INFLUENCED BY GREATNESS

I read a lot. When I'm in between shows, I spend hundreds of dollars on books. Like my father, my library over flows with reading material: Political Theory, Philosophy and Behavioural Psychology and Historical texts; books on writing, script analysis and directing, Plays, Scripts, Poetry and a few Classic Lit. There's not enough shelf space for all the books that I have acquired over the years, most remain in piles on my office floor. It's an addiction; (like shoes and purses) I buy a lot of books.

Recently, I've spent most of my money and most of my literary endeavours on Chick Lit. Books that often require only a day investment and not a lot of brain power. However, I've currently been feeling the need for greater mental stimulation.

Hence, my first New Year's resolution: Resolution #1: Spend more time reading/rereading Classic Literature

It's been quite a while since I've invested time and effort into reading the Classics. I need to revisit and reimmerse myself in literature from authors who are the benchmark for all writers who aspire towards greatness. I need to be influenced by greatness.

Here’s my 2007 reading list:

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Civil Disobedience And Other Essays by Henry David Thoreau
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Light In August by William Faulkner
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Children's Corner by Jackson Tippett McCrae
East of Eden by Steinbeck
The Idiot by Dostoyevsky
Poetics by Aristotle,
Leaves of Grass (poetry) by Walt Whitman
The Bark Of The Dogwood by Jackson Tippett McCrae
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story by Glen Duncan
The Odyssey by Homer
Franny and Zooey by J.D Salinger
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Paradise Lost And Paradise Regained by John Milton
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
1984 by George Orwell
Ulysses by James Joyce

UPDATE: Additions, courtesy of my beloved blog reader (s)

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond
The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
The Misanthrope by Molière