Ten essential books
I walked into Target for cat food and dog food, but of course I always browse through the bread and circuses. Fun to see Sandra Bullock's sweet movie While You Were Sleeping is down to $5.50 and I almost bought it, but seeing as I own it on VHS and the VCR(s) still work fine, what would be the point?
But I got curious passing the paperback aisle, and I walked down to see if they had any "classics" on sale. Target's not the first place you think of when you're jonesing for literature. But sure enough, they had one row of one rack - 10 books in all - and the selection was so interesting that I wrote 'em down.
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Animal Farm - George Orwell
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
1984 - George Orwell
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
(Odd that the authors were in alphabetical order but they split up the two Orwell books.)
Needless to say, it's thrilling to see three warnings against totalitarianism among their 10 classics - and all of these books have strong individuals in them. I suppose some sort of sales research led to these particular books landing on that precious shelf space - but if so, that's a very good sign. Even in this era of collectivism, classic books celebrating the individual are still selling.
But I got curious passing the paperback aisle, and I walked down to see if they had any "classics" on sale. Target's not the first place you think of when you're jonesing for literature. But sure enough, they had one row of one rack - 10 books in all - and the selection was so interesting that I wrote 'em down.
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Animal Farm - George Orwell
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
1984 - George Orwell
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
(Odd that the authors were in alphabetical order but they split up the two Orwell books.)
Needless to say, it's thrilling to see three warnings against totalitarianism among their 10 classics - and all of these books have strong individuals in them. I suppose some sort of sales research led to these particular books landing on that precious shelf space - but if so, that's a very good sign. Even in this era of collectivism, classic books celebrating the individual are still selling.
Labels: 1984, books, individualism, Ray Bradbury
posted by B.W. Richardson at
7:30 PM
3 Comments:
Deb and I watched our VHS copy of While You Were Sleeping so many times that we wore the darn thing out and were compelled to buy the DVD a couple of years ago...for considerably more than Target is now charging. Curses!
The other funny thing about those books being at Target is this:
Target's success, and the success of all the Mega-Lo-Mart franchises in America depend on you NOT exercising your individuality and simply going with the flow.
Otherwise, you might (gasp) buy local and then all those bulk, made-in-China-at-slave-wage whatzamadoodles arriving daily in unsecured ocean barge containers and then shipped across across the U.S. on huge, pollution spewing, fossil fuel guzzling semi trucks might not get snatched up by your sweaty little greedy fat American hands! What, oh what would we DO?!?!?!
Sorry, had to get that out.
I'm not calling you fat or greedy or sweaty or a communist... just venting.
Plus, I can't avoid going to those places either sometimes, although I wish I had an alternative.
how the hell did "across across" get in there?? Must have been typing Tourette's.
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