Quot libros, quam breve tempus…
…So many books, so little time!
Now, a little… well, a lot of curatorial help from The Guardian: “1000 Novels Everyone Must Read.” Lest readers be discouraged, at a book a week, that’s under 20 years of reading pleasure…
And pleasure it promises to be. The full list is divided into seven sections– War & Travel, Science fiction & Fantasy, State of the Nation, Family & Self, Comedy, Crime, and Love– each filled with extraordinary treats. (The “State of the Nation” section has a detectable– and understandable– British bias, but kicks nonetheless.)
And the list is surrounded by nifty extras, like “Top 10 trivia: Lost manuscripts” (a list on which T.E. Lawrence meets Robert Ludlam)…
Read it and reap!
As we settle into our comfy chairs, we might spare a memorial thought for Charles “Buddy” Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson, who died on this date in 1959 when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza crashed a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City, Iowa on a flight headed for Moorehead, Minnesota. After some mechanical problems stalled their tour bus (The three were part of “The Winter Dance Party” tour), Holly, who had just scored a No. 1 hit with “That’ll Be the Day,” chartered the plane. Richardson (touring in support of “Chantilly Lace”) talked Holly’s band mate Waylon Jennings out of his seat on the flight; Valens (who was only 17, but had already sent “Come ON, Let’s GO,” “Donna,” and “La Bamba” to the top ten) won a coin toss for the final place. It was, as Don McLean sang, “the day the music died”…
