To start off the 12th and FINAL ROUND (and I mean that this time - really!), Norsk Troll selects: The Call of the Wild, by Jack London Naturally, I would like to accompany this short novel with it's well-known companion piece, but that wouldn't be permitted by the rules. And boy, was it tough to find a book cover that didn't list the companion piece! I have never stopped liking Jack London's works since I was a boy, and another of his novels was repeatedly read when I was in my formative late teens (for better of for worse). I was torn between taking this and taking that other novel - but in the end, certain elements of the other novel counted too much against it. So my last choice was between Jack London and another great American author, but Jack won for sentimental reasons. A lot of people may think this novel is too lightweight, but I think much of that comes from the mistaken belief that only the gritty underbelly of urban humanity can explore the depths of the human (or animal) condition. Norsk Troll's library: 1) The Lord of the Rings 2) Beowulf 3) Ramayana 4) La Chanson de Roland 5) The Plague 6) Haroun and the Sea of Stories 7) A Passage to India 8) The Three Muskateers 9) Nostromo 10) Waterland 11) Swallows and Amazons 12) The Call of the Wild Sarabella is on the clock. And everyone, with your picks this final round, please post your entire library somewhere in the post, to enable an easier recap for voting purposes (I know many of you have been doing this already). Thank you for your cooperation.
OK, but we'll only be juding on the first 12. Anyone is free to post additional short-list entries. I have one or two I could mention as well when it's over. More than likely, there may be a lurker or two that will also want to post their "How could you forget ..." list.
This draft turned out to be a lot less fun than I'd hoped. I think the scope was too wide and there was just way, way, way too much to choose from. In the end, I went with more personal favorites than things that truly need saving for future species. But oh well. My 12th and final pick: Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
A Streetcar Named Desire ~ Tennessee Williams Thought I might go for a non-Western novel, but I'm not that knowledgeable about any and grabbing a token novel wouldn't have made up for the Western-centralization of my list. This play is almost as depressing and hopeless as a Faulkner novel, but it has complex characters who communicate their complex emotions through violence which evokes the human race quite well. Looking forward to the judging and actually reading everybody's list. A posted list would be nice, as I don't think I can download zip files on my work computer. Quango's Storage Locker for the Others -- 1. The Bible ~ Oxford Study Edition 2. Catch-22 ~ Heller 3. Lolita ~ Nabokov 4. The Master and Margarita ~ Bulgakov 5. Candide ~ Voltaire 6. Richard III ~ Shakespeare 7. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court ~ Twain 8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ~ Adams 9. Cyrano de Bergerac ~ Rostand 10. Musashi ~ Yoshikawa 11. Death on the Installment Plan ~ Celine 12. A Streetcar Named Desire ~ T. Williams
I've been in France for the last week, with sketcy Internet access. So I'll try to catch up my picks now. 10: correct me if I'm wrong, but has nobody taken Moby-Dick? If not, it's mine. alt 10: Morrison, Song of Solomon 11: if I got Moby-Dick with 10, then Song of Solomon here. If not, then Samuel Delany's Dhalgren.
Moby Dick is gone, Gringo Tex I think. Song of Solomon is gone as Quango grabbed the whole fricking Bible, if that is the Song of Solomon you're thinking about. BTW, good pick Q, that would have been my 11th choice if we were going 20 rounds and I didn't need to pick the three children's literature books that I'm going to.
