by Julie Dodd
JEA Mentoring Committee co-chair
This is the time of year for reading lists.
The what-to-read-at-the-beach list.
The required-readings-for-school list.
Here’s another list to help inform your readings. The Library of Congress has compiled a list of Books That Shaped America.
The list of 88 books are listed in order by publication date and starts with Benjamin Franklin and includes Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Zora Neale Thurston, Tennessee Williams and Malcolm X.
The list includes fiction and non-fiction.
You can take a survey on the Library of Congress website to select your top three books from their list of 88.
The non-fiction includes: Ida Tarbell, The History of Standard Oil (1904), Alcoholics Anonymous (1939), and Benjamin Spock’s The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946).
As many of the Journalism Education Association mentors and mentees have a background in teaching English and/or history in addition to journalism, I thought this list would be on interest.
When you visit the Library of Congress website, you’ll have the option of taking a survey — selecting the three books from the list of 88 that you think have had the greatest influence in shaping America.
The Library of Congress website includes a poster for the National Book Festival, which will be held on Sept. 22-23 and will include President and Mrs. Obama.
Mentors, you can add to your own summer reading, and you also can alert English/history/journalism teachers, who could use the National Book Festival next fall as part of a teaching unit.
The list includes many books that I’ve read and many that I’ve taught. One of my favorites is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), which I read as a high school student. That book helped launch my interest in science fiction.
What about you? Which is a favorite book of yours that is on the list?
I have never been able to name a single favorite book, so here are several: Zora Neale Thurston’s “Their Eyes Are Watching God” is the most profoundly moving book I’ve read and its protagonist is unforgettable. As a young man I read, Catch-22 and became hooked on reading for fun. Moby Dick made me realize that I would become a English major. I ready Huckleberry Finn at least 20 times and each time was a great experience. To Kill a Mockingbird is easily the most assessable novel for most teens and the only Pulitzer winner on the LOC list. I have read almost 20 other Pulitzers and find all of them significant advanced in American lit. I have written more on the Pulitzer winners on my website. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was great read but his Martian Chronicles was a more significant book about the American condition.
Thanks for contributing to the discussion about favorite books. I agree with you choices, althought Moby Dick wouldn’t wasn’t what convinced me to be an English major. What’s the URL to your blog?
journalismguy.wordpress.com is the URL; my blog serves a number of functions right now, and I am not updating daily by any means any more, but you are more than welcome to take a look.