The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe

Despite often hearing references to this book, I didn't realize what and who it was about until it came in for me at the library. Tom Wolfe, who I think of as "that guy who wrote that book about jerky attorneys," (Bonfire of the Vanieties) lived the life of a journalist before he became a novelist. In the nebulous realm between the Beats and the hippies, Wolfe wrote this book of literary journalism about Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and his devoted band of Merry Pranksters. Wolfe traveled with the group across the country in a painted schoolbus documenting their LSD-inspired revelations. At times, the story is coherent - chronicling Kesey's life as a writer, and as a volunteer patient in a Menlo Park project studying the effect of psychoactive drugs. At other times, the story delves into the incoherent - clearly a depiction of the drug-induced state of minds of Kesey and his followers. Among the many characters in the book are Neal Cassady (the inspiration behind Kerouac's On the Road), Kerouac himself, Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary. As Kesey dodges legal trouble stemming from his arrests for possession of marijuana, his Merry Pranksters seek to live the artistic life, each day seemingly stepping further and further away from reality. While the book reads like a novel, I did find it a very interesting window into this period in American history - which I've certainly heard a great deal about. While I would be interested in reading more critiques of the book, I thought Wolfe managed to report without at all glamorizing the hedonistic world these people lived in. A wonderfully fascinating book that makes me want to read even more of the Beats, and more of Wolfe's own fiction.

The Godfather - Mario Puzo

I think I may be the only person in the United States between the ages of 25-45 who has not seen the movie "The Godfather." But, I decided to read the book first since it was listed in my book, 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. I'm so glad I did because frankly, this book is AWESOME. It seems impossible that anyone wouldn't know that The Godfather is the story of the organized crime family, the Coreleones - headed up by Vito (the Don), along with his three sons Sonny, Fredo, and Michael. When the Don is shot following the marriage of his only daughter, the leadership and strength of the family comes into question, and the need to figure out who is loyal and who has betrayed whom becomes of paramount importance. At this point, much of my perception of the mafia has been clouded by "The Sopranos," but so much of this book reminded me of Tony and his pals. Figuring out how and when the family's enemies would take action and how and when to respond is a delicate balance of psychology and brute force. There were story lines I could have done without (particularly the Frank Sinatra-like character Johnny Fontane and his adventures in Vegas), but I was fascinated by Michael's transformation from Dartmouth student to scheming insider. The story immediately drew me in, and despite the unsavory nature of the Coreleone family's activites, it's hard not to root for them. On a side note - whenever movies are based on books, I wonder how much work it really takes to write thescreenplay. But when reading this book, I noticed that one of the most famous lines from The Godfather, "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes" appears in the book as the less catchy, "The fish means that Luca Brasi is sleeping on the bottom of the ocean," proving to me that sometimes those movie writers really do earn their keep.

Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

Every once in awhile, I force myself to read a classic that I should have read years ago. I remembered reading East of Eden in high school and loving it, so I thought I'd pick up another Steinbeck gem. From the first page, I was hooked by Steinbeck's writing. It seems so simple, but he captures everything so perfectly. Cannery Row takes place on a small street Monterey, California, and focuses on the people who live out their lives there - most notably, Lee Chong, the Asian grocer, Mack - the leader of a group of bums, Dora - the moral madam of the local whorehouse, and Doc - a man who collects and studies marine life. The books centers around Mack's desire to do something nice for Doc, and deciding ultimately to throw him a party. But, mostly, the book is a series of vignettes about life on Cannery Row, and an exploration of the complexities of individuals despite seemingly simple outward appearances. I found each of the characters so compelling. I wanted Steinbeck to devote an entire book to each one so I could learn more about their lives and their pasts and dreams. I think if I had read this for a class back in college, I probably would have highlighted almost all of it - it is filled with beautiful images and perfect language - and it made me want to take a trip down to Monterey to listen to the gulls and take in the salty sea air. Simply fantastic.

Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

In 1984, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery were murdered in Canada. Two servants in the household were convicted of the crime. James McDermott was hanged. Grace Marks initially received a death sentence, but it was later commuted to life in prison. Marks's conviction was surrounded by a lot of publicity and discussion over whether she was insane, possessed, horribly evil, or even wrongfully accused. Alias Grace is Atwood's attempt to piece together known information with her theories on what actually happened to Kinnear and Montgomery. The story is presented as a whodunnit, as well as a psychological study - with a doctor coming in to interview Marks to determine whether her inability to recollect the events of the murder are due to trauma, lying, or the fact that she simply was not present at the scene. The book has a definite gothic feel to it, which made it a little scary to read alone in my hotel bed, but I have generally had good luck with Atwood's novels and found this one a good mixture of mystery, feminism, and just good storytelling.

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe

I've never read anything by Tom Wolfe before, but if this one is anything like his others, I'm very excited to read more. Bonfire takes place in New York in the 80s and is a story of high-powered egos and arrogance. Wolfe's first main-character is a low-paid District Attorney who seeks respect - from the criminals he prosecutes and from his less intelligent law-school classmates earning ten times his salary. His second main-character is a Park Avenue living, Wall Street investment banker with a socialite mistress on the side. It's clear from the get-go that the wayward life paths of these two men are bound to cross, but not before the extravagant and gluttonous underbelly of the big Apple is revealed in all its diamond-dripping splendor. Wolfe's novel is a satire of the need to succeed and the constant capitalist desire for more. I knew the end of this book would spin out of control into a riot, an orgy, or some type of mob event. And Wolfe did not disappoint - plot-wise, this novel is engaging and the characters, while ridiculous, are intriguing. They are two-dimensional in such a way that you don't need to question what motivates them, or whether they will be stupid enough to get themselves into such obvious trouble - yet the results are not cliched or overdone. I would think attorneys, investment bankers, and Wall Street millionaires (at least those who are able to poke fun at themselves) would love this book - if only they could take time out of their very important lives to enjoy it. Gordon Gecko would definitely approve.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

The copy of Brave New World that I read did not have the cover pictured to the left - but this cover was so crazy to me that I couldn't resist uploading it here. Whenever I hear someone talk about this book (which is more often than one might think), I think of the scene in the movie "Garden State" where the three guys are sitting in the cemetary talking about this book, and they can't remember the author's name, and one of the guys says, "I think it's Huxtable" (Bill Cosby's character from the 80's sit-com). Alas, this book is far from humorous. It starts out with a tour of some sort of laboratory where children are being manufactured and trained. It's approximately the year 2500, and women no longer give birth to children naturally. People are created according to a specific class structure - they are bred to perform certain tasks for the benefit of the State and thanks to the wonders of subconscious repetition, are conditioned to accept and appreciate their station in life. In many ways, this reminded me of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This new and improved society is, for some inexplicable reason, however, quite hyper-sexualized. Promiscuity, rather than monogamy, is the favored behavioral pattern, and people regularly take drugs to repress feelings of unhappiness or dissatisfaction. But, there are still pockets of "Savages" - places where people live natural lives - getting fat and growing old. Two of the main characters from the New World go on a vacation to one of these savage outposts in New Mexico - and the scene is reminiscent of a sterotypical Native American reservation. Once I got to this point in the book, I felt as if I'd either read it before or seen something like this in a movie - so it's possible this was not my first exposure to this story. Of course, there is a clash of culture, with the New World folks wondering how anyone could live such a debased existence. And, thus we discover that in the New World, people have completely given up familial relationships, religion, literature - and most of the things in life that generate passion and love. Conceptually, I like the idea of futuristic utopias - but this book didn't quite work for me. It started out quite promising with a theory of where science must take us - but the price Huxley seems to think society would have pay in order to accomodate scientific advancement seems implausible and unnecessary. This seems like the perfect book for high school kids - to jump-start conversations about technology, the role of the humanities in society, family, eugenics, etc. - this is probably the reason most people read this book in high school - but as a self-contained picture of where our world might be going, there are too many loose-ends and the ending is too absurdist to hold together completely.