The Painted Bird – Jerzy Kosinski (An unusual perspective on the holocaust, one of the most controversial fictional pieces on World War II. The story is told from the view point of a child who, parted from his parents, struggles to survive during the war by hiding in several remote Eastern European villages. Due to his dark eyes and complexion, the villagers suspect that he is a Jew or a gypsy and so continually torment him. It's a dark masterpiece that examines the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence and love. It is the first, and the most famous, novel by one of the most important and original writers of this century. G-boot: 1. The Great Gatsby ~ F.Scott Fitzgerald 2. A Clockwork Orange ~ Anthony Burgess 3. The Grapes of Wrath ~ John Steinbeck 4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ~ Ken Kesey 5. Brave New World ~ Aldous Huxley 6. Franny and Zooey ~ J.D. Salinger 7. Light in August ~ William Faulkner 8. Robinson Crusoe ~ Daniel Defoe 9. The Taming of the Shrew ~ William Shakespeare 10. Fight Club ~ Chuck Palahniuk 11. Oliver Twist ~ Charles Dickens 12. The Painted Bird ~ Jerzy Kosinski
And for my final pick, and my third children's book, I need something for older kids and was torn between the classics like Johhny Tremaine, Island of the Blue Dolphins, or Dicey's Song, but I'm going to go with a newer book, one that will imprint the power of "story" forever on the mind of the kid who reads it. If you've got a kid reading Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson, stay close, because they're about to be floored. Really the most amazing juvenile fiction I've ever read. Val's Library 1. The Odyssey 2. Les Miserables 3. The Cat in the Hat 4. Dune 5. Lysistrata 6. Henry V 7. Their Eyes Were Watching God 8. Death of a Salesman 9. The Doll House 10. 10 Ever Lovin' Blue Eyed Years of Pogo 11. The Very Hungry Caterpiller 12. Bridge to Terabithia
Final Pick: Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett ____________________________________________________ GringoTex's Alien Library 1. The Divine Comedy 2. Hamlet 3. Moby Dick 4. Crime and Punishment 5. Absalom, Absalom! 6. The Trial 7. Blood Meridian 8. Love in the Time of Cholera 9. Cousin Bette 10. Love Medicine 11. The Elementary Particles 12. Waiting for Godot I mean this with no false modesty: I waxed all your asses in this draft.
I usually tip the girl that waxes my ass pretty well. In your case, you can keep the hair as your tip. No WAY you finish in the top spot.
Norsk (or anyone who has the full draft list handy, like Ombak), could you do us the favor of posting an updated draft list? I want it mainly so I can put together a final list for my last pick, and also to just get a refresher on everything that has been picked so far. Thanks in advance.
Well, I didn't intend to take this book this early, but as it's the final round, combined with the fact that I haven't taken any fantasy or kid lit yet AND the fact that this book is a guilty pleasure, I've decided to make my final pick: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling. It's not my all time favorite from the series (I think she really hit her stride about halfway through book 3), but it's hard to beat the magic and the innocence of book 1. That wraps up my draft. I'll post what I had for 13-20 and some alternates once everyone has finished. Irvine is now on the clock (and I for one am dying to see if he selects a book from his own library. If I were in his shoes, I'd have done it awhile ago.) 1- Canterbury Tales- Chaucer 2- Macbeth- Shakespeare 3- Frankenstein- Shelley 4- Le Morte D'Arthur- Malory 5- Midsummers Night Dream- Shakespeare 6- Jane Eyre- Bronte 7- Great Expectations- Dickens 8- "The Four Million" - O. Henry 9- The Martian Chronicles- Bradbury 10- Going After Cacciato- O'Brien 11- The Old Man and the Sea- Hemingway 12- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- JK Rowling
No way am I choosing one of my own books. Too many painful memories. Plus the ridicule this would provok is beyond my ability to endure. My final pick will be another Philip K. Dick novel because he is the most underappreciated writer of this century, and this book one of the great novels of religion anyone has ever written: VALIS. Doubt I'll win this contest, but I will dig the hell out of my books.
Alriight folks - Irvine's clock expired this morning, which he apparently didn't realize when he posted here this evening. bojendyk's clock expired this evening. distrunner450 is presently on the clock until 6:11 am Saturday morning (and his PM is full). Let's wrap this up, folks! DoctorJones24 is up after that.
It was pretty funny that he completely missed irvine's pick (despite the fact that he didn't miss his post). But yeah, the next post was great!