Customer Reviews

Book Smart: Your Essential List for Becoming a Literary Genius in 365 Days

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Not reading the books that have endured in their reputation as literary gems for generation after generation of readers is akin to starving in the midst of an orchard of ripe, pluckable fruit. Jane Mallison is a self-acknowledged passionate and life-long reader of books. She was head of the New York Trinity School English Department from 1982 to 2004 and therefore employs a very special experience-based expertise in "Book Smart: Your Essential Reading List For Becoming A Literary Genius In 365 Days". This is a literary guide to be employed every day of a single year, at the end of which the reader will benefit from a month-by-month plan involving 120 of the most compelling books of our universal literary heritage. Presented on a January through December calendar, the suggested titles are organized thematically, ranging from titles that are 'Towering Works to Read in Translation' from Beowulf to The Aeneid; to 'Some Notable Biographies' from Flaubert's Parrot to "The Life and Times of Cotton Mather; to 'Winners of Major Awards' from Herzog to All the King's Men. The authors of these 120 recommended literary works range from Charlotte Bronte, Sophocles, Thomas Hardy, and Benjamin Franklin, to Joseph Conrad, Evelyn Waugh, James Thurber, and Voltaire. Each title is presented with a succinct description that includes historical notes, highlights on key themes and characters. Of special note is the cogent advice on how to approach reading. Ideal as a curriculum guide for highschool and college level English Literature curriculums, "Book Smart" is especially recommended for individual readers wishing to acquire a basic literary literacy. Especially since every single recommended title can be acquired for reading through a local public library, either directly or through their community library's free InterLibrary Loan System.

This book is the real thing. The author's choices are solidly based and could well form the basis of fourteen to twenty-one year old students' literary education. But two other factors are very much present in this book and provide its true worth--Mallison clearly loves literature and she writes about her choices with remarkable brevity and wit. I do not remember such a graceful combination present in the myriad of Great Books and Great Literature guides published over the past forty years. Much needed and highly recommended.

A companion book for one year's reading of literary works - giving a month by month list of the best novels of all time for you to read and enjoy; you'll find how rewarding it can be to know of the books referred to in literary magazines, at book clubs, amongst literary-minded friends and family and just generally, giving you a sense of achievement in this knowledge and furthering your interest in literature.

The books range from 17th century Spanish novels - ones which are considered best of that century to 18th century England when English novelists were considered at the height of their art, to the 21st century, to more modern, diverse novels.

I like how each book is summarised so you can see at a glance which book you'd like to read for that month. It could be that in January you want to read one for June - to take the chill out of a cold, dark evening and then one in April to feel the freshness of the April showers to lessen the heat of Summer - though one book is suggested a month to start with.

The synopsis is clear and concise and it gives you a good idea of what the plotline is so you have an understanding of the book before reading it - sometimes it's a good idea to know what the book is about before embarking on a novel, for instance, as the language can be daunting for its style and elaborate language with themes 'hidden' in a 'forestry' of complicated concepts, which have to be re-read several times before the ideas become clearer to the reader.

The reading list for each month is carefully chosen so that you're introduced and continue to be enlightened by a book (and books for that month), for all seasons, starting with truly classical novels in January, continuing with feminine type classics in the Spring months. Following on from that is classical comedy to add to the refreshing mid-season feel in the Summer, swiftly followed by ones which take the readers back to a time in their adolescense in the Autumn months - an accomplishment of reading novels all year round and a fulfilling passion of becoming well-read and truly literary-minded.

Hopefully, potential purchaser's will not be put off by this book's quite misleading subtitle, "Your Essential Reading List for Becoming a Literary Genius in 365 Days". In the Preface the author says, "Set yourself a goal of reading one book each month". Before getting into the book's content, it should be clear that reading 12, or even 24, literary classics is fairly far removed from becoming a literary genius.

This book is essentially an annotated reading list of 120 books. There is a 1-1/2 to two (facing page) discussion of each of the titles selected. Some are followed by 'Recommended Reading" if the title you just read was of interest, or you want to read follow-on works where a particular book was, frequently, an influential precursor. The book groups titles into twelve major categories e.g., Towering Works to be Read in Translation, Young Men on a Quest, Crimes of Various Sorts, The Pains and the Pleasures, On the Battlefield and Back Home, etc.

Because of its many idiosyncratic selections this work should be considered in conjunction with other more standard reading lists: Sherwood and Weber's "Good Reading A Guide to the World's Best Books", Fadiman and Major's "The New Lifetime Reading Plan", Campbell's "The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics, and Armstrong's "101 of the World's Greatest Books in Digest Form" (this last can provide additional help in recalling works previously read).

Bottom line: The author has a clear passion for outstanding literature and committed readers will find a kindred spirit in Jane Mallison. This work is enthusiastic, opinionated (some of the selections are clearly idiosyncratic, and do not, and probably will not, appear on many other "best" reading lists). It contains circuitous and often discursive discussion of important, and some not so important works, but all with rare energy and uniqueness. Fortunately, the author's knowledge and interest are infectious and you will want to read most of the works she presents. Easy to recommend, but should be used in conjunction with other more standard guides.

Ah, what to read, what to read? I'm always in search of books suggesting good books to read, so I was happy to see this book.

Author Jane Mallison proposes a list of ten books a month, with each month having a common theme. Themes include award winners, the human condition, biographies. I was encouraged to think Mallison might be a kindred reader by noting that many of her recommended reads are books I've already read and loved, such as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, In Cold Blood, Animal Farm, and Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry.

Mallison sold me on A House for Mr. Biswas and Farewell to Arms, so much so that I have already sought them out and procured copies. A good choice for my first read of the year.

I picked Book Smart back up after reading Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits. Murnighan's approach to the classics was to tackle 50 of the greatest but often overlooked and tell the reader what to read and what to skip in each. In Book Smart, Mallison tackles 120 classics using a day at a time, month-by-month approach that is meant to be followed for one year. January starts with Beowulf and Dante's Inferno as examples. I found Book Smart to be more accessible but the lesson-plan approach in this one is good for someone looking for a structured approach.

I was very disappointed with this book and its bias towards Northern Hemisphere (particularly American) authors. There are a handful of writers from the south such as Naipaul, Ishiguro, Mistry but these writers have been based in the North for most of their careers. Where are the great Asian and Australasian writers such as Janet Frame, Christopher Koch, Arundhati Roy, Tagore, Tim Winton, Henry Handel Richardson, Lloyd Jones, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Olga Masters, Witi Ihimaera, Jessica Anderson, Vicente Rivera, Jr., Patrick White, Maurice Gee, Shirley Hazzard, Rodney Hall, Murray Bail, J. M Coetzee, Katherine Mansfield, Michelle De Krester, Amitav Ghosh, Gail Jones, Hone Tuwhare, Peter Porter, Kenneth Slessor, Marcus Clarke, Keri Hulme, Maurice Shadbolt, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Helen Garner...... Do yourself a favour and look outside your comfort zone at the rest of the world. It is through reading about peoples other than ourselves that we gain empathy and understanding.