Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Audience Participation Segment

One day I won't be in law school anymore. And then I will read for pleasure. P-L-E-A-S-U-R-E.

There's really nothing like making a book list for procrastination. So, here's mine (in no particular order)*. Your job is to tell me in the comments how incredibly tragic it is that I have left off the amazing [insert your favorite book here]. And......Go!


A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
Night, Elie Wiesel
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson
Creating a World Without Poverty, Muhammad Yunus
Grace (Eventually), Anne Lamott
American Pastoral, Philip Roth
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
The Known World, Edward Jones
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism, Karen Armstrong
Full Frontal Feminism, Jessica Valenti
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

* I tried to make this list with pictures of the books, but Blogger is being a poo-head.

8 comments:

LP Sutton said...

The thing is, this isn't really a fair question because we don't know what stuff you've already read. But if I somehow found a way to strand you on a desert island (and why are they always desert islands? shouldn't they be tropical?), I think I'd put you there with the following:

-Amy Bloom, A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You
-Elissa Schappell, Use Me
-Andre Dubus, In the Bedroom
-Aimee Bender, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
-Joan Didion, Slouching Toward Bethlehem
-Hemingway, Garden of Eden
-Amy Hempel, Reasons to Live
-Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
-Maile Meloy, Half in Love
-Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

(In)Sanity Gal said...

You're right, Virgin. It was a little unfair. But the truth is, I haven't read a single one of those books! I'll add them to the list. :)

saisai said...

i absolutely loved life of pi and can't say enough about it. and also, when virgin above mentioned amy hempel, i actually did a little dance of joy. my favorite of hers is at the gates of the animal kingdom, but it's a close race, and with her collected stories out i'd say just splurge on that. if you like short stories, dogs, and laughing while your heart breaks, you'll enjoy it.

Laughing said...

I second the Joan Didion above. Also, I'll add (you know, to keep the list in realistic proportion):

-The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
-The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan
-Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
-Conquest - Andrea Smith
-The Fifth Book of Peace - Maxine Hong Kingston
- The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera
Balzac & The Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

Uhhhh this has given me reading-for-fun lust. I might have to meme-ify this post. Good luck making it to your reading list & if you read any of these tell me what you think!

(In)Sanity Gal said...

Laughing,

I've read Middlesex, which I recommend to people all the time - so good choice there! I'm in the middle or so of Omnivore's Dilemma. I started it over the summer, and this damn law school thing has gotten in the way. Boo. I'm really enjoying it, though. And I've read another of Alice Sebold's books - Lucky. It completely traumatized me, so I've been scared of Lovely Bones. But I don't really know what it's about, so that's not entirely fair.

Thanks for adding! Even though the list is incredibly long now, it makes me happy. :)

SAT said...

I love that Laughing mentioned Jhumpa Lahiri. The Namesake is on my list of things to read, but her collection of short stories, The Interpreter of Maladies, is fantastic! It might be a good choice while you're in school, a little less daunting than a whole book. As far as my favorite books go: War and Peace (pretentious I know, but I absolutely love it), Great Expectations, The Road, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. On a related note, you should check out www.goodreads.com, it's like Facebook for books. Great stuff!

Laughing said...

I read the back cover of Lucky and decided to go with Lovely Bones. Its still an intense subject but not quite as intensely personal as I understand Lucky to be. Lovely Bones does a great job of treating a difficult subject in a way that I found to be gentle, and actually really beautiful.

Now I'm going to have to find myself a good used bookstore in this new city.

(In)Sanity Gal said...

Yeah, Virgin made a personal plug for Lovely Bones as well - so I guess that one is definitely going on the list. Ooh, this is making me itchy for the library.

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