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

I've been attacking my goal of reading all the books I should have read years ago. I didn't even realize that Treasure Island is a kid's book - though maybe that was obvious - do adults not care about pirate treasure? So, this made for a fast read about the boy Jim Hawkins, who finds himself with a map to buried treasure after a pirate passes away in his family's tavern. Enlisting several local men, he makes an ill-advised pack to sail with Long John Silver to make their millions (who knew Silver didn't just make fried seafood in the Pacific Northwest?) While plans of mutiny abound, they discover a deserted island (populated by one lone marooned seaman), and Jim finds himself unsure of his loyalties in his quest to locate the lost pieces of eight. As expected, this book was full of adventure, and something I would have loved to read as a kid. Afterwards, I am sure I would have buried all my toys in the backyard and drawn several maps (a real one along with a few decoys) to hide in a bottle of rum and throw out to sea.

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

I saw this movie years ago, but with my current literary vampire fascination, I thought it made sense to go back and read the book. The entire book is Louis (Brad Pitt in the movie), a disgruntled immortal, telling his story to a young journalist type (Christian Slater). Given the set-up, this means that everything in the book is told from Louis's point-of-view, and it allows Rice to play with memory and assupmtions in a way that would be missing from either a third-person narrative or a present-time first person. Louis begins the story with how he became a vampire on his New Orleans plantation in the 18th century - though he doesn't seem to remember or understand much of the process. What he does know is that it was done by a strong and manipulative vampire named Lestat (Tom Cruise). Lestat controls Louis by withholding knowledge, and attempting to convince him that they are the only two left of their kind in the world. Ultimately, they create Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), a child vampire for Louis to take care of. Eventually, Claudia realizes her unhappy fate of growing older intellectually and sexually, while her body remains that of a 5-year old. Her realization turns into hatred of Lestat and a desire for revenge- which takes her and Louis to Romania and Transylvania to the roots of the vampire legends - and eventually to Paris where they are forced to confront the true nature of who they are, and what they mean to each other. I was thinking that reading this book was like watching Citizen Kane - an instant classic, but when seen so many years after its creation, when people have had decades to build on it, it suddenly seems simplistic and obvious. But, then I have to remember that Stoker's Dracula (written in 1897) is still absolutely fabulous and does not suffer from that same problem. So, perhaps there is still a little something missing. I wouldn't say that this novel was riveting, but when I finished it at 10:00 at night in an empty house, I was definitely a little creeped out and didn't really want to leave the room to turn off any lights. So, I think it served its purpose, and I look forward to reading more in Rice's Vampire Chronicles.

Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

When I was young, I spent all my summers at my grandparents' house. They had a bookshelf with glass sliding doors. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the doors were made of glass, but I always felt like maybe I wasn't supposed to be reading the books in there, and I'd always be careful to never leave the books lying around and to always put them back in their correct spots. There was a copy of Gone With the Wind on those shelves, but it was bound in a fraying blue cloth cover, and the pages were brittle and yellow with age. I didn't dare read that book, certain that it would crumble in my hands, and I'd never be able to slide it back into place undetected. And so the years passed, and I never saw the movie or went on to another copy of the novel. Until my friend Courtney, an avid reader whose has similar taste in books to me, told me that she was shocked to discover that it was simply fantastic. So, I borrowed it from the library - all 1000+ pages of it. And she was right - within 10 pages, I was sucked into the Southern soap opera featuring the self-absorbed Scarlett O'Hara, her many suitors, and their battle against the Yankee Northerners. But, of course, my favorite character was Rhett Butler - unsavory and cavorting with ladies of the night, he is the only one who truly speaks his mind and doesn't succumb to all the silly Southern traditions. I had been warned that racism is rampant throughout the novel, but this is something I would like to read more about. Obviously, Mitchell was from the South and writing this in the 1920s-1930s when race relations were a complicated manner. But, I still felt like the black charaters in the novel were written as often much more perceptive than the white people around them - and that while the white characters expressed racist positions, as would be common at the time I'm sure, it wasn't completely obvious to me that Mitchell herself bought into them. Twice, for example, when Scarlett's character is chastised for hiring cheap convict labor at her mill and taking advantage of these "poor" men, she reminds her criticizers that they once owned slaves. Of course, Scarlett herself probably saw nothing wrong with either slave labor or convict labor, as long as she turned a profit, but I felt that the interactions between the black and white characters were complex enough to warrant more than simply that Mitchell was a racist writing during racist times. Gone With the Wind is a truly amazing and wonderful novel filled with characters to love and despise - Scarlett did get on my nerves for her inability to understand basic human nature and her general ignorance about life events, but she is an impressive survivor and someone who always finds a way to get what she wants. The novel ends on an uncertain note - Scarlett is only 28 years old, but she has lifetimes of heartache behind her. Apparently, there is a sequel (titled Scarlett, I believe, written by someone other than Mitchell - but authorized by her), which I will read just to see what happens. This is definitely one of those books that while it went on forever, I still never wanted it to end.

