
Since in the main I don't read "urban lit" I really don't want to comment on it. The subject matter for the most part doesn't appeal to me, and looking through the pages of some of the works, the style (...or lack thereof...) of the writing doesn't appeal to me either, although there are exceptions.


I've been thinking about this since The Other Half recently asked me for a list of '25 books every black man should read before age 40' -- one of those impossible tasks that folks ask people to perform on a regular basis. He was asking because his co-workers (or at least the black men under 40 he works with) think he's pretty intelligent and up on things, and wonder how he got to be that way.
The question really is impossible, of course. There are so many great titles to choose from, and how do you limit it to 25? And, for me at least, it tends to change from week to week, as I think of more things which excited me and lead, I suspect, to the formation of my world view. I asked some writer friends for suggestions as well for suggestions as well. Here's mine (not in any real order):
1 The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Dubois
2 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
3 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
4 The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
5 For colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange
6 Native Son by Richard Wright
7 Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

9 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
10 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
11 Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady
12 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13 Fences by August Wilson
14 Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
15 Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
16 The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley

19 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
20 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
21 The Constitution/Declaration of Independence
22 The Plague by Albert Camus
23 Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan
24 A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J Gaines
25 Cane by Jean Toomer
As you might imagine, these are some of the works that deeply influenced me, helping to make me the person I am today. Not all of them are by African-American authors, or even had black people in mind when they were written, but all, I think, tell us something about the nation and the world we live in, and offer ways with which to navigate through it. You may also note I've included some works usually considered "women's books" to the list. It seemed essential for me to do that (their works have helped to save my life over the years).
FYI: Authors most frequently mentioned (their names/works came up more than twice) when I asked this question of friends and fellow writers were: Alice Walker, August Wilson, Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, John Edgar Wideman, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, W. E. B. Dubois, and Walter Mosley.
Most frequently mentioned texts (again they got more than two mentions) were: Works by Baldwin and Wideman (people said "Anything" by these two), Black Boy and Native Son by Richard Wright, theater by August Wilson ("Collected Plays," Fences, "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"), works of Langston Hughes (Collected Poems, The Big Sea, The Ways of White Folks), novels by Walter Moseley (his 'Easy Rawlins' and 'Fearless Jones' series), The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye (Morrison), The Color Purple (Walker), The Fire Next Time (Baldwin), and DuBois'The Souls of Black Folk.
Emperor Marcus says: Go Forth and Read!
4 comments:
I definitely agree. I canceled my subscription to Black Expressions over 10 years ago. I also find it frustrating to try to wade through all of the "urban" fiction in the "African American" section of some of the chain bookstores.
therapturousreader.blogspot.com
Very good list of books. Whether by black authors or not, one cannot argue with the selections.
It would be interesting to take a real poll and actually publish this information in an article for a magazine. It would be great to see a ranking system based on more opinions. How long did this list take you to create? It would take me quite sometime to even think of how or low to rank each book.
Just received a check for $500.
Many times people don't believe me when I tell them about how much you can make by taking paid surveys online...
So I show them a video of myself getting paid $500 for doing paid surveys.
Post a Comment