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Let's say you are a teacher making recommendation to a beginner student of English literature who wants to read through the collection of all 300+ authors on this website.
From author a - z, what would be a good order to read through all of them?
By alphabetical order?
By chronological order?
By style or genra?
By reputation?
Thanks in advance.
I guess that would depend on your goals. personally, I'd go with style or genra, probably in chronological order (sorry for putting two of your options together). It helps to draw comparisons between different works and also to have a good background of the different eras. It easier to draw comparisons when you have the comparitive works still fresh in your mind.
I would recommend... (hmmm.... let me think)... I KNOW!
"Too Small For Supernova"
http://toosmallforsupernova.org
followed of course by the other 300 books in any order you please....
I would recommend reading in order of genre/style, but, perhaps, with a little mixing every now-and-then, so as not to constantly read the same, at times, monotonous styles.
For example, along with reading some common classic fiction, I will, on occasion, read a book of poetry also to add variety.
By the way, welcome to the forum!
The very last thing they should read is a pamphlet on retirement benefits, since by the time they finish all the books, they will be elderly.
Seriously, alphabetical makes no sense.
If one could choose an order from most simple to most complex, with the notion that they will mature in understanding and taste and appetite as they progress then such a scheme would have merit.
I know! If there are statistics on the popularity of books by age group, then readings might be chosen which matches their age and interests.
Readings might integrated with a program of good essays, so the students would learn what to look for and how to write, analyze, critique. That URL under Vonnegut essays has some really great essays.
One should definitely read Milan Kundera's "The Art of the Novel" at some point. Also, Nabokov's essay on Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is a must. Wallace Steven's essays on the imagination, "The Necessary Angel," are invaluable in understanding the creative process of both the author and the reader.
Everyone should read Ursula LeGuin's "The Lathe of Heaven" AND see the movie. And how can you not read Herman Hesse' "Siddhartha?"
Things like Camus' "The Stranger" and Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea" are so short, so elegantly simple in vocabulary, and suitable for younger readers.
I loved J.D. Salingers "Catcher in the Rye" as a teenager, but now I find it somewhat tedious. But, now, in middle age, I might enjoy Franny & Zoey more than I did as a teenager.
Every young child should read "Charlotte's Web" and "The Giving Tree", and even "Runaway Bunny" (and they should see the film "Wit" which has a reading of "Runaway Bunny" during a very dramatic death scene; a film which is in general about someone who devotes their life to the poetry of Donne)
For a review of "Wit" see:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/241
http://www.ransomfellowship.org/M_Wit.html
Save War and Peace for the final readings.
It would be nice if a program in literature spanning a number of years would integrate the viewing of certain films with the reading of the novels. It is helpful to see the 1958 version of Moby Dick in conjunction with reading the book, or to see the movie version of "Old Man and the Sea" with Spencer Tracy.
When I was 15 or 16, I had to read "Pride and Prejudice," and I hated it. Now, in middle age, I have started reading it, and I can enjoy it in a way I could not as a teenager. Different people are ready for different experiences at differing times in their lives. Such readiness is a moving "window of opportunity." If we do not enjoy certain experiences by a certain age, then that window of opportunity passes us by forever.
An acquaintance in India once explained his notion of particular kinds of "karma." As an adult, he conquered his karma for "little red fire truck" which so plagued him in childhood.
I also would reccomend to read by genre/theme. If you are a teacher, you must have a guidance, for instance, for this week/month topic. If reading order is done based on author, I think the result would kinda random (hope you know what I mean :) )..But reading in genre order, would bring boredom if it's done in quite a long term. So you also need to modify the reading pattern as well.
Unless there is a specific theme one wishes to follow, or a specific reason to read one 'theme' or genre, or one author over another in a specific order.........dump them all in a hat and trust to the fates........a reading regimen should have some laxacity for a student faced with such a daunting task as this 300 tome perdition....
Reputation/Genre/Personal taste with all the Russians lumped in at the very end.