Book Discussion The Reading Group
Mark Anderson
Purpose:
To provide a common set of books for discussion. Each month
I will post a list of books that people are encourage to
read. At the end of the month, after everyone has had
a chance to read the books, a lively discussion on these
books will take place.
Structure:
Based on comments I've received I have chosen the following
structure for book recommendations:
1. Classics [before 1939]
2. Modern [between 1939 and 1984]
3. Current [1985-today]
4. My Personal Choice
Two or three books will be suggested in each group.
In order to get things going, this first time only,
I will run an "election". At the bottom of this
posting is list of 99 Novel (selected by Anthony
Burgess) from 1939-1984. Please edit that list
and send me the list of the top ten books you would
like to discuss. Send email to "ma...@cs.ucsd.edu"
and make the subject "The Reading Group VOTE".
Next week I will post a similar list for "Current"
books. I will compile this list from the New York
Times Book Review's "Books of the Year" for the
appropriate years.
In the future, I will build a list from nominations
sent in by you, the interested reader. Books that
cross a certain threshold will added to a master
list. Each month I will select a number of
books from the master list and assign them
a month. If the list starts to dwindle I'll post
a call for more nominations. To nominate a book
send mail to ma...@cs.ucsd.edu with a subject of
"The Reading Group NOMINATION". Please make
nominations of the form:
booktitle|author(s)
Please send VOTEs for January's books by Dec. 10.
I will post the reading suggestions by Dec 13.
Discussion will start Jan. 1, 1991.
Notes:
Please send any suggestion of how to better organize
this to me. Help this evolve into something worthwhile.
I will always include "The Reading Group" in the
subject line of any post so if you are bothered
by all of this you can kill off it easily.
------- Ninety-nine Novels
------- The Best in English since 1939
------- A personal choice by Anthony Burgess
Party Going Henry Green
After Many a Summer Aldous Huxley
Finnegans Wake James Joyce
At Swim-Two-Birds Flann O'Brian
The Power and the Glory Graham Greene
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
Strangers and Brothers C.P. Snow
The Aerodrome Rex Warner
The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary
The Razor's Edge Somerset Maugham
Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
Titus Groan Mervyn Peake
The Victim Saul Bellow
Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene
Ape and Essence Aldous Huxley
The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
No Highway Nevil Shute
The Heat of the Day Elizabeth Bowen
Nineteen Eighty-four George Orwell
The Body William Sansom
Scences from Provincial Life William Cooper
The Disenchanted Budd Schulberg
A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight Henry Williamson
The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
The Groves of Academe Mary McCarthy
Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor
Sword of Honour Evelyn Waugh
The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
Room at the Top John Braine
The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell
The London Novels Colin MacInnes
The Assistant Bernard Malamud
The Bell Iris Murdoch
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe
The Once and Future King T.H. White
The Mansion William Faulkner
Goldfinger Ian Fleming
Facial Justice L.P. Hartley
The Balkans Trilogy Olivia Manning
The Mighty and Their Fall Ivy Compton-Burnett
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
The Fox in the Attic Richard Hughes
Riders in the Chariot Patrick White
The Old Men at the Zoo Angus Wilson
Another Country James Baldwin
An Error of Judgement Pamela Hansford Johnson
Island Aldous Huxley
The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing
Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov
The Girls of Slender Means Muriel Spark
The Spire William Golding
Heartland Wilson Harris
A Single Man Christopher Isherwood
The Defence Vladimir Nabokov
Late Call Angus Wilson
The Lockwood Concern John O'Hara
The Mandelbaum Gate Muriel Spark
A Man of the People Chinua Achebe
The Anti-Death League Kingsley Amis
Giles Goat-Boy John Barth
The Last Bourgeois World Nadine Gordimer
The Last Gentleman Walker Percy
The Vendor of Sweets R.K. Narayan
The Image Men J.B. Priestley
Cocksure Mordecai Richler
Pavane Keith Roberts
The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles
Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth
Bomber Len Deighton
Sweet Dreams Michael Frayn
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow
The History Man Malcolm Bradbury
The Doctor's Wife Brian Moore
Falstaff Robert Nye
How to Save Your Own Life Erica Jong
Farewell Companions James Plunkett
Staying On Paul Scott
The Coup John Updike
The Unlimited Dream Company J.G. Ballard
Dubin's Lives Bernard Malamud
A Bend in the River V.S. Naipaul
Sophie's Choice William Styron
Life in the West Brian Aldiss
Riddley Walker Russell Hoban
How Far Can You Go? David Lodge
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
Lanark Alasdair Gray
Darconville's Cat Alexander Theroux
The Mosquito Coast Paul Theroux
Creation Gore Vidal
The Rebel Angels Robertson Davies
Ancient Evenings Norman Mailer