Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010.29: Reading from the Decades

This week's Weekly Geek project is to look at books published during the decade you were born, which for me is the 60's. Sheesh, that was a long time ago! Anyway, I found this site and have looked at the books and made this list from that list, which was quite fun for me. See what you think:


Books I've Read:

Dune by Frank Herbert (won the first Nebula Award... the only thing I remember about this book... WEIRD!)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary (at least I think I read it)
Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss (gosh, what an old book!)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (only one of the best books ever written!)
Christy by Catherine Marshall (of course I loved this one)
The Promise by Chaim Potok (I can't hardly remember this one. I bet a re-read would do wonders.)

Books That Look Interesting and I May Perhaps Read Sometime:

The Source by James Michner (loved most of the Michner I've read already, especially Chesapeake)
Space Opera by Jack Vance
The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (um, I know, shame on me. I only read the first one of the series.)
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
The Looking Glass War by John leCarre
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck (one of the few Steinbeck's I haven't read)
The Glass Blowers by Daphne du Maurier (one of the few du Maurier's I haven't read)

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Do you think these books have relevance today? I think the answer to that is a big resounding yes. Hey, reading books from your birth decade... sounds like a great challenge. I bet there's one out there already for this!

Oh, and hey... do you think books from this decade can be considered classics now? I think To Kill a Mockingbird definitely is anyway.  I suppose if the others have lasting/staying power, we can call them classics too.

What decade is YOUR decade? Have you read lots of books from your decade? This little assignment has made me realize I haven't read many at all from mine. Sad.

7 comments:

  1. My birth decade is the 60's as well.
    I agree with you, it would seem that making a list from the decade would be fun. I think I may do this myself.

    I have not read any of the books you have listed...well, except for Fox in Socks - I do have children you know. :)

    Of course To Kill a Mockingbird is considered a classic. I have heard of Dune so maybe that may be a classic, if not now then later down the road. What designates a book a classic anyway? I mean, Steinbeck is well known, and I would think East of Eden would be a classic so would his other works have ranking in that direction as well?

    Anyway, I am going to take a better look at the link you have provided, and start on my list. :)

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  2. How interesting! I've read To Kill a Mockingbird and The Mouse and The Motorcycle too. I wonder if there are any others. This would be a cool a challenge to read books from the decade of your birth!

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  3. Dune is one of those books I remember very clearly. I'm actually planning to reread it before the end of this year. I still haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird but I now own a copy so that should be remedied soon.

    I'm glad to see you mention Chesapeake, but I'm from Maryland so of course I loved that one. :)

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  4. I've read 3 out of everything on your lists.

    I honestly don't know what I've read from my birth decade.... I'd have to look at what was published... in the 80s....

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  5. I loved The Winter of Our Discontent. It's a little weird, and a little different from other Steinbeck I've read, but still really thought provoking.

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  6. Coming over from Weekly Geeks...

    My decade is the 90s... I've definitely read a lot of books from that time, but not many of them are adult books, which I should possibly remedy.

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  7. I've only read two of those, and one of them because an English teacher made me. (Or have I read three? I'm not sure.)

    When I looked it up I discovered I've read more from the 80s than I thought I had, but still not much. Or at least not many of the books that made it onto the Wikipedia lists :-)

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