25 Books & a Fun Little Game

Here's the deal. I scored an advance copy of a book called Twenty-Five Books that Shaped America by U/M Flint professor Thomas C. Foster today. It's a fun, if somewhat pretentious, book. I was kind of surprised that a Lit Prof wrote it, as it's clearly a quick money grab w/o much cultural capital (more so than my stupid blog though, so who am I to talk?). W/ that in mind, we have a little game to play. After you read the list of books (& the honorable mention), explain the one book you would delete from the list & the one w/ which you would replace it. The books are listed chronologically & they are picked based on how they helped shape the "American Identity." It seems like a book Harold Bloom would have written. Silly, but kind of fun. You'll get bonus points if you construct a cheesy chapter title for your pick, just like Professor Foster did. Here it goes:

1) Maybe Just a Little Made Up: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin:
I hated this book when I was in high school. I tolerated it when I was in college. I got freshman to enjoy it's humor & hypocrisy when I taught it a few years ago.

2) A Man, a Plan, a Flintlock: The Last of the Mohicans:
It's a fun story & it definitely helped that generation define itself in the midst of the American Renaissance.

3) The Allegory Man Cometh: The Scarlet Letter:
One of the few books I read as a high school sophomore that I actually enjoyed. It's cool & it features one of the hottest fiction characters of all time...Hester Prynne.

4) Gotta Get Back to the Pond & Set My Soul Free: Walden:
I'm honestly not a huge fan of this book, but it's historical significance can't be denied.

5) The Good Grey Poet, My Eye: Leaves of Grass:
Awesome. If you haven't read it, read it... now!

6) Girls Gone Mild: Little Women:
I have a feeling he came up w/ the chapter title & decided to base the book around it. It's not in the same category as the other books, but it was good stuff & was an early example of 19th century feminism. Plus, the movie is pretty good too.

7) About a Boy and a Raft: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
See the post from a few days ago.

8) I've Been Workin' on a Whale-Road: Moby Dick:
I read it for the 1st time in 1997 & loved it. It's a crazy book. I have no idea how many times I've read it over the last 14 years, but I'm sure I'll get to it again some time soon.

9) Twofer: A Boy's Will & North of Boston:
These are the 1st 2 books of Robert Frost's poetry. He is often forgotten, but then as soon as you read him, you say, "Oh, right... he's good."

10) In Praise of Prairie: My Antonia:
Willa Cather is cool, but I don't know that I've ever read this book.

11) A Whole Heap of Ashes: The Great Gatsby:
It's cool, but I've always thought it's a bit overrated. It's historical significance can't be overstated though.

12) Life is a Carnival: The Sun Also Rises:
Hemingway is cool, but it seems hard to decide which of his books is the most significant. I would guess his shorter stuff has been more widely read since high schoolers read stuff like The Old Man & the Sea all the time.

13) It Takes a Weary Man to Sing a Weary Song: The Weary Blues:
Langston Hughes was huge then & is still probably the best known writer of his generation. He's often the only person students have read when they come to African American Lit.

14) The Bird is the Word: The Maltese Falcon:
It's a fun book, but maybe its main influence on American culture is based on the film. I taught it once & it went over pretty well.

15) So Big: U. S. A.:
I've never read it. I've heard it's good, but I've never read it. Maybe I'll give it a go next summer.

16) The Winepress of Injustice: The Grapes of Wrath:
Clearly influential, but I would say both the play & the film are actually better... unless you have a thing for long passages about turtles crossing roads.

17) Like a hurricane: Their Eyes Were Watching God:
Kind of like The Great Gatsby, it's a bit melodramatic, but it's a fun one. Like The Scarlet Letter, it features one of the hottest protagonists in American Lit.

18) He Ain't Heavy, he's My Cousin: Go Down, Moses:
Is it possible that I've never read any of Faulkner's novels? I think that might be the case. That said, this is basically a collection of short stories. I would think, that his novels would be more influential.

19) American Candide: The Adventures of Augie March:
Saul Bellow? I'm a little overwhelmed by the total number of books he wrote. Maybe this is a good place to start.

20) Me & My Shadow: On the Road:
Not his best book, but it's fun & it was soooo important to me when I was 18. Plus, it was obviously influential.

21) When Reading Got Good: The Cat in the Hat:
Is it more influential than Green Eggs & Ham? who knows... it's pretty cool though.

22) Walk a Mile in My Shoes: To Kill a Mockingbird:
I don't know if it shaped the culture or just reflected the times, but it's probably been read by more of us than any other book on this list.

23) Not in Kansas Anymore: The Crying of Lot 49:
I've never hidden my love for the weird post-modern stuff, but I've never read this one.

24) Race. Relations.: Song of Solomon:
Toni Morrison definitely knows how to put words together on the page. Her sentences are always great.

25) Home, Home on the Res: Love Medicine:
From the chapter title, I was expecting Sherman Alexie, but Love Medicine is probably more influential over all.

Honorable Mention:
Letters from an American Farmer, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Daisy Miller, The Rise of Silas Lapham, The Red Badge of Courage, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Winesburg Ohio, The Age of Innocence, Babbitt, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Bridge, Native Son, The Catcher in the Rye, Paterson, The House on Mango Street

I think I would replace the Robert Frost books w/ The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Frost is obviously important, but it's only a few poems from those books that really had an impact & only later. Douglass has a huge impact immediately, & was able to put a new twist on the use of the Byronic Hero during the American Renaissance. That's my pick... what's yours?