters. Although the Alamo had been abandoned as a place of worship long before it became a fortress, the other four mission chapels are still used as places of worship by active parishes. A brief clockwise walk around the grounds and we had seen about all there was to see.


There is even less left of Mission Espada. A tiny chapel and the priest's quarters to the left. Some low stone ruins are all that's left of the walls.

But there is one other site of interest that is connected with the missions that most people might not have heard of: Rancho de las Cabras. Espada was a ranching mission, and the people living nearby had a problem with the livestock damaging their crops, so a ranch was established some 30 miles away near present-day Floresville and the livestock moved there. It was not only a ranch, but essentially built like a small mission, with full outer walls, defensive bastions, and a small chapel. The little that has been rediscovered now are ruins, and it is an important archaeological site.

We stopped in to the visitor's center at each mission so my son could get a brochure with a map of the grounds on it. He how has a complete collection of San Antonio Mission maps to add to his growing map collection.

It began raining on us as we were walking Espada. It turned into a deluge as we drove home.

And of course, a good time was had by all.

Pointless comments on a fictional series

So Death Note came to an end last night--at least the anime version, which is the only version I'm even remotely interested in.

This is one of the most disgusting anime series I have ever watched in full, and the only reason I stuck with it is because I had to see how it ended. It was somewhat interesting in its portrayal of perhaps the most disgustingly megalomaniacal fictional character of all time. I'm talking about the smug b*st*rd in the foreground up there.

There was no one to identify with in this show. And let's face it: the ultimate goal of suspending one's disbelief for any work of fiction is to find some level of identity with a character--be he heroic or anti-heroic. Light Yagami was neither. He was only evil.

I wish I had recorded it on DVD instead of a tape, because then I could have made a screen cap of the end of the show. Still, it was gratifying to watch him go stark raving apespit insane. I kept saying, Shoot him! Why don't they shoot him!? PUT ONE RIGHT IN HIS HEAD!!! I guess at the end I did find someone to identify with, in the cop who finally cut loose on him and shot him several times (in what was actually self defense), although I was still disappointed that he didn't splatter Light's brains all over the wall.

I suppose Misa may someday return from obscurity, but she's so stupid she'll just get caught if she doesn't get the help of someone smarter. Anyway, if this series reruns sometime, I won't watch it. Once through is enough by far.

Sigh...I wish they would show Trigun again.

A.A. Milne on pipe-smoking elitism

However, it is the pipe rather than the tobacco which marks him as belonging to this particular school. He pins his faith, not so much to its labor saving devices as to the white spot outside, the white spot of an otherwise aimless life. This tells the world that it is one of the pipes. Never was an announcement more superfluous.

...Whereas men of an older school, like myself, smoke for the pleasure of smoking, men of this school smoke for the pleasure of pipe-owning--of selecting which of their many white-spotted pipes they will fill with their specially blended tobacco, of filling the one so chosen, of lighting it, of taking it from the mouth to gaze lovingly at the white spot and thus letting it go out, of lighting it again and letting it go out again, of polishing it up with their own special polisher and putting it to bed, and then the pleasure of beginning all over again with another white-spotted one. They are not so much pipe smokers as pipe keepers; and to have spoken as I did just now of their owning pipes was wrong, for it is they who are in bondage to the white spot.

...You may be excused for feeling after the first pipe that the joys of smoking have been rated too high, and for trying to extract your pleasure from the polish on the pipe's surface, the pride of possessing a special mixture of your own, and such-like matters, rather than from the actual inspiration and expiration of smoke. In the same way a man not fond of reading may find delight in a library of well-bound books. They are pleasant to handle, pleasant to talk about, pleasant to show to friends.But it is the man without the library of well-bound books who generally does most of the reading.

So I feel that it is we of the older school that do most of the smoking. We smoke unconsciously while we are doing other things; they try, but not very successfully, to do other things while they are consciously smoking. No doubt they despise us, and tell themselves that we are not real smokers, but I fancy they feel a little uneasy sometimes. For my young friends are always trying to persuade me to join their school, to become one of the white-spotted ones.

—from Not That It Matters, 1920

As quoted at My Pipes Community.

Charles Fort on Darwinism

The fittest survive.

What is meant by the fittest?