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemmingway

I've previously only read Hemingway for classes in college - The Sun Also Rises a few times and A Farewell to Arms. For the most part, reading these novels solidified my belief that in general, I am not a fan of pre-1950s American writing. But, it's been a few years, so I thought I'd give Hemingway anothre chance - and I chose his last, and arguably most famous, book for my re-introduction. I vowed that even though the book is very short, that I would read it slowly, so that I could afford myself the opportunity to really appreciate and understand Hemingway's words. From this perspective, Hemingway finally came through for me. I did enjoy the cadence of his writing and his descriptions of the fishing village in Cuba. But, alas, his subject matter is too "manly" - and I found the old man's battle with a marlin tedious. Of course, I know it is all a metaphor for something larger - perhaps the old man represents Christ's sacrifice, perhaps the marlin is a symbol of man's desperation and never-ending search for immortality. And so the conundrum: I would have enjoyed discussing this book in college, but back then, I don't think I could have slowed down long enough to appreciate the writing . I think that I will read more Hemingway - he is as popular and enduring as he is for a reason - and his books are all short enough that it doesn't take too much out of my days to keep trying to understand what the hype is all about.

The Red Queen - Margaret Drabble

A modern-day researcher discovers the 200 year old memoirs of a Korean princess. The memoir recounts daily court life, the constraits of society, her devotion to her mentally ill king, and the constant political maneuvering within the court. The book then turns back to the researcher and her growing obsession with the memoirs. The subject matter of the Korean court was in general interesting to me. The writing, however, was superficial. The story was rambling and repetitive and did not give the reader a very good sense of the urgency and anxiety felt by this princess. This book reminded me of Anchee Min's Empress Orchid about an impoverished Chinese girl who rescues her family by becoming a concubine in The Forbidden City. The difference is that Min created a character that I actually cared about and presented the secrets of the royal family with such drama and importance that I felt as if I was really being allowed behind the curtain. Drabble's narrative fell flat and by the time I got to the second part focusing on the researcher, I simply could not wait for the book to be over.

The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-exupery

The Little Prince is one of the best-selling books of all time. It is often presented as a children's book, and I first read it many many years ago. Re-reading it in a short sitting today, I believe it's one of those stories that was enjoyable to me as a child, but much more meaningful to me as an adult. The narrator of the story is an aviator whose plane has crashed in the desert. He meets the Little Prince, an extra-terrestrial of sorts, who reminds him of the wisdom of looking at the world through a childs' eyes. The Little Prince relays to the narrator the story of his travels across the universe, to various planets with serious adults, and the important lessons he learns - the most important being that "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." The author also illustrated the novella, and the drawings add much to the enjoyment of the story. The ending is a bit sad, but The Little Prince overall is filled with valuable observations and hope.

The Graduate - Charles Webb

I read that Charles Webb was coming out with a sequel to his 1963 classic, The Graduate (later turned into the classic movie by the same name). I saw the movie a long time ago, but had never read the book. So, I thought I'd check it out before reading the new one, Home School, which takes place 10 years after The Graduate. The Graduate is the story of Ivy-League graduate Benjamin Braddock, who returns home after graduation, disillusioned with American-society, depressed, and unmotivated to face his future. He has the famous affair with the older Mrs. Robinson, but later falls in love with her daughter Elaine. Braddock's character is insufferable. I have to admit that he is a more-modern day Holden Cauilfield - which suggests to me that the angst I identified with when I read The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager would probably seem so infantile and boring now. Which means, I probably should have read The Graduate just as I was graduating from college, disillusioned, and unsure about my own future. It probably would have spoken to me much more clearly back then. Now, it all seems incredibly unrealistic -- particularly all the interactions between Ben and Elaine -- and downright irritating. Of course, I'm still going to read the sequel to see how it all turns out.

