Col's literary journey

Col, this has sat on my hard disk for yonks, waiting to be finished. Then I realized

that it wasn't meant to be my lifetime's work–you just wanted a list of books

worth reading, so I've just printed out what I've done off the top of my head.

Anyway, that's my disclaimer if you ever become a prominent literary critic and

want to take me to task.

Enjoy!

Greg C

Odd thoughts on reading

I'm convinced that reading is a HABIT, like watching our favourite TV programme

or playing sport on a Saturday morning. In order to do more reading, we need to

find a time, a place, a routine for it. I've recently discovered that this is even more

the case once you have children!

My hunch is that you ought to read 'backwards'. Start with a few contemporary

novels that attract your eye, before moving backwards in history. If you try to

start with Shakespeare, you never get past ACT I Scene II. Better to read whatever

grabs you on the Latest Reteaseshetf and enjoy the activity. That way, you

gather more energy and reading skill for tackling the harder books.

Hence, the lists below are arranged in reverse chronological order, which is

the way I'd tackle them.

o Some reasonable starting points for getting a general grasp of literature, its

influence, its history and the issues for Christians are:

Letand Ryken o Triumphs of the Imagination f'

Stuart Babbage o The Mark of Cain

Susan Gattagher & Roger Lundin o Literature through the eyes of faith

C. S. Lewis o 'Christianity and culture' in Christian Reflections

Harotd Bloom on The Western Canon (this book includes a list of all the books this

eminent critics thinks will Last through the centuries.

My 'Ten Books Before Col Shuffles Off' list

SHAKESPEARE

Hamlet

King Lear

Macbeth

CONRAD

Heart of Darkness

BECKETT

Waiting For Godot

GOLDING

Lord of the Flies

TOLKIEN

Lord of the Rings

BUNYAN

Pilgrim's Progress

DANTE

The Divine Comedy

C.S. LEWIS

The Narnia series

That should at least be do-able. You can then start filling in the gaps however you

wish from the following list of authors worth reading. They're arranged from

modern to ancient (roughly). Today's critics would call my list eurocentric', but

don't let that bother you. Atso, I don't at this stage know much about Australian

literature.

USA

John UPDIKE o the Rabbit novels

Saul" BELLOW o Mr Sammler's Planet, Herzog

Walker PERCY . The Second Coming

Flannery 0'C0NN0R o Everything that rises must converge (stories)

F. Scott FITZGERALD o The Great Gatsby

Ernest HEMINGWAY . The Sun AIso Rises

Wil.tiam FAULKNER o The Sound and the Fury

Henry JAMES o Portrait of a Lady

Nathaniet HAWTH0RNE o the Scarlet Letter

AUST

Tim WINT0N o That Eye, the SW, The Riders

Peter G0LDSWORTHY o Honk if you are Jesus

David MALOUF o An Imaginary Life

Peter CAREY o }scar and Lucinda

Patrick WHITE . The Tree of Man

UK

Charles DICKENS o Great Expectations

Charlotte BRONTE o Jane Eyre

Emily BRONTE o Wuthering Heights

George ELI0T o Scenes of Clerical Life, Middlemarch

./Thomas HARDY . Iess of the d.'Urbervilles f J,,.u

D.H. LAWRENCE o The Rainbow, Women In Love, Sons and Lovers

G.K. CHESTERT0N o The Father Brown stories

.Lewis CARRoLL . Alice in Wonderland

ir James JOYCE o Dubliners (stories)

Graham GREENE . The Power and the Glory

OTHER

Umberto ECO (Italy) ' The Name of the Rose

Shusako ENDO (Japan) o Silence

Salman RUSHDIE (India) o l,Midnight's Children

Atbert CAMUS o The outsider, The FaIl

Franz KAFKA o The Trial, The Castle

Fyodor D0ST0EVSKY o The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment

Leo TOLST}Y o Anna Karenina

There is very little genre fiction in this [ist: crime, science fiction, romance,

western, etc. It's alt literature'. That's not because I'm a snob, it's just that it's

much easier to find the genre fiction that you like without a guide, and it's not

the sort of thing that you need a 'top 10' for. Having said that, here are a few big

names who have caught my attention because they interact with Christianity:

P.D. James o The Children of luIen, etc

Morris West o The Clowns of God, etc

Susan Howatch o Glittering Images, etc

Books I found dutt that other Christians praise:

Herman MELVILLE o Moby Dick

Daniel DEF0E o Robinson Crusoe

Mark TWAIN o Huckleberry Finn

Garrison KEILL0R o Lake Wobegon Days (ok, mildly amusing)

POETRY

If you ever feel inclined...

It's a bit like classical music. It's hard to know how to get started on it, but once

you stop feeling intimidated and just let it wash over you for a white, you realise

that it is starting to become enjoyable and to make some sense.

Certainly, a literary education is deficient without it. Here are just a few big names

you might enjoy, again in reverse chronological order (the best way to read them is

to get hold of their Collected or Selected Works):

Les MURRAY

Kenneth SLESS0R

Bruce DAWE

Judith WRIGHT

Phittip LARKIN

William Butter YEATS

T.S. ELIOT

Emily DICKINS0N

Robert FROST

Gerard Mantey HOPKINS

Samuel Taytor C0LERIDGE

John MILT0N o Paradise Lost

John D0NNE o HoIy Sonnets

Edmund SPENSER o The Faerie Queen (a Christian allegory)