Not the strongest; not the cleverest—

Weakness and stupidity everywhere survive.

There is no way of determining fitness except in that a thing does survive.

"Fitness," then, is only another name for "survival."

Darwinism:

That survivors survive.

--from The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort

I purchased this all-in-one volume of The Complete Books of Charles Fort several years ago, and so far have only scanned through it, snatching bits and pieces of it for my own amusement. I began reading it in earnest a few days ago, and I hope I can make it straight through from beginning to end.

Fort's writing style--if he has one--is idiosyncratic and perhaps even whimsical; although he is serious about what he does, he is not always particularly serious about how he does it. (Ye gads, I almost used the word "quirky" in there).

Further quotes to follow as I wend my way through this ponderous tome.

More movies

A few that I forgot to list in the last post.

Haunted Honeymoon -- Not Gene Wilder's funniest, but still funny enough to keep.

Return of the Living Dead -- A total splatterfest. Super zombies this time that can't be killed by simply destroying the brain, and smart enough to use an improvised block & tackle to open a barred door. Conspiratorial in-references that the original movie didn't tell the whole story. I have "the original movie," Night of the Living Dead on tape. A double-feature tape with Reefer Madness, it was a Christmas gift from a co-worker many years ago. "I saw that tape, and knew it would be perfect for you," she said.

Waiting for Guffman -- Have not seen it yet, but I've been wanting to. I also want to catch A Mighty Wind when I get the chance. For that matter, Spinal Tap would be a good catch, too.

And three that I captured since the last post.

Meet the Robinsons -- Recommended to me by (of all people) my 7-year-old son. It turned out to be a pretty cool movie.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- The original!

To Hell and Back -- I had this one on tape, but thought I'd get a DVD capture of it for posterity. I've seen it three or four times, and will undoubtedly watch it again.

Tactical Segways

In China.

Gun control in Britain

Brian Micklethwait of Samizdata blogs Is gun control about to be rolled back in Britain? Probably not, but it's good to hear that there is rather a lot of discontent regarding Britain's anti-self defense laws.

Review: Utopia by Thomas More

The commonly accepted definition of "utopia" is: An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects (via The Free Dictionary). This is the definition that I had always accepted, because it seemed to be the general consensus.

Thomas More coined the word "Utopia," (literally "no place" from Greek), and this long narration is how he introduced it to the world. Since reading it, I have changed my own definition of this word to something more along the lines of: A place that appears to be ideally perfect, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects, but in fact is terribly, dreadfully wrong.

Maybe I'm completely off-base on the subject, but here are my thoughts.

More attempted to portray his ideal civilization as a sort of secular Christian communism. At one point he talks about how many Utopians began taking up Christianity when it was explained to them, yet they seem to be completely without compassion for the individual and wholly dedicated to "the public good" with an almost hive-mind consciousness.

In order that their cities may not have too many or too few inhabitants, they allow no city to have over six thousand households...The number of children is not restricted, but the number is easily controlled by transferring the children of a household that has too many to one that does not have enough.

So the children are taken from their parents and given to other people to balance out the population. But apparently the children don't mind because everyone is exactly alike anyway.

If any man goes outside his district without leave and is caught without a passport from the prince, he is treated scornfully, brought back as a fugitive, and severely punished. If he does it again, he is made a bondman.

Right to travel freely: denied. Repeat offenders are forced into hard labor (slavery). For nothing more than stepping outside of your appointed district without the leave of the monarch.

The Utopians are hypocrites:

So the Utopians, regarding this whole business of hunting as a thing unworthy of free men, turn it over to their butchers, who (as I have said) are bondmen. They count hunting as the lowest kind of butcher work. It is more useful and honorable to keep cattle and kill them only when needed.

But their butchers are bondmen, so even butchering domesticated cattle is left up to those who committed a heinous crime like stepping outside their own district. But do the Utopians have any qualms about actually eating these butchered animals? No, of course not.

At first glance, the Utopians seem to have a relatively enlightened view of euthanasia:

But if a person suffers from a disease which is both incurable and continually excruciating, the priests and magistrates come and urge him to make the decision not to nourish such a painful disease any longer...They tell him not to hesitate to die when life is such a torment, but in confidence of a better life after death, to deliver himself from the scourge and imprisonment of living or let others release him...for by death he would lose nothing but suffering.

