- turtleneck.net's Summer Bootcamp
- What Every Good litgeek should be reading according
to Keith Jason Wikle, Joshua Messer, Karl Erickson, and Chris
Switzer
As usual around here, this whole mess started with
an email, this time from uber-editor Chris Switzer. And now, per
our charter, we're shoving our opinions down the throats of the
unfortunate visitors to our site, people who, for the most part,
get here looking for things like "fisting, felching..."
So, here it is, the first turtleneck.net Summer Bootcamp, in the
somewhat hoary form of Top "10" Best Books of All Time.
Some lists have more than ten. You'll just have to deal with your
rigid control issues on you own time like the rest of us.
Chris Switzer:
- American
Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis/Fight
Club - Chuck Palahniuk: These 2 books are the riskiest
and best satires of the 80's and 90's, respectively (at least
the best that I've read.)
- Generation
X - Douglas Coupland: Truly a classic that transcends
the media hype, probably the best novel that embodies the disillusionment
of our generation.
- White
Noise - Don DeLillo: Without a doubt, brilliant.
It's got everything - social satire, conspiracy, and a great examination
of human emotions.
- Welcome
to the Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut Jr: Favorite collection
of short stories yet. Something in each one is undeniably
powerful
- Disgrace
- J.M. Coetzee: This story is a good example of things we are
powerless to change, and maybe we should sometimes just accept
things for they way they are.
- The
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger: A timeless classic
that needs no explanation.
- Blindness
- Jose Saramago/Waiting
for the Barbarians - J.M. Coetzee: These two stories are
completely engrossing in their description of people struggling
to overcome the thoughtless evil of other human beings.
- Nine
Stories - J.D. Salinger: One of the strangest - and most
realistic - character studies you'll ever find.
- Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson: Truly ahead
of its time, it tackles issues that are still relevant today.
Imitators don't even come close to the intelligence of this story.
- Black
Like Me - John Howard Griffin: Gripping account of one
man's transition from white to black in the 50/60's (true story).
Perhaps the best examination of race and society ever documented.
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