From now 'til i stop, Friday is Top 5 Day, wherein i submit a list of the Top 5 Best Of Something. (not to be confused with My Top 5 Favorites of Something) The Top 5 Bests are those that exemplify a mastery of craft. i don't dare chose the Top 1, so they're always just in random order. Feel free to disagree; i love suggestions.
The Top 5 Novels present a mastery of story telling in addition to a mastery of the use of English applied correctly to said story. There are others who offer fantastic stories (Bradbury), or exceptional writing (Divakaruni), and possess qualities of both, but it's my list and i picked these 5.
TOP 5 NOVELS
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest::: by Ken Kesey
The Princess Bride::: by William Goldman
East of Eden::: by my boyfriend
A Prayer for Owen Meany::: by John Irving
To Kill A Mockingbird::: by Harper Lee
i venture say that Irving and Kesey capture top prizes, but so much of a novel, more than any film, is the moment in life when you read it, b/c it's far more than 120 minutes of your time and effort. So i really don't know how much "Owen Meany" deserves my constant adoration, but until i'm proved wrong it's there. "Catcher in the Rye" and "Mockingbird" battled fiercely, but in the end i had to admit that Boo Radley was more of a story than even Holden Caulfield.
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Time Thieves
Gem of the Moment
"The elevator, which had haunted its untidy shaft for a hundred years, came wafting skyward, dragging its ungodly chains and dread intestines after. The door exhaled open. The lift groaned as if we had trod its stomach. In a great protestation of ennui, the ghost sank back toward earth." -Green Shadows, White Whale
7 comments:
Though I agree with most of your choices ( I have never ready A Prayer for Owen Meany::: by John Irving), I would have to add Jimmy Buffet: A Salty Piece of Land to the mix. He is a master storyteller. I know you might be thinking "how can one put Jimmy Buffet up there with these great works of literature?" Well, Jimmy Buffet is one of only three people to ever hold a New York Times Bestseller position of #1 for both fiction and nonfiction. Anyone with that on their resume deserves some credit. Plus his music rocks!
Wastin away again in Margaritaville
Jeff Kane
First of all, let me clear things up: chad is the one who posts under "bonnie's friend" and i don’t censor what he writes. By the way, the latest blog that he left isn’t creepy, it’s a funny thing he found while spending countless hours working in an empty computer lab.
Ok, now that that’s cleared up, I just think that C.S. Lewis should be on this list somewhere! Andy and I have been reading The Chronicles of Narnia this summer (we’re on book 5!) and I am pretty sure that at least one of them should be up there. However, I don’t know that you have read them (yet) Kal, so maybe the title of this list should be The Top 5 Books that Kallie has read…which if it were anyone else would sound stupid, but we all know how incredibly much Kal reads. Ok, I’m finished.
better story than holden caufield?! you're out of your mind bakermarkle! plus...no 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'? if Gabriel Garcia Marques isn't one of the greatest story tellers ever (forever ever?) then stories shouldn't be told.
feel free to disagree, but you'll be wrong.
TB.
p.s. 'A Confederacy of Dunces' should have also made the list. this really should be a top eleventeen list, not five.
Kane- i should've known you'd pull out some random musician that only other parents listen to! i read some good reviews on Buffet's books, and i promise to read one if you read A Prayer for Owen Meany. It was the book Karl Martin picked out for me as a graduation gift. i think you'd like it.
Bonbon- i only ever read Lion/Witch/Wardrobe and that was back when books had pictures and moms packed lunches. Then i went to college and took 3 classes from Rick Hill and decided to hate Lewis forever. He might very well deserve a spot in the Top 5 NonFiction list, but that's another Friday.
Travis- Does it count that i've desperately wanted to read Marques, but lack the discipline? And that Bonnie has not only given me Confederacy of Dunces but given me crap for not reading it yet? i promise that as soon as i finish Bel Canto i'll complete one of those.
Kallie I would love to trade books. What I like about Jimmy is his exscapism. If you need to get away from this world to a beach it is a perfect easy read.
Also, One Hundred years of solitude has to be one of the best stories ever written.
Jeff again
kal,
our buddy steinbeck didn't get a top prize? not even close?
East of Eden is my fav of all time fo shizzle!! i still gotta read a prayer for owen meany......just as soon as i am done with operative dentistry.....
J$
kal, have to say im disappointed that catcher didnt make list, but i fully appreciate how difficult it would be to pick just five books, so ill let it slide. also, im a little hurt that our good frieds georgia nicholson and angus didnt even get an honorable mention...
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