13th
Modern Novel Starter Set
Last week they made the announcement of the newest Nobel Prize winner for Literature. It was awarded to a French writer, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.
I was sort of hoping it’d go to Salman Rushie or Amoz Oz—but for selfish reasons (I actually signed copies of books by both those guys).
Years ago, I tried to set a few goals, things that I couldn’t actually accomplish in a year or two, but things that would take several years.
One of those goals was to read at least one book from each of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Since 1901 there have been 105 winners—I’ve only read books by 41 of them.
Even though I have a lot more reading to do before catching up to the running list of Nobel Prize winners, I do read quite a bit.
In fact, I have a pretty sweet library (it’s not bragging if it’s true) with over 3,000 books—most of them good books.
Whenever someone asks for book recommendations it’s hard for me because there are so many categories and types of books that I usually give them this list, the “Modern Novel Starter Set.”
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
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The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
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The Stranger by Albert Camus
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My Antonia by Willa Cather
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The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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Life of Pi by Yann Martel
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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
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Midnight’s Childrenl by Salman Rushdie
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Blindness by Jose Saramago
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The Pearl by John Steinbeck
I know it’s not cheap to walk out of your local bookstore with a stack of 12 titles, but these are books you’ll read and keep re-reading for the rest of your life.
