I couldn't let the week pass without giving my 2 cents on books everyone should read before graduation high school, after Tricia and Jason.

I'll admit that I haven't read all of the books on the original list, nor Tricia's or Jason's. I'll agree with "Catcher in the Rye" (which I just read for the first time this year), but I'm not sure if I think the others they named should be required.

I'll add to my list F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," which spurred in-depth conversations in my 11th-grade honors English class about symbolism and good writing. Since then, "Gatsby" has been one of my all-time favorite books.

I might also add to the list "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, which I just read for the first time this week. My ninth-grade honors English class opted to read Bram Stoker's "Dracula" instead. The "Dracula" reading has come in handy for all the vampire knowledge I obtained (totally helpful when watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer to know how vampires can be killed), but I missed out on Bradbury's classic that hammers home the importance of reading, learning and not censoring. I wish I would have read this book in high school.

I don't like that this list I made includes no female writers. Tricia's pick of "My Sister's Keeper" is a good one, in my opinion, because Jodi Picoult is a fantastic writer (seriously, Jason), and "My Sister's Keeper" may be my favorite book of hers. I also don't have any modern literature on this list. It's tough to keep it just to three books.

While I was trying to decide what books I would want to include on my list, all I could think about is how important it is for people to read -- no matter what they read. Literacy is a big key to success. We saw this in theaters with "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire," when Precious and her classmates were encouraged to write whatever they wanted to write every day, and to read their journals to their classmates. Their teacher helped them improve their literacy skills, just from encouraging them to exercise them.

On a more personal note, a former roommate of mine did the same sort of exercise to help middle-schoolers during her student teaching in college. When she got to the school, several of the students were failing reading class. She told each student who was failing that they needed to come in either before school, during lunch or after school and read. She came in early, stayed late and ate lunch in the classroom to ensure that the kids would read. When they raised their grades, they did not have to come in any more; but many of them continued to do so. By the end of the school year, no one was failing -- all because their teacher asked them to sit and read.


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

Picoult, eh?

I like Jodi Picoult but...

High schoolers should read modern authors but...

You know what? Never mind. No “buts.” If students don’t read Picoult specifically, they should read someone like Picoult.

There are plenty of current authors who deserve study and discussion, and they would interest the students more than Crime and Punishment.

So while I might not include Picoult in my trio of books high schoolers should read before they graduate, I like the logic that lead you to include her.

My list offers no surprises:

1. Catcher in the Rye — I was not in the legion of students who considered Catcher their favorite book. (I think most of them like it because it’s the first book they’ll read with a specific curse in it.) I found Holden’s ranting tiresome instead of insightful, but I’d be foolish to deny the connection this book has with teenagers. I never related to Holden, but Catcher is still a rite of passage.

2. Macbeth — High school students should read Shakespeare before they graduate. The only problem is time has rendered Shakespearean prose ponderous. Fortunately, Macbeth has enough sex and violence to keep the groundlings engaged. It also helps that Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest play. It’s not Shakespeare’s best work (that’d probably be Hamlet) or even my favorite (either As You Like It or Taming of the Shrew;) but it is the play high schoolers are most likely to enjoy.

3. Pride and Prejudice — I wanted to include a translated title like One Hundred Years of Solitude or African staple Things Fall Apart. Y’know, something to let the kids know that non-English-speaking countries can write, also. I considered including a Thomas Hardy book just because he’s my favorite writer, but neither of those ideas work. I would have been bored by One Hundred Years of Solitude if I read it in high school, and Hardy’s themes are not universal enough to resonate with everyone. But Pride and Prejudice — it’s essentially the best book about dating ever. I don’t know if all the guys in the classroom would relate, but they should still have to read it.

On an unrelated note, Electric Literature is having a writing contest on its Twitter page. The best tweet with the #stuffmymusesays hashtag will win a Sony eReader. The contest lasts until Friday and will be judged by Colson Whitehead.

Some early entries —

@AndreaSeigel: Take off your pants. The ideas can’t get in.

@Vanessa_LW: It could be strep. It could also be leprosy. The internet makes self-diagnosis easy.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

I don’t care if it’s Wednesday. It’s time to get random.

Welcome to the mid-week melange.

First, Amazon said they would “ultimately” make Macmillan books available again. Apparently, there is no rush. As of Tuesday evening, Macmillan books were still unavailable from Amazon’s bookstore except through third-party vendors.

Second, the headline says it all. (Apparently, The Onion writers concoct their headlines first. Then, they worry about the story. That explains why the headlines are the best thing about The Onion.)

Speaking of J.D. Salinger — the link above references Salinger, in case you were wondering when we spoke of him — Cleveland has its own genius/hermit. Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, has not done any interviews since 1989; but he broke his silence with a short but sweet interview with The Plain Dealer.

The best part — besides actually hearing from Watterson — is that he still has the wit that made Calvin and Hobbes so much fun.

Q: How do you want people to remember that 6-year-old and his tiger?

A: I vote for “Calvin and Hobbes, Eighth Wonder of the World.”

Finally, this has nothing to do with books but it will fascinate you.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

Like most of those who love the craft of writing and the joy of reading, I was saddened by the death of J.D. Salinger this week.

