I really love maps. They’re great for showing all sorts of really cool data about any number of things. And doing it in a way which makes it easy to read and understand. Like this one here, next to what you’re reading, it’s a map of New York City, showing the homes/working areas of a number of top superheroes.
14 Brilliant Pieces of Literature You Can Read in the Time it Takes to Eat Lunch – PolicyMic.
Often attributed to Hemingway, the quintessential shortest story ever is “For sale, baby shoes. Never worn.” 6 words and you get a complete tale. The shortest horror story ever, attributed to Fredric Brown, is “The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door.” For a few years, several friends of mine (in particular Gregory Crosby and Troy Darling) wrote 13 word horror stories around the time of Halloween.
All of this is to say that a piece of literature doesn’t have to be long in order to be brilliant – as pointed out by the recent article PolicyMic. In it they list “14 Brilliant Pieces of Literature” which are all short enough to be read after you polish off a sandwich but before you have to get back to whatever it is you’re meant to be doing. More importantly, they provide links on where to find them for free.
So here ya go, lunch time reading for the next three work weeks (You can take that last Friday off, you deserve it).
Then come back and tell me what you think. Any you particularly liked? Any you didn’t?
Enquiring minds want to know.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of the nice things my Audible subscription is doing is giving me the opportunity to catch up on a lot of the classics I never actually read. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a book you need to focus on to read and fully appreciate. It’s not easy, mostly because they’re not stories, not in the sense we are conditioned to think of them. No real beginnings, middles or ends, more like Borges’ thoughts as he’s sitting at a typewriter and doing writing exercises.
This book in particular didn’t quite work for me for that reason. On a sentence by sentence level, the language and imagery are beautiful but that’s like looking at the scattered pieces of a mosaic and commenting on their attractiveness. Unless they’re put together to make a picture of some sort, something with coherence and fusion, they remain just lovely pieces.
That all said, it’s fascinating to see his influence and how far reaching it is. Anyone who reads this and Murakami and doesn’t see how the one affected the other is missing a fairly important link in the chain.
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Seems like I’ve been on a Jules Verne kick lately, slowly working my way through the classics. I’d heard about Mysterious Island before, and seen several of the films, but like watching the movie version of Around the World in 80 Days, the book is very much different! Continue reading “Review: The Mysterious Island”
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Why did it take me so long to read this? Probably because since I was a teen, everyone who recommended it to me was a girl and I figured it was some sort of Chick-lit book about relationships and, being a guy, I wanted action and adventure. And so, from my earliest thinkings of Austen, it never quite appealed to me. Continue reading “Review: Pride and Prejudice”
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
You know, I’m not sure if I’d ever actually read this before. I think I must have because I remember the hammerhead people (and where were they in the recent Oz film?) but I certainly didn’t remember it the same way it was. Like most people, I figure I’m tainted by the iconic 1939 film because the book, while containing most of the same elements as the movie, has much more (and actually, some less). Continue reading “Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
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