#50-book

[l-ete]

In yourself right now is all the place you've got.

Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood

[l-ete]

since you asked

Since sending out that email yesterday, I've gotten a few questions that I thought I would tackle here.

What does the blog's title mean?

In French, l'été means "summer." But the blog title is spelled L-été because L is also the Roman numeral for fifty.

How do you read a book a day?

Well, the exam's not 'til Labor Day, so I have all of August, too. Some of the "books" will take less than a day. Some will take many days (here's looking at you, Bleak House). So although the mean time it will take me to finish a book will be about .78 of a day -- or what a statistician might refer to as a "totally made-up number" -- I'm not forcing myself to read at any particular speed, because that sounds stressful.

How can you do this project and still enjoy Paris?

First, a graceful wave to this question's contributor: my dad. Mom and Dad have been observing my literary perambulations since I first got my grubby little hands on Good Night, Moon. They have been there for me through many a readerly trial, such as the Serial Blight of 1995, when the Babysitters' Club Book-A-Month Club accidentally delivered the same book as the previous month, sharply curtailing my adventures with Kristy and the gang. As I wrestled with a strong sense that I was living out a crueler version of Groundhog Day, Dad drove me to the bookstore to get the right book. Hi, Dad! (Mom also contributed a question: "Have you sorted out your car insurance for when you get back?" Due to space constraints, I have replied to her query in private.)

As for the question itself: I am very good at enjoying Paris, so this will not be a problem.

It's not fair to put The Inferno on every hypothetical sub-list.

Pete makes a good point. The sub-lists aren't a scorecard -- so it's not like, the more sub-lists something is on, the better. I put The Inferno on all those lists because, as one of the best practitioners of the epic form, Dante really did make sure that his book had it all: sex, murder, and farting. (True.) So it happens to fit many of the sub-list descriptors.

But if you are only going to read one book on the list, I don't necessarily recommend The Inferno as your go-to. Instead, I feel York Mystery Plays are really the can't-miss hit of the season.

What should I read if I know nothing about literature and am overwhelmed by all these lists?

If you are eagerly seeking summer reading -- from this list or beyond it -- and struggling, just let me know! We can for sure find you a book you will like. This question comes from my roommate, so we will chat about it over a box of wine, but those of you who live further afield can email me.

How is The Wire a book?

This is a great question, and deserves its own post! For now, the short answer is that it is not a book, but it is a text. Yes, the 50-Book Exam is inaccurately titled, but since the people that gave it that title actually have PhDs already and aren't just fronting on Tumblr, we'll go with it.

Can I tell people about this project and send them the link?

Yes, of course, please do!

[l-ete]

the list, parsed minimally

Since the original list looks like someone vomited up a library catalog, I broke it down a little for those of you wanting something to read. Sally forth!

If you want the really old stuff

Dante Alighieri, The Inferno (1308-1321)

York Mystery Plays (14th and 15th centuries)

Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies (1405)

Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe (1436)

  If you want the pretty old stuff

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1602)

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (c. 1592)

Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, The Changeling (1622)

Elizabeth I, Poems and Speeches to Parliament (1558-1603)

George Herbert, The Temple (1633)

William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1671)

  If you want a recent novel

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005)

David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System (1987)

Chris Adrian, The Children’s Hospital (2006)

Ken Saro Wiwa, Sozaboy (1995)

  If you want a novel and don’t care about it being recent

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)

Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868)

Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852)

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (1890)

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

William Faulkner, A Fable (1954)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852)

Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898)

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952)

Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764)

Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Mr. W.H. (1889)

  If you want a short story

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Purloined Letter” (1840s)

Henry James, “The Figure in the Carpet” (1896)

  If you want to watch

Oscar Micheaux, Within Our Gates (1920)

Tay Garnett, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958)

The Wire, season 4 (2006)

  If you want a play

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (c. 1592)

Tennessee Williams, Not About Nightingales (1938)

York Mystery Plays (14th and 15th centuries)

William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1671)

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (c. 1592)

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1602)

Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, The Changeling (1622)

  If you want poetry

Dante Alighieri, The Inferno (1308-1321)

Amiri Baraka, The System of Dante’s Hell (1965)

William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789)

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)

George Herbert, The Temple (1633)

Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows (1922)

Sylvia Plath, Ariel (1965)

Muriel Rukeyser, Elegies (1949)

Wallace Stevens, “Idea of Order at Key West,” “Anecdote of the Jar,” “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” “The Snow Man,” and “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (1930s)

Geoffrey Chaucer, House of Fame (1380)

  If you like gossip

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, selections from The Spectator (1711)

Dante Alighieri, The Inferno (1308-1321)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852)

Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Mr. W.H. (1889)

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

  If you want to be a detective

Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868)

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (1890)

Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958)

Henry James, “The Figure in the Carpet” (1896) and The Turn of the Screw (1898)

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Purloined Letter” (1840s)

The Wire, season 4 (2006)

  If you want to read that really famous thing that you never got around to

Dante Alighieri, The Inferno (1308-1321)

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1602)

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

The Wire, season 4 (2006)

  If you want to read the longest thing on the list

Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852)

  If you want to read the shortest thing on the list

Wallace Stevens, “The Emperor of Ice Cream” 

  If you want to read the list without hypotheticals

It's right here.

[l-ete]

the list

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, selections from The Spectator (1711)

Chris Adrian, The Children’s Hospital (2006)

Dante Alighieri, The Inferno (1308-1321)

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)

Amiri Baraka, The System of Dante’s Hell (1965)

William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789)

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)

Geoffrey Chaucer, House of Fame (1380)

Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868)

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (1890)

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859)

Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852)

Carol Duncan, Civilizing Rituals (1995)

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)

Elizabeth I, Poems and Speeches to Parliament (1558-1603)

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

William Faulkner, A Fable (1954)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System (1987)

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1979)

Tay Garnett, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852)

George Herbert, The Temple (1633)

Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958)

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005)

Henry James, “The Figure in the Carpet” (1896) and The Turn of the Screw (1898)

Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe (1436)

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (c. 1592)

Mark McGurl, The Program Era (2009)

Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows (1922)

Oscar Micheaux, Within Our Gates (1920)

Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, The Changeling (1622)

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952)

Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies (1405)

Sylvia Plath, Ariel (1965)

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Purloined Letter” (1840s)

Muriel Rukeyser, Elegies (1949)

Ken Saro Wiwa, Sozaboy (1995)

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1602)

Wallace Stevens, “Idea of Order at Key West,” “Anecdote of the Jar,” “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” “The Snow Man,” and “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (1930s)

Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764)

Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)

Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Mr. W.H. (1889)

Tennessee Williams, Not About Nightingales (1938)

The Wire, season 4 (2006)

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1671)

York Mystery Plays (14th and 15th centuries)