Good Reads

[Lynn Wilber]

As I saunter into my dotage and my hearing acuity wanes I find I am reading more, both for entertainment and and as panacea for the disappointment I feel in the world outside my small domain. Whenever i visit a friend or perhaps a new acquaintance, I find myself clandestinely examining their libraries or books left carelessly about, both to perhaps discover something new and interesting or because I have found that one can get a pretty good initial impression of a person's salient persona by observing their reading preferences (though this is not an infallible methodology). Anyways, I am curious to hear from readers recommendations or comments about books they have found entertaining or edifying, things that stir their enthusiasm. Here is a short list of writing which has had big influence on my own world view:  (1) "Cannery Row" - John Steinbeck,  (2) "Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck, (3) "Zorba the Greek" - Nikos Kazantzakis,  (4) "Some of the Dead are Still Breathing" - Charles Bowden,  (5) "Trinity" -Charles Bowden,  (6) "on Nonviolence" - Mohandas Ghandi,  (7) "Blood Meridian" and "Suttree" - Cormac McCarthy, (8) "Fire Alarm" - Michael Lowy,  (9)  "The society of the Spectacle" - Guy Debord,  (10) "The Air-conditioned Nightmare" - Hernry Miller, and (11)  "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance" - Robert Pirsig.  Well, that's probably enough of a list to get started on this thread.  If you've come across something recently that you just couldn't lay aside or fondly remember a volume that twisted rour noodle in the past, please feel free to post it here in this thread. Peace and good times, SvH