This week's discussion will be an exercise based on the book My Ideal Bookshelf, edited by Thessaly LaForce, with illustrations by Jane Mount. We've had a chance to look at the book in class and discuss the concept. Now is your opportunity to create your ideal bookshelf. Likely, we've all had the discussion starting with: "If you were stranded on a desert island and had only one book, what would it be?" Well, you're in luck! For the purposes of this exercise, you get to choose from ten to fifteen books that you have read or would like to read, and you don't even have to go to a desert island. You may pick books from any genre and from any language; you are not limited to American literary fiction. This list is not intended bo be definitive: play with picking a variety of different kinds of texts. The only absolute requirement is that they be books of interest to YOU.
Although it is helpful if you number them for reference purposes, these numbers do not need to be a ranking of the books. This might be too difficult. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers!
Once you've submitted your own list, go back and review the lists of your classmates. Write a response of at least one hundred words. Your response could be a recognition of a shared favorite or favorites, a surprise or inspiration that you had not considered, a reaction to one of the books listed, questions to a classmate about a book, or a further reflection on the books you chose and why you chose them.
I'll get it started. Here's what my bookshelf might look like:
1. Cry the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
2. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera
3. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut
4. Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin
5. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
6. Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
7. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
8. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
9. The Tao te Ching - Lao Tzu
10. My Losing Season - Pat Conroy
11. Haynes Auto Repair Manual, Chrysler PT Cruiser 2001 thru 2003
12. Lost Detroit: Stories behind the Motor City's Majestic Ruins - Dan Austin, photography by Sean Doerr
13. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
14. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie, art by Ellen Forney
15. The World Book Encyclopedia, 1963 (I know this is cheating, but it's one title!)
Although it is helpful if you number them for reference purposes, these numbers do not need to be a ranking of the books. This might be too difficult. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers!
Once you've submitted your own list, go back and review the lists of your classmates. Write a response of at least one hundred words. Your response could be a recognition of a shared favorite or favorites, a surprise or inspiration that you had not considered, a reaction to one of the books listed, questions to a classmate about a book, or a further reflection on the books you chose and why you chose them.
I'll get it started. Here's what my bookshelf might look like:
1. Cry the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
2. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera
3. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut
4. Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin
5. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
6. Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
7. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
8. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
9. The Tao te Ching - Lao Tzu
10. My Losing Season - Pat Conroy
11. Haynes Auto Repair Manual, Chrysler PT Cruiser 2001 thru 2003
12. Lost Detroit: Stories behind the Motor City's Majestic Ruins - Dan Austin, photography by Sean Doerr
13. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
14. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie, art by Ellen Forney
15. The World Book Encyclopedia, 1963 (I know this is cheating, but it's one title!)
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