In a message dated 5/13/2015 7:17:23 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, bill@wellesleybooks.com writes:
My son sent me this link, last night. I think it's some sort of paean to Don Draper as Mad Men comes to a close. Take a look and see how many you've read and how many you own but haven't tackled (yet!). We can see how many we cover as a group. At least I know you all have one!
http://the-toast.net/2015/05/12/books-that-literally-all-white-men-own/
See you this evening....
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To which one white male replied:
The list - like so many "definitive" lists is total bullcrap. Despite the
fact that most of the authors are male, it appears to be merely a farrago of
well known book titles.
(I doubt that any real white men own a copy of "Boewulf" or "I, Claudius", or John Lennon's drawings).
(I doubt that any real white men own a copy of "Boewulf" or "I, Claudius", or John Lennon's drawings).
Where is Michael Connelly, Robert Parker, Patterson? Silva? Robert Frost, Mark Twain? Menken? Mosely? Faulkner? Excel for Dummies? The Bible? Bartlett's? Ludlum?
The list was compiled by a chick or someone impersonating a vacuous chick -- who needs a therapeutic Atkinsonian face slap (p167) and a drink of whisky to bring her to her senses.
Still might be fun to discuss the list, since I suspect that a lot of the guys in the group will be thumbs down on "Lucky Jim" -- if indeed they read it all the way through.
As for myself, I first read it in the 60's, and my recollection is that I
thought it a rousing good comedy at the time. But none of it seems familiar to
me now - 45 years later, and my taste for affected literary diction has
changed. Richard Russo has modernized this genre with "Straight Man." Which
reminds me, Where is Richard Russo on the (expletive deleted) list?
See you tonight,
Dennis Noonan
