Taking a short detour from the usual content of this blog, I am posting below a letter I wrote to a good friend in 2014. It came up as a memory in Facebook and I decided to post it here for easy reference. I wish I have all the time to read again.
Hi Mils,
I just saw Amazon’s list of 100 books to read in a lifetime. Glad to know some of the more familiar books you and I have read are in there such as “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Hooray!! Other faves that made it to the list included Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “The Great Gatsby”, “Where The Wild Things Are”, and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughter House Five”. Your favorite “Catcher on the Rye” made it too! Of course, the classic “The Little Prince” is there. Smiling me!!
Kind of disappointed that not one of Jeffrey Archer’s books is in there. I may be biased coz i just finished reading his book “Kane and Abel”, considered by many as his best. I devoured the book during my last 22 hour flight. Not complicated but very well written. And not one of George R.R. Martin’s book is there. What a downer! Really, Amazon…you don’t think any of his books deserve a place out of the 100? And to think they included Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl”. Gosh, I hate that book! I will throw out their list if they included any of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire series. I just cannot!
“Valley of the Dolls” is on the list. By coincidence, I have the book which I considered reading on the trip back home. I should have. I have only seen the Hunger Games movies, but have not read the book, so can’t make a comment on its inclusion to the list. There are a few others like “Catch 22” and a few of Stephen King’s which I have copies also but I have not started reading in fear of a sure nosebleed. haha!
Of course, the list does not mean anything. Not having read any of the books that does make one less of a person. Or having read 80 out of the 100 makes one above the rest. It just tickled me a bit knowing that I have read a few of the listed books, at least feeling ko I still have a little culture and intellect in me. One just cannot keep on reading about xxx and xxx right? So, what’s your take? I will be waiting!!
HER REPLY :
Hi! Thanks for d tag. I jumped out of bed and headed to our pretense of a library and checked out the shelves. Was I glad I invested on a few Pulitzers (Mccourt’s Angela’s Ashes, Diaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies) though waiting achingly to be read. One winner I promptly dealt with – Middlesex by Eugenides – on account of Oprah’s recommendation. Hehehe wonder who would claim ownership to Nabokov’s Lolita and Ellison’s Invisible Man but that’s 100 – 2! I am certain the daughter is glad Pride and Prejudice & Capote’s in True Blood made it to the list. And so with the son for the inclusion of Malcom X and Fear and Loathing in LV. You’re not biased though in cheering for Kane & Abel. Truly gut-wrenching, it catapulted Jeffrey Archer to one of the 70s top storytellers. Like crime, revenge does not pay. I don’t want to be a spoiler but that drug-filled, love-starved Hollywood in Susann’s Valley of the Dolls would tempt the faint of heart to play w/those beautiful dolls. I feel like emoting at the end. haha! But I was sort of disappointed some of my fave reads did not make it to the list like Victor Hugo’s Les Miz. Doesnt compelling story of redemption count? Scarlett O’hara failed but the goner Gone Girl made the grade! And not one of Ayn Rand’s! kahit na nga ba ang hirap sakyan. And if Dinesen’s Out of Africa got in how come Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was out? Abah, kung kasali yang mga bampirang ‘yan eh ayaw ko na rin sa kanila! Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis is a delightful addition to the list. Sana kasama rin yong graphic novel ni Spiegelman na The Maus. Ginaya kaya nya si Nonoy Marcelo?! hehehelooking up, I was reminded of a cousin’s commenting on the “supermarket-type” of materials I indulge in. But hey, why suffer a nose bleed? Suffice it to say, I read to be entertained. No intellectual pretensions here, it’s good enough a few of my choices made the cut. Hopefully, I’ll be able to add a few more to my bucket list. Meanwhile, allow me to enjoy the chocolate cake the La Mards marvelously baked some hours back – complete w/frosting yet! hmmm…
AND SOME REJOINERS:
Personally I think booklists from Time/ NY Times/ Good Reads hold more weight because those recommendations are less likely based on book sales (whereas ‘Amazon’ was conceived precisely with that premise). Also, I think it would make more sense for any list that mentions “in a lifetime” or “of all time” to decisively make a cut somewhere along the literary timeline. Say, nothing from the last decade (or two) because there’s no telling how something made fairly recently should stand against the timelessness of works written in the 1800’s (Austen/ Dostoevksy/ Wilde/ etc) or even during the last mid- century (Tolkien/ Salinger/ Plath/ the Beatnicks/ etc)— works that to this day, still haunt us and make us really really FEEL something even after all these years. If the Amazon list tells us anything though, it’s that the world is made of so many good books to read. More than just 100, I am quite sure.
FINAL WORDS :
Thanks for the insight Ms. K. While it is satisfying to have even a few of our reading preferences validated by those in the business, we should not allow it to define us as a reader much less a person. But one with a better perspective, deeper understanding and fresher outlook after each read. cheers to the 100 and more!
Totally agree on your last two sentences there Ms K – that the world has many good books to read, more than just a 100! Actually, it does take more than a lifetime to truly savour these writings. Amazon’s list is kind of self serving, i know, but as Ms M says, having some of our preferences validated by those in the business, makes one feel satisfied. For me, it made me smile for a while. Happiness comes cheap!
