My thoughts on the 1,000 books everyone should read

December 16 2009, Launch Magazine

Once the academic term winds down for the holidays, I find that I can finally start reading for pleasure: something I can’t normally do when I’m expected to read 200-700 pages a week in my classes.

Over the next couple weeks I plan to tackle the rest of Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, Geoffrey York and Loreen Pindera’s People of the Pines, and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series; hopefully more depending on what I end up doing over the break.

Even though I’m a student and I complain about all of the books I have to read during the year, I don’t think I will ever stop loving reading, and I am not alone.

A journalist friend of mine, Joey Coleman, recently asked me an a bunch of other friends via Facebook note for suggestions for books to read over the holidays because he wanted to get away from the things he normally reads for class. Although Joey wanted more classic literature (something I don’t typically tend to be a fan of), I gave him a rather long list of some of my favourite books.

And then I started thinking about how many books have been printed in the last 550 years or so and how many of them are considered must-read books. It turns out that the British newspaper The Guardian has printed a list of the best 1000 novels everyone one should read.

Of that list, I have read only 38, which I find surprising; given how much I love to read and how important literature has been to my university degrees.

I have several shelves filled with books at my parents’ house and another sizable collection with me at school. And yet, I’m always buying more books and don’t ever feel like I have enough. Predictably, I plan on buying some more books over the break.

If you’re looking for something to read over the break, check out The Guardian’s list for a couple of possible options. I think you should also check out Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. It has been my favourite book since I was 12, and I know a few people who also cite that book as one of their favourites. Hugo and Nebula awards have to count for something too.

Books with an astericks denote some of my favourites. They are:

1. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams *
2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
6. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess *
7. Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
9. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
10. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
11. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
12. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
13. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
14. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
15. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides *
16. Time to Kill by John Grisham
17. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
18. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
19. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
20. The Shining by Stephen King
21. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee *
22. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis *
23. The Call of the Wild by Jack London *
24. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
25. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
26. Animal Farm by George Orwell
27. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
28. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
29. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
30. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
31. Maus by Art Spiegelman *
32. Dracula by Bram Stoker
33. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
34. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien *
35. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
36. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
37. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
38. Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Do you have any books you think other TalentEgg readers should check out? Please leave your suggestions!

Book Review: What's My Pee Telling Me

November 19 2009, Launch Magazine

Even though we are adults, many of us have not outgrown toilet humour, myself included.

All immaturities aside, I often wonder if my body is functioning normally and I know I am not alone: this is one of the reasons why Dr. Oz is so popular.

I recently received Josh Richman and Anish Sheth’s What’s My Pee Telling Me? as a gift. And because apparently I go to the washroom frequently (said the person who gifted the book to me), I decided to give it a read (and I was [not-so-secretly] also hoping for some punny toilet humour).

The book is the “sequel” to the best-selling What’s Your Poo Telling You?, which came out in 2007. Like its predecessor, What’s My Pee Telling Me? is about your bodily functions. Although this book focuses primarily on urination, it also delves into a few others areas of your gastrointestinal tract.

Richman and Sheth were college roommates, and both shared a fascination with bodily functions and were amused with fart jokes. Sheth later went on to medical school where he became a gastroenterologist, so this subject matter is something he is very familiar with. Some years later, the two decided to write a book, which became What’s Your Poo Telling You?

What’s My Pee Telling Me? goes beyond silly and immature humour and actually provides reasons why your body functions they way it does.

It explains the different properties of urine, what can cause it to change, and does the same for poop and flatulence. The fourth section of the book debunks various myths that have developed about the human body, such as if you urinate on yourself it will remove the sting of a jellyfish. (It doesn’t. I feel that Joey, Chandler and Monica from Friends lied to me.)

The book is also filled with little tidbits, offering suggestions on how to stay healthy as well as bathroom habits throughout history. Additionally, it has amusing illustrations and lots of toilet humour. I found it hilarious, of course.

Perhaps most importantly, I learned that my body functions normally (more or less, in terms of bathroom habits anyway), and I know what signals when it is not.

If you’re the type who likes to read while doing your business, What’s My Pee Telling Me? a good book for you to occupy yourself with while you’re in the washroom. If you don’t read in the bathroom it a great book of reference that you can use well into the future.