Thursday, July 05, 2012

Thursday Thirteen

*Note to Thursday Thirteen players*

Please, I'm begging you, get rid of the captcha codes. It takes me three tries to log in and I'm about ready to stop responding on any blog that uses these things. The new codes that blogger is using is just horrid and terribly hard to read.

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The Library of Congress this week released a list of books that shaped the United States of America.

It is a different sort of collection of titles than one might expect.

Here are 13 of them that I have read:

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (1884) (Read it online for free here)

2. Beloved, by Toni Morrison (1987)

3. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (1903)(download and read for free here)

4. The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Suess (1957)

5. Charlotte's Webb, by E.B. White (1952)

6. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (1953)

7. Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown (1947) (Hollins alumna!)

8. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

9. Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman (1855) (read online for free here)

10. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (1868)(read it online for free here (I think))

11. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (1960)

12. Walden, or Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau (1854)(read it online for free here)

13. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (1900)(read it online for free here)


I have read a great many more on the list than what I have listed here: 32 of the 88 listed. Not quite half, but then I wasn't born in the 1800s, either. Many of the books on the list are very old.

I suspect if you want to know how a nation is what it is - how the national myths grew and twisted, how the country as a whole sees itself, how it vilifies or applies sainthood to various sections of entire people - reading the books that people read as they grow up and otherwise might be a good place to start.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 249th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

9 comments:

  1. I have read only five in your list and one of them was Goodnight Moon.

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  2. Read all those listed here (except Little Women) and most of the larger list. Very cool post. Thanks.

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  3. Interesting list. I've read most of these, but not all. I haven't read Leaves of Grass or Walden. I think I'll add them to my to read list. Thanks.

    http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2012/07/are-you-ready-fourth-of-july-quiz.html

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  4. I'm so glad that Seuss and White made it.

    Don't even get me started on those new Blogger captchas. What a way to suck all of the fun out of visiting blogs.

    Have a great Thursday!
    http://harrietandfriends.com/2012/07/13-celebrity-stories-in-the-news/

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  5. That's an interesting approach to the study of our culture and history. I've read most of what's on your list, and have at least heard of the rest. Some, like Leaves of Grass, I have no intention of reading (not a Whiteman fan - already read enough to know he just makes me want to argue.)

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  6. First I scrolled down to see how many I'd read. Then I looked again, to see if there's a common thread and what it says about us as a country. Came up empty!

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  7. Sorry to say I have not read a single one on the list. :(

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  8. Anita, I've read a few on that list of 13 and I agree on those captcha codes. Like you I do get Anonymouse messages, but they go right to Spam and I check it often to make sure that none get through!

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  9. I have read ten of those on your list, and 23 of the 88 on the LOC list. There are a couple others in my TBR pile, and with some of the poets, I may not have read the exact work listed, but have read other works or compilations. I have also read "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin," but only part of this work seemed to be listed.

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