The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coehlo

Paulo Coelho's books have sold millions and millions of copies worldwide. Coehlo is from Brazil, and his novels are translated from Portuguese. I read an article once about Coelho's incredible fame. The writer portrayed Coehlho as almost a cult leader. Another Brazilian writer commented that something must be getting changed in the translation, because Coehlo's books simply wasn't that impressive in it native language. I thought that was quite funny, and decided to read a Coelho novel to see for myself. The Devil and Miss Prym was published in 2000, but it reads like a morality tale from the 19th century. The basic premise is that a stranger comes to a small town. He speaks to Miss Prym, the local barmaid and tells her his plan. He wishes to offer the villagers enough gold to improve their lot for generations. All they have to do is murder one of their own. How the villagers choose will answer for the stranger whether people are basically good or basically evil. Miss Prym struggles with whether to tell the other villagers of the deal. She knows where some of the gold is buried, and is also tempted to just dig it up and flee. She hopes the villagers will do the right thing, but she has no way of knowing how the mob mentality will play out. The novel is simply written, but suspenseful. Some of the good/evil; devil/angel discussions and metaphors are a bit drawn out, but all in all I enjoyed this book as a very basic story about a very complicated battle.

A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift

For some reason, this is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. Not that it isn't worthwhile reading, but it's a five page essay, not a book. Nevertheless, I figured it was an easy way for me to get one step closer to the 1001 goal! I'm not a huge fan of Jonathan Swift. This disappoints me because he is a satirist, and he comes up with wildly crazy characters and stories - I usually love these qualities in a writer. But, he just doesn't work for me - maybe because he's so old (this was written in 1729), I don't quite get the humor/political statements. "A Modest Proposal" is Swift's solution to Irish poverty, and comment on England's tyrannical rule. I read it in college, and unlike most things I re-read, I think I probably understood it better back then. I think Swift was the Stephen Colbert of his time. Quirky and witty to some, simply lost in translation to others.

The Postman Always Rings Twice - James Cain

The Postman Always Rings Twice, published in 1934, is hailed as one of the most important crime novels of the 20th century. At just over 100 pages, it was a quick and interesting read. The main character, Frank, is somewhat of a transient when he is hired to work at a automotive shop run by a Greek named Nick and his wife Cora. Quickly, Frank and Cora fall in love and they plot how best to live their lives together without Nick. There are scenes of unnecessary violence between Frank and Cora, which led to the book being banned early on, as well as overt sexuality, which is pretty tame by today's standards. Eventually, Frank and Cora find themselves thrust into the criminal justice system with clever interrogators and double-crossing prosecutors and defense attorneys. While I didn't find this book fascinating, it was a nice glimpse into the beginnings of the crime detective genre.

The Sea* - John Banville

The Sea is a story of love and loss told from the perspective of an aging art historian who just lost his wife to cancer. He travels to the sea-side town where he spent his holiday as a child. As he looks out onto the sea, he remembers a family he met there and the relationships he built with them. I found this book very difficult to get into. It reminded me of Gilead and Philip Roth's Everyman in terms of the writing - just one long monologue from the main character. The thoughts shifted back and forth from the past to the present without any clear distinction - and while the writing was almost poetic, I just found the story really boring. For a fine piece of literature and enjoying language with no real plot or point, this is a good selection. Or maybe if you just need something to put you to sleep.



