Monday, January 12, 2009

The "Must" List

A couple of the kids started a book club on Tumblr and I decided to participate by purchasing this month's selection. I didn't offer up any novels when suggestions were being sought, but a list suddenly hit me midway through one of the chapters.

 One of my professors from college that I had a lot of respect for had e-mailed us a copy of "must-read" books at the end of the semester, a list he credited to his becoming a very respected feature writer for a reputable magazine.

 It took a little bit of searching on my end (Hey, they didn't delete my old Yahoo! account!), but now I'm adding that list here as a reference either for the Tumblr club or my own personal use in the future (when that Yahoo! account is finally deleted).

 Here's what he sent us a few years ago: 
After I mentioned the reading list my mentor gave me when I was a student, a couple of you expressed in seeing it. So here goes. I grant you that it is a little intimidating at first glance. But I guarantee that if you only read the "must-read" fiction and non-fiction for nonfiction writers, you will be astonished at what it will do for your career.
Jon Franklin's Reading List
While some of the books below are definitely world class literature, this is not a "great books list." That kind of a list would have to include Shakespeare, Dante, and all the rest. It would definitely not include, say, Syd Field. And Jessica Mitford, as much as I admire her, would have to step aside for Milton or Moliere. As for Franklin . . . well . . . whose reading list is this, anyway?
Suffice it to say that the list is presented as a compendium of books which, as a student of the nonfiction craft, you are likely to hear much about and/or find useful. Other students will talk about them, professors will refer to them and you will see dog-eared copies of some of them lying around. If you haven't read them, or most of them, your education will be more difficult and the value of your diploma less enduring.
With those words, I commend to you these books:
Must-Read Fiction for Nonfiction Writers:
Must-Read Literary Nonfiction:
Poetry:
  • Michael Norman (NYU) has his students read Walt Whitman's "Memoranda During the War," Applewood Books, about his days in the hospitals in Washington. Norman writes that "if one reads this thin, compelling volume and then reads the "Drum Taps" poems, one begins to see how the same reporting, the same images, may be used in the service of journalism and in the service of art."
On Journalism & Nonfiction:
On the Culture:
On Writing:
On Science:
Written by D. Rock at 11:45:00 PM
Tags:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)