OK, I admit it. Someone accused me of posting the books I wanted banned with the hidden agenda of creating a booklist without seeming like I was jumping on the bandwagon.
Guilty.
Booklists are pornography for English professors. If you invite an English professor to your home and leave the room even momentarily, our voyeuristic eyes will immediately stray to any bookshelves in that room. We'll begin to peruse the books, drawing judgments about you and your character from what is there ... or what is missing. If you are gone long enough, we'll begin to open the books and try to ascertain more about your character:
Ah, he highlights books. I always suspected he was of shallow character.
Hmm, writing in the margins. Lots of notes about Providence and free will. A deep thinker about religious matters.
Dog-eared many, many pages in this book ... perhaps she's a slow reader ... no, wait, it is Milton -- all the dog-eared pages means she savors her poetry.
Tsk. All leather bound books, bindings unbroken. And, look! The pages uncut!
Most of these books have stamps from used bookstores ... probably a voracious reader who can't satisfy his appetite on his budget.
The only Shakespeare is a copy of "Coriolanus?" Perhaps far more interested in political philosophy than religion.
Malory and Chretien de Troyes mixed in with Marion Zimmer Bradley books? What a delightful combination of high and popular culture!
... and so on. So you see how delicious it was when Joe Carter over at Evangelical Outpost listed his "50 Favorite Works of Imaginative Literature (20th Century)." From there, he had a link to a similar list at the Thinklings. Ooooh, and the trackback to someone commenting and re-categorizing Carter's list! Yes, I have Googled the phrase "favorite books list" many times.
So, English majors, when I step out of my office and leave you there, I know perfectly well what you are doing alone in that room. I know what the guilty look on your face means. You too are a book voyeur. I know because I share your perversion. The moment I stepped out of the room you were at my shelves, leafing through the pages, seeking insight into my soul. I too have peeked through the keyhole to gaze at the intellect displayed on the bookshelves of my family, friends, and colleagues. The compulsion defies resistance.
Let us gaze upon one another's bookshelves with pleasure undisguised and unashamed.
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Sir, you are SPOT ON! I love doing that to my friends! It says a lot about them if they read fluffed up popular literature, or if they really read the good stuff.
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