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Catch 22 and Mind-Numbing Bureaucracy
I’m a fan of Catch 22. Like, a big fan. This one will probably be high in my rankings. What I love about Catch 22, and satire in general, is that there’s truth in it. Sure, the truth has been twisted...
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Book #20: Catch-22
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy...
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The First 20: A Look Back
Well, I’m back live today. Thanks for hanging around during the week of “reruns.” I thought I’d start off this week by looking back on the first 20 books of this project, something I’ll do after each...
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Can Catch 22 Top To Kill A Mockingbird?
Time to justify my rankings. I update them after each book, but after every five novels I feel the need to explain myself—otherwise, I’d be like a college football coach voting in the coach’s poll (If...
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Authors Famous For The Wrong Book
Is an author’s best book always his most well-known book? That’s the question John Self of The Guardian asked last week, and his opinions sparked quite a discussion in the comments of his article and...
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The “Slow-Release Drug” Effect of Great Novels
1961 was quite a year for books. In that year, Walker Percy released The Moviegoer, Joseph Heller released Catch 22, and Richard Yates released Revolutionary Road. All three books were finalists for...
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Authors Best Known For Their First Novel
I’m jealous of authors who manage to write brilliant first-time novels. I’m not a novelist, and I honestly have no plans to be one. But how do these authors knock it out of the park on their first...
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What Classic Novels Were Almost Called
Mental Floss—a stellar website if you’ve never been, by the way—recently listed what some famous classic novels were almost called. I found the list fascinating—it’s a literary “what might have been,”...
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“Mr. Scott Fitzgerald deserves a good shaking.”
Literature, like any form of art, is interpreted subjectively. That’s what makes it so fun to talk about, and that’s why blogs like this are a pleasure to write. The problem comes, at least for this...
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7 Political Novels That Aren’t Stupid (Like Politicians)
All The King’s Men is said by many critics to be the greatest political novel of all time. I don’t know about that, but it is a really freakin’ good book. And since I thought I hadn’t tackled that many...
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What’s The Funniest Novel You’ve Ever Read?
As I’m reading through the early chapters of White Teeth, I’m reminded of how much fun it is to read a well-written, humorous novel. This one is pretty amazing. Looking back on the first 80 novels,...
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