Australia's favorite books
The ABC ran a survey on Australia's favorite books and ran the television program last night. The top ten books has some mixed blessings.
I say, "No!" to the DaVinci code. If you want rennaissance conspiracy theory I recommend "Foucalt's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco, or the "Name Of the Rose". Eco is a very good writer and knows his history.
Where are the Classics, "The Republic" by Plato, "The Peloponessian War" by Thucydides, Plutarch's "Nine Lives", Suetonius' "The Twelve Ceasars", Julius Caesar "The Conquest of Gaul"? Ovid's "Metamorphoses"?
But one of my favourite books of all is Robert Graves "The Greek Myths". Also Nicollo Machiavelli, "The Prince".
"Catch 22" is a pretty good book though. Of modern authors my favorites have to be J.G. Ballard and Bret Easton Ellis. Ballard's books are classics of human psychology, I think particularly "The Atrocity Exhibition" stands as a classic of post-war 20th century literature. Ballard's short stories are also well worth a read, they convey a certain anxiety that pervaded the post-War, space-race obsessed 1960s and 70s in a very original and interesting way.
Easton Ellis is a great American author, "Less Than Zero", "The Rules of Attraction", "American Psycho", vicious black comedies that strike at the heart of modern life. But my favorite Ellis book of all is "Glamorama".