ELE 301 Fall 1998 Reading List of Some Great Books
If you don’t know about www.amazon.com, learn. Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird,
From Kirkus Reviews , June 15, 1994 Lamott (Operating Instructions, 1993, etc.) gently explodes the fantasy that writing will solve all of a fledgling author's problems--an ailing bank account, low self-esteem--and at the same time argues that writing ``does turn out to be its own reward.'' Beginning with her first exposure to the writing life through her father, Lamott introduces some practical points: shaping credible dialogue; thinking of a first draft as a Polaroid photograph that slowly develops beneath one's fingers. Her cardinal truth is that there is no secret to writing well other than sitting down to do it every day; she also encourages by noting that even the best writers produce ``shitty'' first drafts. Offering time- tested tips, such as carrying around index cards to jot down fortuitous phrases and observations and focusing on plot as an outgrowth of character, Lamott intersperses stories and prose from her own experience that delight with insight and descriptive acumen. The incident from which the title and folksy aesthetic have been taken is typical: When, years ago, her ten-yearold brother was panicking, unable to write a report on birds for which he'd been preparing for months, their father calmed him with the advice ``Just take it bird by bird.'' While she suggests finding a writing partner for feedback and describes her own traumatic escapades in taking a novel through several drafts, Lamott offers no advice about revision--the most important skill a working writer must master. Still, paragraph by paragraph, this humorous, insightful, no-nonsense approach will remind novices why they are writing: to tell the truth, to live from the heart, and to share their gift with others. A writer's guide that is bound to teach and inspire by example.
Michael Maclear, The Ten Thousand Day War, (also a video, PBS series), 1982.
The authoritative history of the Vietnam War with rich analysis of the people and leaders on both sides.
Richard Posner, Sex and Reason, 1992,
a legal theorist and economist looks at sexual standards and mores over a long span of human existence.
Alfred Lansing, Endurance (the story of the 1916 Shackleton Expedition to Antarctica), 1991
In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. For five months Shackleton and his crew survived on drifting ice packs in one of the most savage regions of the world before they were finally able to set sail again in one of the ship's lifeboats. Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage is a white-knuckle account of this astounding odyssey.
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Through the diaries of team members and interviews with survivors, Lansing reconstructs the months of terror and hardship the Endurance crew suffered. In October of 1915, there "were no helicopters, no Weasels, no Sno-Cats, no suitable planes. Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out--they had to get themselves out." How Shackleton did indeed get them out without the loss of a single life is at the heart of Lansing's magnificent true-life adventure tale.
William Golding, Lord of the Flies, 1959
Capturing generations of readers since its publication in 1954, Lord of the Flies is a cult favorite among students and literary critics. An adventure tale in its purest form, this thrilling account of a group of British schoolboys marooned on a tropical island exposes the duality of human nature itself--the dark, eternal divide between order and chaos, intellect and instinct, structure and savagery.
A. Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776.
The book that started economics as an academic discipline.
Soul of the New Machine by Tracy Kidder (written in the late 70s, early 80s), recent publication date, 1995.
A team of young engineers at Data General set out to do what seemed impossible in the late 1970s: build a new 32-bit super-minicomputer. Kidder captures their obsession and drive, chronicling the life cycle of the machine from drawing board to reality. In the process, he offers a deep look at the long, intense hours of intellectual work, and the personalities that stood up to it. Kidder's reporting is very real and shows a deep respect for his subjects. Without a doubt, The Soul of a New Machine is a classic, one that defined computer engineering for a generation.
Accidental Empires by Robert Cringely (we also have the video, contact us if you want to watch)
Robert X. Cringely manages to capture the contradictions and everyday insanity of computer industry empire building, while at the same time chipping away sardonically at the PR campaigns that have built up some very common businesspeople into the household gods of geekdom. Despite some chuckles at the expense of all things nerdy, white, and male in the computer industry, Cringely somehow manages to balance the humor with a genuine appreciation of both the technical and strategic accomplishments of these industry luminaries. Whether you're a hard-boiled Silicon Valley marketing exec fishing for an IPO or just a plain old reader with an interest in business history and anecdotal storytelling, there's something to enjoy here.
Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, 1996, you figure it out. Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, individualism and its struggles.
Atlas Shrugged: Novel by Ayn Rand, published in 1957. The book's female protagonist, Dagny Taggart, struggles to manage a transcontinental railroad amid the pressures and restrictions of massive bureaucracy. Her antagonistic reaction to a libertarian group seeking an end to
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government regulation is later echoed and modified in her encounter with a utopian community, Galt's Gulch, whose members regard self-determination rather than collective responsibility as the highest ideal. The novel contains the most complete presentation of Rand's personal philosophy, known as objectivism, in fictional form. Fountainhead: The Fountainhead has become an enduring piece of literature, more popular now than when published in 1943. On the surface, it is a story of one man, Howard Roark, and his struggles as an architect in the face of a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey. But the book addresses a number of universal themes: the strength of the individual, the tug between good and evil, the threat of fascism. The confrontation of those themes, along with the amazing stroke of Rand's writing, combine to give this book its enduring influence.
David Denby, Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and other indestructible writers of the western world. 1997
David Denby, New York city movie critic and journalist, entered Columbia University in 1991 to take the university's famous course in "Great Books." This is the course that, in preserving the notion of the western canon without apology to multiculturalists and feminists, has been an unlikely focus of America's culture war in recent years. Where other universities have caved in and revised or enlarged the canon, Columbia's course has remained intact. Denby's intention as a writer and protagonist in the culture war was to record the experience and the personal impact of the course. He has produced a cry from the heart in favor of the classics of western civilization, relaying with infectious enthusiasm how literature touched his soul.
Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a treatise on understanding the world, 1974
J Brian Brown (jbbrowz2@ulkyvm.louisville.edu) from Louisville, Kentucky , July 22, 1998 , If you read it once, you will read it again. I make it a point to read ZATAOMM every few years, and I also periodically pull my wellworn and page-marked copy off of the bookshelf to reflect on favorite passages. I gain some new insight into the story, and my own life, every time I flip through the pages. This is one of those novels that keeps ending up in my backpack (along with Walden and Blue Highways) when I go on weekend camping and road trips. The philosophical dialogue could be a little intimidating for some readers (especially near the conclusion), but a little slow reading and reflection works wonders. Reviewing the basic philosophies of Kant, Plato, and Decartes would not hurt, but is not really necessary for the first time through. The title has probably turned off many potential readers in fear of buying a book that spiritually explores maintaining a motorcycle. That isn't what the book is about, or is it? Actually, Pirsig uses the motorcycle as an ongoing analogy to the human thought process! . So, no previous knowledge of motorcycles is necessary. In fact, you might learn a thing or two about motorcycles, and yourself.
James Kitfield, Prodigal Soldiers, 1995,
how the generation of officers born of Vietnam revolutionized the American style of war. A great discussion on values and leadership techniques.
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The Bible (portions thereof, e.g Genesis or Exodous) The Koran (portions thereof) J. Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath,
Novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1939. Set during the Great Depression, it traces the migration of an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family to California and their subsequent hardships as migrant farm workers. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The work did much to publicize the injustices of migrant labor. The narrative, interrupted by prose-poem interludes, chronicles the struggles of the Joad family's life on a failing Oklahoma farm, their difficult journey to California, and their disillusionment once they arrive there and fall prey to a parasitic economic system. The insularity of the Joads--Ma's obsession with family togetherness, son Tom's selfcenteredness, and daughter Rose of Sharon's materialism--ultimately gives way to a sense of universal community
Steve Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, A biography of Meriwether Lewis that relies heavily on the journals of both Lewis and Clark, this book
is also backed up by the author's personal travels along Lewis and Clark's route to the Pacific. Ambrose is not content to simply chronicle the events of the "Corps of Discovery" as the explorers called their ventures. He often pauses to assess the military leadership of Lewis and Clark, how they negotiated with various native peoples and what they reported to Jefferson. Though the expedition failed to find Jefferson's hoped for water route to the Pacific, it fired interest among fur traders and other Americans, changing the face of the West forever.
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom,
a classic in understanding markets, 1963
N. Machiavelli, The Prince, reissue 1984
A classic treatise on practical leadership and power politics.
F. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, recent publication date, 1994.
This classic by one of the 20th century's leading libertarian thinkers has established itself beside the works of Orwell and others as a timeless meditation on the relationship between human freedom and government authority. Hayek argues that empowering government with increasing economic control leads not to utopia but to horrors such those seen in Nazi Germany.
G. W. Prange, At Dawn we Slept,
maybe the best discussion on the events of Pearl Harbor, 1991.
K. Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House, recently 1991,
Welcome To The Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnueguts shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
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The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant (I have a beat-up copy, and it is available through the library), recent edition 1991 Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph Shumpeter, 1962 Visible Hand by Alfred Chandler, 1980.
Chandler give a fascinating review of America's physical history, with emphasis on the development of the coal, railroad, steel, and telegraph industries in making the transportation and communication revolutions possible. The birth of this infrastructure made the rise of mass production and mass marketing possible. The most interesting changes which resulted were in the evolution of the managerial structure and science which became necessary, and which in turn made the transformation of our world possible. "Big business" became not only possible, but essential. That this was an evil system driven by greed is a myth. The book gives detailed descriptions of the birth and growth of many large companies including the big railroads, US Steel, Standard Oil, Singer, MacCormack, DuPont, etc. It is a fascinating narrative.
the Old Man and the Sea, Earnest Hemingway, 1952.
Short novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1952 and awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Completed after a 10-year literary drought, it was his last major work of fiction. The novel is written in Hemingway's characteristically spare prose. It concerns an old Cuban fisherman named Santiago who finally catches a magnificent fish after weeks of not catching anything. After three days of playing the fish, he finally manages to reel it in and lash it to his boat, only to have sharks eat it as he returns to the harbor. The other fishermen marvel at the size of the skeleton; Santiago is spent but triumphant.
J. Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, J. Stuart Mill, On Liberty Maya Angelou, Why the Caged Bird Sings,
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the brilliant, sonorous story of Maya Angelou's early life in Arkansas and California. At the age of five, Maya and her brother Bailey are taken to St. Louis to visit their mother, but after Maya is raped they are returned to the rock-hard loving care of their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya stops speaking for five years but becomes a keen observer of everything around her, including the racial politics and divisions of her town. In a subtle maneuver between grandmother Henderson and Mrs. Bertha Flowers, "aristocrat of Black Stamps," Maya "got to know the lady who threw me my first life line." Mrs. Flowers tells the silent child: "Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning." So begins the reawakening of Maya's voice and her own music. She survives adolescence, breaks a racial barrier in seeking work, becomes a mother, and closes what is the beginning of a wondrous series of autobiographical works. A consummate poet, Maya Angelou creates phrases like "voices rubbed together," "Bailey looped his language around his tongue," and "knapsack of misery" as
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she writes of pain, self-discovery, and, most lovingly, of joy.
Biographies and autobiographies of famous leaders, driven people, and creative persons: E.g. J. D. Rockefeller T. Jefferson T. Edison S. Spielberg G. W. Carver Amelia Earhardt W. Gates Helen Keller Alfred Sloan Henry Ford M. L. King Moses and some infamous ones: E.g. Adolph Hitler Attila Joseph Stalin
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