Friday, March 23, 2007
Foster Wallace's "Top Ten" Books
DFW was asked to contribute a "Top Ten" to a book called The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books. For an official genius, whose influences include Pynchon, Barthelme, and Joyce, he seems to be a big fan of genre fiction:
1. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
2. The Stand - Stephen King
3. Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
4. The Thin Red Line - James Jones
5. Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
6. The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
7. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
8. Fuzz - Ed McBain
9. Alligator - Shelley Katz
10. The Sum of All Fears - Tom Clancy
The compiler of the Top Ten book speculates that DFW: "farmed the job" (of constructing the list) "out to a 13 year-old who liked to read", which would certainly explain the mysterious presence of Erica Jong at 5.
1. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
2. The Stand - Stephen King
3. Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
4. The Thin Red Line - James Jones
5. Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
6. The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
7. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
8. Fuzz - Ed McBain
9. Alligator - Shelley Katz
10. The Sum of All Fears - Tom Clancy
The compiler of the Top Ten book speculates that DFW: "farmed the job" (of constructing the list) "out to a 13 year-old who liked to read", which would certainly explain the mysterious presence of Erica Jong at 5.
Labels: dfw
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