Perhaps suicide is always wrong. I'm not sure it always is. But note the key phrase "priests and magistrates" in the previous passage, and then consider this:

But they dishonor a man who takes his own life without the approval of the priests and senate.

The Utopians do not own their own lives; their very life itself belongs to the collective.

On the other hand, they do have some ideas that I find acceptable. Such as this:

They think it highly unjust to bind men by laws that are too numerous to be read and too obscure to be readily understood.

No lawyers, for they have no use for "men who handle [legal] matters craftily and interpret laws subtly." This, in my opinion, would do us well to emulate.

But again we return to an inherent hypocrisy. They won't deign to wage war against another country on their own, but feel free to hire others to do it for them. In fact, they feel smugly superior in using so-called lesser races as their mercenaries, because these lesser races have nothing better to do, they enjoy fighting and dying violent deaths (according to the Utopians), and such deaths help keep their populations down so they don't get out of hand.

The final note that I made while reading this book is a passage that reflects accurately on our own times. Exchange "politician" for "priest" in the following. This is not an inaccurate substitution because their priests are part of the government:

No greater honor is paid to a magistrate among the Utopians than to the priests. Even if one of them does something criminal, he is not subject to any state trial. Instead the judgment is left to God and his own conscience. They do not think it right to lay hands on any priest, no matter how bad he is, since a priest is specially dedicated to God as if he were a sacred offering.

This is especially repugnant to me. Our own government is rife with elitists who believe themselves immune from the numerous and obscure laws that bind the rest of us. And for the Utopians, who behave as though the "state" is the ultimate good, their "state" is the equivalent of "God."

Should you read this book? My opinion is yes, with the condition that one keeps in mind that the nanny-staters and controllers of today are doing their dead level best to turn this country into their version of a "utopia."

Utopia was originally written in 1516, and there are many modern translations of the book available. My version is a slim volume published by Crofts Classics in 1949 and was translated by H.V.S. Ogden.

The day

I was barbecuing by dawn's early light this morning, trying to get it all done before it either got too hot or started raining, or both. It never did get very warm (only hit about 85) and we got only a brief shower in the afternoon. My dad came over and we feasted on barbecued beef, sausage and hot dogs for the kids. Pinto beans, salad and corn on the cob completed the meal. Plenty of iced tea for everyone and cake for desert.

I hope all my legions of readers had a safe one. Even out here in the sticks the fireworks are scant this year because of the drought. No fireworks at all at this household, but I'll be taking the kids shooting in the next few days to remedy that.

All the books I haven't read...

Drew says, "The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who've read only 6 and force books upon them

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (that makes 6!)
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E.M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Sixteen, so I guess that means I can be smug about it. I don't put a lot of stock in lists like this, because the greatness of any book is entirely subjective, and a book that may mean a great deal to a lot of people may mean nothing to any given individual.

However, I have for a long while felt that I should try reading some James Joyce, and I have several of Ayn Rand's books stacked up in my "to be read soon" shelf.

William S. Burroughs is sort of an odd one for me, because although the only book of his I have read is The Last Words of Dutch Schulz, I did read a biography of him once. This sets him apart from most authors for me, whose works I have read a lot of but never actually read about them.

I think I should try reading Faulkner as well.

Many years ago, while sharing a house with two friends, I took a look at their book collection and found several by John Steinbeck. I had read only one work of his at that time, and it had been years before: The Grapes of Wrath. So I started again with that book and read several in the collection. After finishing The Winter of Our Discontent, I felt sort of burned out on Steinbeck and decided I had had enough for the time being, and would take a break with something lighter and go back to him later. But alas, I never did.

The one book by John Updike that I have read is The Centaur. An odd story, and I don't think I ever fully understood it, but I have it and will probably try it again sometime. It belonged to my high school English teacher, and when I found it on a shelf in her classroom I read it. Some years later, after graduating, I went back for a visit and popped in on her. I asked if she still had that book, hoping she would let me borrow it so that I could read it again. She simply gave it to me.

And no, I didn't underline any because I don't think I can say I love any of these books, except maybe for LotR. But several of them did have a big impact on me, such as 1984, Brave New World and A Clockwork Orange. I read The Call of the Wild several times during my teen years.