If you want books that give you a feel about life in America:
1. Fight Club. It's popular, and it's likely to stay that way for a
while because it actually has good content. The book is much better
than the film, though most people have seen it instead of read it. Ok,
so this book is from '96, but still.
2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Very popular, well-read
book; deeply philosophical, but at a light level that is easy to read
and wonderful to read again and again. Since it takes place on
motorcycle across the US, it discusses attitudes and ideas from
throughout the countryside, as well as the author's own insight as he
examines himself and his friends' attitudes.
3. Lila. By the same author as #2, this book goes even more deeply
into American culture; it's a little harder to read, and a little
longer, but it's even more focused on what makes America what it is,
and comes up with an astoundingly perceptive theory that we are the
synthesis of the Native American and European cultures.
4. I'm A Stranger Here Myself. Though not as highly read, this is an
excellent book for understanding American culture--the author of this
work is from America as a youth, but lived in England for the first
two decades of his adult life and then returned to America with his
English wife. His writing style is quirky and captivating, and he
catches things the rest of us might miss writing about our own
culture.
5. The Catcher in the Rye. High schoolers tend to identify very deeply
with this material. It only sort of is a story; it's more of a
character portrayal of a youth fighting disillusionment and his
surroundings. Very few people think this book is just ok; most either
love it or hate it.
6. The Bible. The old standby. Most popular book ever-- I would think
all Christians have read at least part of it at some point.
7. The Old Man and the Sea. Almost everyone reads this at some point
in school. From my experience, guys tend to like this story, and girls
tend to dislike it, but most people have read it.
8. The Great Gatsby. Also a school favorite, as it is rather short but
a "literary classic." Personally, I thought it was rather bad, but
again it falls into that sharp one-way-or-the-other grouping: either
you love it or you hate it.
9. Tom Sawyer. and to a lesser extent . . .
10. Huckelberry Finn. These books are classics, plus they make for
wonderful reading. They're funny and witty and cute, and they show a
vision of an earlier America with an angle that you don't normally see
in writing of that time.
11. Gulliver's Travels. Another gem from a rare oddball of the past,
presenting a very futuristic cynicism of his time and culture.
Ireland/UK authored.
12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Children's classic, easy
reading, good story. UK authored.
13. Alice In Wonderland. Written for children, but an interesting read
with many twists appreciable only by more developed minds; get an
annotated version so you can understand all the subtle and
not-so-subtle criticism of English culture. UK-authored, but he was an
American at heart.
14. Peter Pan. UK-authored, but I don't know an American who wouldn't
know who he is.
15. The World According to Garp. Fabulous piece of work from one of
the best American writers of all time.
16. The Grapes of Wrath. I don't know what the success rate is for
reading this book, but once you get past the slow beginning it's an
awesome book and a great portrayal of American life during the period
it was set in.
17. The Fountainhead. A little hard to read for some, but I still
think it's pretty popular piece of extremely captivating
philosophy--and it discusses in depth the earlier half of this
century. Another work by the author, Atlas Shrugged, is at heart an
even more extended version of the same criticisms.
18. The Stranger. A popular work in many schools, but also something
the better-read would read on their own if it wasn't. French-authored.
19. The Outsiders. Used to be more popular, but is fading out; a great
book about gang life in the sixties.
20. Love Story. Author is brilliant. Work delivers what title
promises, with an twist that makes it even more powerful. Happens to
reflect quite a bit of American life as well, though.
21. The Phantom Tollboth. Popular children's book, though a quite a
fun read as well for adults, full of puns and wordplay.
22. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Most popular of the
Chronicles of Narnia series, a series of fiction books for youngsters
that has a rather subtle underlying tone of Christianity. UK-authored.
23. Ender's Game. Amazing book, because it is simple and yet powerful,
and can be not only read and enjoyed by adults and children alike but
both will want to re-read it many times over.
24. White Oleander. Presents a view of many lowlife American
households as the protaginist moves from one to another in their
foster care -- though it doesn't really portray American life
accurately, it is a good representation of its lowest level.
25. Walden. Pretty popular, classic work that is on the short side but
highly philisophical.
I think that's a pretty good list of books people have actually read;
though it's sometimes hard for me to say because I'll read lots of
books others won't, most of those books are no more than one or two
hundred pages, and they cover a lot of ground.
Personally, I think the best way to grasp understand American culture
is through the Simpsons. They reflect many aspects of American life,
especially in their earlier episodes; and if you want more book
recommendations that many people have read, a good way to do it is to
look through the episode guides for each episode and see what they
refer to at:
http://www.snpp.com/episodeguide.html
For just one instance, episode 8F18 contains the "Ayn Rand School For
Tots" [Ayn Rand is the author of #17 on my list] and the "References
from the obvious to the obscure" in that episode also points to A
Clockwork Orange and the Peanuts catoon strip. The episode title is "A
Streetcar Named Marge," a pun off the famous American play "A
Streetcar Named Desire", which the character Marge stars as during the
course of the show.
(There are also a number of movie references, such as Oh! Calcutta!,
The Great Escape, The Birds, and Citizen Kane.)
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/8F18.html
The first two seasons of the Simpsons have been released on DVD,
though I believe they are only region 1.
Thanks for choosing Google! Answers, and I hope this satisfies your
requirements!
bookface-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
bookface-ga
on
02 Jan 2003 06:33 PST
Gremlin, I understood you wanted books that were read by "well-read"
people in the US, so as to better understand American culture, and I
tried to make a balance in my selection between books that were
US-oriented as well as popular in the US. I tried to note, however,
when the author was not American.
I kept in mind that the most standardized sort of reading material
throughout the US is that presented to children in school; though
there is no nationwide cirriculum for public schools, often there are
overlaps between statewide ones and some very popular choices appear
throughout. But I didn't want to focus on that, either, and so I only
selected materials that could be read with adult bent independent of
the indulgence of reading a children's book.
I would add, come to think of it, Plato's Republic to the mix, since
it is covered in a ridiculously large percentage of all college
philosophy courses, especially introductory-level ones that would be
taken by anyone majoring in any field.
I also forgot another biggie, 1984 or Animal Farm (possibly both) by
George Orwell.
The authors, by the way, in a matching list:
1. Chuck Palahniuk
2. Robert Pirsig
3. ^
4. Bill Bryson
5. J. D. Salinger
6. God
7. Ernest Hemmingway
8. F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
10. ^
11. Jonathon Smith
12. Ronald Dahl
13. Lewis Carroll
14. J. M. Barrie
15. John Irving
16. John Steinbeck
17. Ayn Rand
18. Albert Camus
19. S.E. Hinton
20. Erich Segal
21. Norton Juster
22. C.S. Lewis
23. Orson Scott Card
24. Janet Fitch
25. Henry David Thoreau
Since you asked, however, I will through in the following titles which
come to mind:
The Little Prince. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Lord of the Flies. William Golding.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams.
Crime and Punishment. Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Hamlet. William Shakespeare.
Brave New World. Aldous Huxley.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Milan Kundera.
The Alchemist. Paulo Coelho.
Treasure Island. Robert Lewis Stevenson.
Some more children's classics, if you want to focus on that, that a
good portion of the population has read:
Treasure Island, Robert Lewis Stevenson
The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin.
Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery
Johnny Tremain, Ester Forbes
Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell
But while all of those except the last is set in America, I doubt any
of those will give much of a feel for American culture.
As to your other question... sort of. They are sorted slightly beyond
the order I thought of them; I would say the first 9 or 10 are
well-sorted, and beyond that loosely sorted.
Hope this clarification helps you, and good luck on your reading!
bookface-ga
|
