Friday Five, early edition: of books and lists

Filing the Friday Five early this week, since I’ll be taking Friday off — and why should I blog on my day off?

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post for a long time about Esquire magazine’s list of 75 books every man should read. That link has been lying around in the RSS feed, starred but neglected, for some time now. And since it’s Friday Five time, what better time to:

  1. highlight five from that list that are among my all-time favorites (and yes, I’ve read more than five from that list)
  2. write a mini (five-word) review of each, and
  3. challenge readers of either gender (or trans) to do the same — either in the comments or on their own blogs (please leave a note if you’re posting your list on your own blog)

So, here, in no particular order, are my five faves from Esquire’s list, complete with mini-review.

  1. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. McMurphy: best Christ figure ever.
  2. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. Identity politics. Speaks for everyone.
  3. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, by Flannery O’Connor. Grotesque, spiritual, but “oncet” offputting.
  4. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. Laugh out loud funny, tragic.
  5. The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Best novel ever. Enough said.

Let’s hear from you!

Is blogging (like Britney) past its prime?

Two posts about the state of blogging caught my eye earlier this week, and made me stop and think about the future of blogging.

  1. This essay in Wired — Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004 — lamenting the state of blogging today. “Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge.” (Hat tip to Ron Bronson for the find.)
  2. This announcement that Britney Spears has started a blog.

Coincidence?