A mashup of me and Mark Twain using Prequel AI software
Some decades back, I set myself the task of reading all the Pulitzer-prize-winning books (both fiction and non-). I allowed each book 25 pages to capture my interest, and then decided whether to continue reading or not. The two books that still stand out (as far as my reactions to them go) are from both ends of the spectrum: Gone with the Wind, which I hated so much that I flung it away in disgust after suffering through 25 pages of its diabolical drivel; and Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, which, after reading it, prompted me to excitedly predict to my wife, “This will make a great mini-series!” It did. And then I discovered McMurtry’s other works (many of which have been Hollywoodized, such as Horseman, Pass By (filmed as “Hud”), The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment).
Recently (the last year or so) I tackled a similar project: I read at least a sampling of many of the most famous/influential/critically-acclaimed authors (to read all of them would be just too time-consuming; I’ve focused on those whose style and content I gravitate toward, leaning mostly toward American writers — meaning “United Statesian” authors). I’ve done this using the kindle app on an iPad and amazon’s free kindle book samples.
NOTE: To do that yourself, simply locate a kindle book on amazon you would like to “try before you buy” and mash the button shown below.
Below I list the authors I explored, in alpha-order. The bolded author names are those I most enjoy reading. Book titles in italics following author names indicate some of their works I was most impressed by. Other comments are contained within braces.
Edward Abbey (Desert Solitaire; Monkey Wrench Gang; Fire on the Mountain; The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West)
Richard Adams (Watership Down; The Plague Dogs)
Roger Angell [great similes and metaphors; stepson of E.B. White]
Dave Barry
Mel Brooks: (All About Me)
Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods; The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid; In a Sunburned Country)
Truman Capote (In Cold Blood; Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
Tim Cahill (Road Fever)
Willa Cather (O Pioneers; A Lost Lady)
Joan Didion
John Grisham (A Painted House; An Innocent Man) [I love the movies made from his books; as far his writing goes, I much prefer his nonfiction to his fiction]
Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea; The Snows of Kilimanjaro) [when I was young and wannabe-macho, I loved Hemingway; not so much anymore]
O. Henry (The Gift of the Magi) [His real name was Sidney Porter; he attended Mark Twain’s funeral in 1910 shortly before his own death]
Aldous Huxley (Brave New World)
Washington Irving (Rip Van Winkle; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
Mackinlay Kantor (Missouri Bittersweet; Gentle Annie)
Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Sometimes A Great Notion)
Tracy Kidder (The Soul of a New Machine)
Ring Lardner (You Know Me, Al) [ He is depicted in the excellent John Sayles-directed movie Eight Men Out]
Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Sinclair Lewis (Dodsworth)
Jack London (The Road; A Piece of Steak)
W. Somerset Maugham (The Summing Up)
Cormac McCarthy (The Road)
John McPhee (Coming into the Country; The Pine Barrens)
H.L. Mencken
James Michener (Tales of the South Pacific; Alaska; Centenniel)
Caroline Miller (Lamb in His Bosom)
William Least Heat-Moon (Blue Highways)
Toni Morrison
Frank Norris (The Octopus)
Flannery O'Connor
P.J. O'Rourke
George Orwell (1984; Animal Farm)
Dorothy Parker
Richard Powers (The Overstory)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (The Sojourner; The Yearling)
William Saroyan (The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze)
Wallace Stegner (All the Little Live Things; Angle of Repose; Recapitulation)
John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath; Of Mice and Men; Tortilla Flat; Travels with Charley; The Pastures of Heaven; The Wayward Bus)
Robert Lous Stevenson (Treasure Island; Kidnapped; Requiem)
Tom Stoppard
William Styron
Robert Lewis Taylor (The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters) [Twainesque; style-wise, TToJM has the feel of a more modern version of “Huck Finn”]
W.M. Thackeray
Paul Theroux (The Old Patagonia Express)
Dorothy Thompson
James Thurber (The 13 Clocks)
Dalton Trumbo (Johnny Got His Gun)
Samuel Clemens / Mark Twain (Roughing It; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Life on the Mississippi; The Innocents Abroad; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County) [I had already read everything Twain wrote prior to embarking on this bold adventure; Calaveras County is my old stomping grounds]
Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse 5)
Evelyn Waugh
Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray; The Importance of Being Earnest)
Thomas Wolfe, 1900-1938 (Look Homeward, Angel)
Tom Wolfe, 1930-2018 (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; The Right Stuff)
Émile Zola (Germinal, J’Accuse)
Read other of my writings (including free downloadable PDF books) here.