Ten Percent

Time's All-Time 100 Novels.

I've read only ten of them:

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy's brutal western about a young boy who joins a band of scalphunters and they hunt Indians in Mexico. McCarthy's novels are composed of long stretches of contemplative, idyllic, philosophical scenes written in hypnotic, poetic prose and are often punctuated with beautifully written, unbelievably brutal, vivid scenes of violence. I admit that the violence and the fighting were what I was after in the first place, so it made the slogging through the "quiet" scenes worth it. I've come to appreciate the book as a whole through subsequent readings.

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller's classic novel set during WWII in Italy centers on a clause in the US Air Force contract which states that you can no longer go on flight missions and will eventually be discharged by the Army if you think you are going insane. But since only sane people can realize they're going insane, that means you're sane so you'll still have to go on missions. The entire novel has situations that resemble this logic. It's cynical, ironic, and funny and I admit that I didn't "get" it much when I first read it. Yeah I got most of the funny parts the first time but the cynicism and irony didn't hit me until I reread it some years later (when I was less stupid, I guess) which made the book funnier.

Catcher in the Rye - This J.D. Salinger novel was a required read back in 4th year high school and it bored me. Suffice to say that it didn't make much of a impression on me while most of my classmates were oohing and aahing at it.

A Clockwork Orange - Haven't seen the movie by Stanley Kubrick but Anthony Burgess' novel was awesome. Was greatly impressed with the way Burgess combined bits of Cockney English, Russian, and God knows what else language to create a new lexicon of slang.

Lord of the Flies - This novel by William Golding was a required read for a philosophy subject back in college but I only finished reading it a couple of years after college. I remember liking it but I don't remember much of it except that it's about a bunch of kids marooned on an island (a situation taken by Kinji Fukasaku to the extreme in his excellent Battle Royale) and has an apocalyptic ending. Sounds like it's up for a reread one of these days.

Lord of the Rings - Everyone knows all about these books by now. Liked it when I read it years ago, tried to reread the first book when the movie came out but it began to bore me. Guess I must've outgrown it. Not really a fan of the sword and sorcery type of fantasy anymore.
Neuromancer - William Gibson's seminal book set in a society which has become too dependent, even obsessed with technology. It started the cyberpunk movement and it's the novel wherein the term "cyberspace" was coined. And it has one of my favorite opening lines in a book ever: "The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

1984 - George Orwell's scary novel about a totalitarian state where Big Brother is watching and knows all. Read this book and see facets of our present world reflected back at you.

Slaughterhouse-Five - This novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. about a man unstuck in time (he's living his past, present and future simultaneously) is okay, but I prefer his apocalyptic Cat's Cradle. Still worth a read, though.

Watchmen - Written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen is the only graphic novel (or comic book) to be included in the list. One of the few comics work that can truly be called brilliant. It's an annual read of mine for everytime I read it, I discover something new about it.