(* - winner of The Man Booker Prize; listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die)

The Yellow Wallpaper* - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

I've mentioned Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own as one of the books that had the most influence on me in college in terms of my feminist identity and the idea that all women need their own space (and their own money) in order to create and define their own worlds. The Yellow Wallpaper, for me, was the perfect illustration of what would happen if you failed to heed Woolf's advice. This very short story, which I re-read while eating my lunch yesterday, is the fictional diary of an unnamed married woman. She has been taken by her doctor husband to a country manor of some sort to rest and alleviate the symptoms of her undefined disease (no doubt seen as hysteria, but more accurately an acute depression). As her husband pats her on the head and tells her nothing is wrong, the author fixates on the decaying yellow wallpaper of her makeshift prison. She is a woman who has absolutely nothing to do - it's unclear whether she has children, but she lives in a world where her only job is to be the perfect wife. It seems like it would be so easy and wonderful, but what she really wants to do is write - but her husband and doctors discourage it in favor of the "rest-cure treatment" (lying around and doing absolutely nothing). The Yellow Wallpaper was written at the end of the 19th century, but in the past 30 years it has been studied as a textbook psychological portrayal of a woman suffering from a mental breakdown. Gilman, in real life, suffered from bouts of depression, but struggled mightily on behalf of women everywhere as an advocate of the equal division of household labor between spouses, and of women working outside the home - for reasons greater than financial necessity. When I think of how hard women (and many men) work today for these same ideals, I find it tremendous that she was fighting the good fight over a century ago. The Yellow Wallpaper is brutally depressing, but it is a tremendous argument in favor of the need to find something that you love to do - no matter how small - and claiming it all for yourself.

(* - listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die)

On the Road* - Jack Kerouac

http://www.citylights.com/ - This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of On the Road. City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco's North Beach is where many of the Beat author hung out and read their work in the late 50s and 60s. They have been having celebrations and tributes to Kerouac and the other Beat writers all year, and so I was inspired to re-read this cult classic. I first read On the Road, the story of penniless Sal Paradise's four cross-country trips along with his friend Dean Moriarty, when I was in high school. As I was stressing out about getting into college, I fell in love with these characters who thumbed their noses at society and went out to actually have real life experiences. To me, Sal's life in dingy motels, hitching rides and picking up other low-lifes, represented a type of freedom I thought I would never have, and as a young kid, I romanticized that type of life. This time around, I had a very different reaction. While the idea of new experiences and going out to see the world still appeals to me, I found myself annoyed at how tedious Sal and Dean's existences were. They are so selfish in their relationships with so-called friends and family. I became much more in tune to Dean's physical and mental decline toward the end of the novel - a symbol that a life filled with so little meaning and connection - this "life on the road" was really no true life at all. Kerouac's writing is addictive (and rumor has it he wrote this book during a three-week Benzedrine and caffeine-induced haze of creativity), but if you just want to get an idea for what this book is about, just open it up to a random page, read about 30-40 more pages, and then move on.

(* - listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* - Douglas Adams

I first read this book in middle school - I can still remember biking home from the library, so excited to see what this science-fiction thing was all about. I remember enjoying it and finding it pretty funny, but not much else. So, this month, while I'm reading authors that start with the letter "A", I decided to check it out again. It's much shorter than I remember, and it's not just "pretty" funny, it's REALLY funny. I read it while at the gym on the exercise bike and laughed out loud a few too many times - the guy next to me had to switch bikes. But, it made my work-out fly by quite fast. This is the story of Arthur Dent, living in London and minding his own business, until a bulldozer shows up one morning planning to make room for a freeway. His good friend Ford Prefect - actually an alien life-form deserted on Earth 15-years earlier - tells him not to worry. Earth is about to be destroyed in roughly 12 minutes. And so it is, but Dent and Prefect are sent sailing into outer-space and saved by a passing spacecraft. With an electronic copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dent gets up to speed on all things inter-galactic as he struggles to come to terms with his new existence. More than one of my friends has made fun of my penchant for science-fiction - I'm not into all-out fantasy books or quite at the Isaac Asimov level, but I do love a good space ride, and I'm a huge fan of alternate universes and strange creatures who are quite a bit more advanced than we humans love to believe that we are. This is a fun quick read and if you like to take a vacation from reality now and again, I definitely recommend this journey.

(* - listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die)