Robinson, Chris. "If I Could Only Have 30 Books" Medium, January 17, 2019. medium.com/@CRMusicWriter/if-i-could-only-have-30-books-6ec859b8ada4. May 10, 2019.
First Sentences:
[Marie] Kondo suggests that “ideally,” people should only keep 30 books. For me and a whole lot of people I know, that goes against every fiber in our being.
Description:
The other day I read the interesting article If I Could Only Have 30 Books by Chris Robinson about reducing "one's library to only 30 books." Author Robinson was commenting on the current hype from Marie Condo to cut down and simplify one's possessions. Looking at his precious bookshelves, Robinson wondered what if, just maybe, he had to weed his own collection down to a handful of titles. What thirty titles would he hold onto?
These keepers would be books that one could (and would) re-read many times with pleasure. They are titles that summarize who you are, how your mind works, and what you find valuable. This collection would be the very definition of who you are.
It got me to thinking about my own collection and which ones I judge would be the most indispensable of books. Here are my thirty titles, with six alternatives in case ... well, just because I couldn't really leave them off. Believe me, it was really tough to whittle down my collection to its essentials. At least now, when people ask for recommendations, I can give them a list of my own "Best of the Best."
Go ahead, try it for yourself. Then add your favorite thirty to the Comments section at the bottom of this screen. I look forward to seeing your own must-have collections.
Happy reading.
Fred
Fred
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About The First Sentence Reader blog
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Thirty Essential Books - The First Sentence Reader
About Books
Book Lust - Nancy Pearl
One for the Books - Joe Queenan
Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold
The Great American Novel - Philip Roth
I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
Moment in Peking - Lin Yutang
Q & A - Vikas Swarup
To Serve Them All My Days - R.F. Delderfield
Humor
Food: A Love Story - Jim Gaffigan
Never Cry Wolf - Farley Mowat
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
Wodehouse on Golf - P.G. Wodehouse
Non-Fiction
The New Ocean - William E. Burrows
The Stars: A New Way to See Them - H.A. Rey
Stone by Stone - Robert Thorson
Personal Histories
We Took To the Woods - Louise Dickenson Rich
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - Thad Carhart
Philosophy
The First and Last Freedom - Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Importance of Living - Lin Yutang
Manners from Heaven - Quentin Crisp
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare - Isaac Asimov
The Norton Anthology of Poetry - Margaret Ferguson (ed)
The Norton Shakespeare (complete works) - Steven Greenblatt (ed)
Webster's New World Dictionary and Thesaurus - Editors of New World Dictionaries
Science Fiction / Fantasy
The Collected Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke - Arthur C. Clarke
Enders Shadow - Orson Scott Card
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Seveneves - Neal Stephenson
**Extras** (too good to leave off any list)
Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
The Martian - Andy Weir
Moondust - Andrew Smith
Soul of an Octopus - Sy Montgomery
Three-Year Swim Club - Julie Checkoway
You show your affinity for science fiction. I would certainly add Moneyball by Michael Lewis, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, and Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis.
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