Merle Lefkoff wrote:
Thank you for mentioning Richard Powers. And don't forget Powers' "The
Time of Our Singing", an extraordinary imaginative leap into the
complexities of racial identity.
Tom Carter wrote:
All -
10??? Oh, well . . .
When I was a kid, my parents installed this in the living room (you can still
sometimes find it in used book stores -- saw one a few years ago for $150,
missing Marx and Freud !). I learned a lot :-) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World
Some years ago, I was asked for "recommended reading" (by a group of
students), and I pulled this together:
Fiction - July, 2001 (html) (mostly 20th century, but some other stuff .
. . This needs to be updated :-)
This semester, in a class I am teaching, we're reading (among other things, including
"Pandora's Hope" by Bruno Latour).
Earth Abides, by George Stewart
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig
The Goldbug Variations, by Richard Powers
In prior years of the class, we've also read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller, "The Golden
Notebook" by Doris Lessing, "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs, and "Heart of Darkness" by
Joseph Conrad (so we could watch Apocalypse Now :-). I guess if I'm ready to require students to read them, I must
think they're worthwhile . . .
tom
On Oct 8, 2010, at 12:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:
Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and would like to know this
group's recommendations for the "10 Best Literary Works" I should read. They
have to be works of fiction and available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all
time. Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one particular
publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all (most) have at least some kind of
scientific/technical bent. So I know the suggestions will be good ones for me!
Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote on them.
My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today:
"Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac McCarthy
Thanks!
Robert C.
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
