Ten Books

Everyone's been doing those "10 Books That Marked Me" thing on Facebook, and I have a slow, leisurely day off, so here goes, totally off the top of my head: 1-- Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell. Everyone should read that book, just like everyone should read 1984 and Animal Farm. 2-- A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. 3-- The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden. 4-- A Bird in the House, by Margaret Laurence. 5-- Cette grenade dans la main du jeune Nègre, est-elle une arme ou un fruit?, by Dany Laferriere (Translated as Why Must A Black Writer Write About Sex?, which doesn't quite do justice to the title or content.) 6-- Beowulf, author unknown. (Seamus Heaney's translation is excellent.) 7-- Lord of the Rings, J.R. Tolkein. (These three books are a serious crash course in medieval studies, and too easily dismissed as "fantasy".) 8-- The Illiad/The Odyseey, Homer. 9-- The Bible, especially Ecclesiates, Genesis, and Revelation. 10-- On the Road and/or The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac.