Wednesday, June 11, 2008

My top-five books


I made this list with a friend of mine and thought that y'all would like to view it too.

My top five best/favorite books that I've read (in no particular order):

1) Hammer of the Gods by Stephen Davis: It's a biography on Led Zeppelin and I think it’s the best music biography ever written. Davis goes into each member’s background, gives you a rundown of each guys demons and how they survived as long as they did. Even if you're not a fan of the band, it’s a look at the highs and lows of being a famous musician.

2) Moneyball: My favorite sports book ever. The great part of the book is that its' not just for sports fans. The author goes into the whole history of statistical analysis of baseball that even a mathematics major could appreciate. Also, to get the inside information of how a general manager works has inspired me to become a sports executive.

3) To Be The Man: The autobiography of the best wrestler ever, Ric Flair. If you know who Ric Flair is, you would be the most awesome girl ever. In case you don't know, he's a professional wrestler who has fought for more than 30 years. He's considered by many, including myself, the greatest of all time. His candid and honest portrayal of his life was amazing to me. He speaks of his vices openly and has incredible prospective of his triumphs. I read it at least once a year.

4) Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King: The first and only book that I've ever read by Stephen King, which is surprising because I've seen so many of the movies based on the books. I even remember when I purchased this book. It was at our school book fair in eighth grade and the cover had a green dragon on it and I thought the cover was cool. I'm usually not a fan of books about castles and wizards and spells, hence my ignorance on the whole Harry Potter series, but this book was very intriguing to me. I just loved the storyline and the deception of one brother of another. King does a good job of describing the elements of the story for someone with a limited imagination for that type of stuff like I have.

5) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich: Such a tough choice for this final book. I read this in Sociology class at Vandy and it gave me such a prospective of how the poor people live in our country. Its not in my top five favorite books, but its one of the best books I've ever read under the definitions of the list

Honorable mentions:

-Raisin in the Sun by Hansberry: Second best play that I've ever read and has become a necessity for all black people to read. It’s become the Hamlet of the black community. But the themes and messages of the play are universal. It is also very relevant today.

-The Merchant of Venice: The best play that I've ever read. It was the first Shakespeare work that I read back in fifth grade. We even did a production of it and I played Shylock, so I'm sentimental about this work. The themes of the work are relevant and the wordplay of Shakespeare is legendary and this work shows it.

-A Time to Kill by John Grisham: I remember picking this book up back in seventh grade because it had a cool blue cover. As you can tell by my King book, cool colors equal potential. This book dealt with revenge, racism, family relationships, sex and many other issues all within a legal setting which brought a lot of other elements to the situation. It actually peaked my interest in a legal career for a while.

-Black Boy by Richard Wright: A well-written book about growing up as a young black man in a segregated society.

-All The Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren: I had to get a Commodore on the list.

-Any Rachel Ray book: My favorite cooking show on the Food Network is 30 Minute Meals and her books are solid as well.

-The Miracle of St. Anthony: This is a book about the legendary high school basketball program, St. Anthony's, in Jersey City, N.J. It’s a profile about how Bob Hurley took a run down program in one of the worst areas in the Northeast and gave them discipline on and off the court. Incredible book.

-Foley is Good or Have a Nice Day: Another book about a professional wrestler, this one about Mick Foley. Same attributes as the Ric Flair book.

-The Bad Guys Won! by Jeff Pearlman: A book detailing the New York Mets of the early 1980's and their ultimate triumph winning the World Series in 1986. It also documents the downfall of the team from injuries, drugs, women and other things. I like the honest nature of the author to not just praise the play on the field but to show the exploits of their vices in a true light.

-Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Stephans and The Dirt, the autobiography of Motley Crue: I put these two books together because they may not be the most scholastic choices but they were truly entertaining with the name dropping and the mayhem they experienced.

That’s the list; I would to love to get your list as well.

I was watching Family Guy, but here's some Metallica. It's Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the honorable mention. Sad I didn't make the Top 5, but, hey, being alongside Raisin In The Sun ain't too shabby ...

Best,

Jeff Pearlman
ESPN.com
anngold22@gmail.com