Chattanooga Pulse

Written by The List
Wednesday, 25 March 2009 15:08

1. Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck

2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson

3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert Pirsig

4. 1984 by George Orwell

5. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

6. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

7. A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter L. Miller, Jr.

8. The Stand by Stephen King

9. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

In honor of this week’s cover story on the Conference of Southern Literature, The List thumbs through the old bookshelves finding those special books that everyone should read at least once in their lifeftime.

Some of them make you think, some of them give you good advice on how to live, and some of them are just well-written entertainment for entertainment’s sake.

And if you’re wondering why John Steinbeck made the list twice, we easily could have listed every book he wrote and called it a day. Call us biased if you will, but many feel he was the greatest American writer of all time.