Beat Down Modern Library #55 1955, Jack Kerouac I’m a pretty cool guy. Just ask me. So it may shock you to learn that I’d never read a word of Kerouac before cracking this book open. Okay, so maybe I'm not so cool. Or does that make me cooler somehow? On the Road is one of the books on THE LIST that I pretty … [Read more...]
Read this first
Non-CT Travel, Hikes, Books, & Movies
Highpointing and Peak-Bagging Intro
Why State Highpointing?
US National Parks
Modern Library's Top 100 Novels
Top 100 Books Tallies & Reviews
ML53. Pale Fire
I Spit Hot Fire Modern Library # 53 1962, Vladimir Nabokov [I must note that one cannot read enough online about Pale Fire - before AND after reading it. Knowing all about it before setting out with it does not diminish it in the least. And as you'll read here, no one really "knows" all about it anyway. Which is … [Read more...]
ML52. Portnoy’s Complaint
Oy Vey! Modern Library # 52 1967, Philip Roth This may perhaps be the most difficult Top 100 Book Review I'll ever do. Not because I loved it so much I can't find the words and not because I hated it either. No... it's because "Portnoy's Compaint" is so downright dirty and sex-filled that I wouldn't know how to … [Read more...]
ML45. The Sun Also Rises
Great Book. No Bull. Modern Library # 45 1926, Ernest Hemingway I love Ernest Hemingway. There, I said it. Anti-Semite, racist, mysoginist, drunkard, jerk... On and on the epithets go - but I'm judging the man's work, not his personality. I'm reading my Hemingway "up;" from the shorter stuff like "Snows of … [Read more...]
Modern Library 41. Lord of the Flies
Kids are Stupid Modern Library # 41 1954, William Golding Ah, yes, the book you all had to read in middle school. Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Roger, Simon and the rest, stranded on a deserted island and left to fend for themselves. A study of human nature, self-reliance and self-governance, this is one of those … [Read more...]
ML39. Go Tell it on the Mountain
Lawds! I Tole You It's Good! Modern Library # 39 1952, James Baldwin If this book is about redemption (which it's not, really, but go with me here), then it is pretty cool that I've decided to squeeze it in to complete my roster of 2009 Top 100 books. Yes, I finished it while Damian napped and Hoang shopped on … [Read more...]
ML37. The Bridge of San Luis Rey
A Bridge Gone Too Far Modern Library # 37 1927, Thornton Wilder What does one do when one realizes he needs to read nine "important" books in half a year in order to get back on the three books per year pace agreed upon with one's wife in 2002? One stops by books sales at the Newington Library when one finds the … [Read more...]
ML36. All the King’s Men
The Sin of Politics Modern Library #36 1946, Robert Penn Warren I picked up this book in a flight of fancy that said, "Read this book quickly in early September and then I will go out and enjoy the surely Oscar-worthy movie version starring Jude Law, Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, and Kate Winslet that premiers … [Read more...]
ML35. As I Lay Dying
Mississippi Bundrening Modern Library #35 1930, William Faulkner At some point in my life, I got it into my head that Faulkner was unreadable. I don’t know how that thought got there, for I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by him before and it’s not like I hang out with a bunch of anti-Faulkner misanthropes. … [Read more...]
ML33. Sister Carrie
How Sista Got Her Groove Back Modern Library # 33 1900, Theodore Dreiser First, a mildly entertaining personal story about this book. Back in 2005, before our kids and other such grown-up nonsense, my wife Hoang and I used to go on fun little vacations. One such trip took us to South Beach. And yes, it surely … [Read more...]