To the generations of students since the 1951 publication of his "Catcher in the Rye," he proved that not all classic literature was composed a century before their birth, that modern authors were deserving of study, that a gifted writer could create a character that could touch so many.

That teenage angst was universal.

His reclusiveness only added to the mystique.

We are all left with our interpretations of his works because he never dispelled any of our notions.

Salinger will live on in Holden Caulfield and Franny and Zooey.

He inspired many authors that followed. And while I have no doubt read and enjoyed some of those works, I think it's his inspiration of readers that may be more enduring.

This year thousands more students will be introduced to Caulfield. For many, he will be the first character in a required reading assignment they can identify with. And for some that revelation will spark a lifetime love of reading.

Thank you, Mr. Salinger.

- Tricia Ambrose

P.S., Jason, I'm going to guess he answer to your book summary is The Koran. I say that not because your clues were helpful, but because I know that is what you're currently reading.

My New Year’s resolution is to stop taking my anger out on my night reporter.

Let’s see how long that lasts.

The end of the holidays is a great time to talk about regrets. Maxed out your credit cards? Drank your weight in egg nog? Hooked up with the wrong person at the office Christmas party? There’s plenty to regret by January.

GoodReads is asking people what they regret reading.

Unsurprisingly, Stephenie Meyer’s polarizing Twilight series own the four of the five top slots. The list was littered with bestsellers. (It makes sense. The more a book is read, the more it can be regretted.)

I was more surprised that Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones and J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye took the seventh and eighth slot, respectively.

A few other critical darlings appeared on the list, which was compiled by popular vote. Ayn Rand, Toni Morrison and Thomas Hardy all made the top 50. (I guess some vengeful high school students could have voted, but how many of them are trolling GoodReads?)

I rarely regret reading a book, because I usually get something — a character, quote or single turn of phrase — that I like. For example, I loathed much of Finnegan’s Wake, but I still enjoyed some of Joyce’s coinages. (My favorites were caligulate, meandertale and lustsleuth.)

A book’s bad would have to severely outweigh its good before I regretted reading it. That having been said, I could see why Meyer would be an easy target.

She got some critical buzz, raising people’s expectations, and her plots deal with high-school concerns and move at a glacial pace. In fact, Twilight is one of the few books that I would say I regretted reading. (Heart of Darkness, voted 94, would be another.)

I imagine Tricia, with her no-book-is-good-or-bad policy, would regret nothing. Am I wrong?

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

Two things, and I’ll make them quick so you can get to your holiday weekend. (I grieve for you if you are on of the unfortunates who have to work Friday.)

First, United States District Court Judge Deborah A. Batts ruled on the Salinger case. Fredrik Colting, otherwise known as John David California, cannot release “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.”

I am not shocked, nor am I disappointed. I wanted a sequel to “Catcher in the Rye” like Amy Winehouse wanted rehab. (That is, to say, even if it was good for me, I still wouldn’t want it.)

But if you want to read Rye II: Holden’s Golden Years, you can probably find a copy online. It’s already been published in Britain.

You’ll notice Colting played the naive Swede again in the linked story. He previously said, “We don’t sue people in Sweden.” This time, he writes in an e-mail, “Call me an ignorant Swede, but the last thing I thought possible in the U.S. was that you banned books.”

Once again, I wonder how Colting didn’t see this coming. Has he never read anything about Salinger the last 40 years? The man refused movie rights to Steven Spielberg. He stopped a college theater troupe from performing a stage version of “Catcher.” Did he really think Salinger was going to let the sequel or parody or whatever-you-want-to-call-it pass unmolested?

Second, Newsweek has compiled a list of Top 100 books. I know, I know. These things got old a decade ago, but Newsweek took an interesting tact. Instead of gathering a group of experts, they used previous existing lists to compile their own.

The Modern Library list, St. John’s College reading list and Oprah all factor into the final ranking.

And the list itself? These things are subjective and should be treated as such. My favorite author, Thomas Hardy, didn’t write any of the top 100. He was trumped by everyone from Herodotus to A. A. Milne.

I couldn’t find the mathematical formula that Newsweek used to compile the list. I suspect there was still some decision-making done. How else do all four of the Shakespeare selections wind up contiguous?

A couple of other interesting patterns appear. The late 20s and early 30s are littered with social manifestos. “Democracy in America,” “The Social Contract,” “Das Kapital,” “Leviathan,” and “The Prince” are all within eight books of each other. (All of them outrank “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Hamlet.”)

Do I agree with the list? Of course not. These things are designed to start arguments, not finish them. So my suggestion is find someone who likes to read, show them the list and listen to them rant for an hour or so about how “Crime and Punishment” was slighted.

If you’re smart, you’ll start the argument around 3:30 p.m. so you can quietly segue into a long weekend.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

On Fridays, the blog
submits to the randomness —
Call it “the melange”

My coworkers have graciously submitted haiku for the blog. Fortunately, for both my readers, they are better writers than I.

Sandra Klepach
Wild cherry blossoms
Pastures, China, D.C., Suave
Rub them in my hair

John Bertosa (who you may recall as my nemesis)
Pennant race is on,
ball lands deep into the night --
There’s always next year

Michael Butz
I’m riding alone
On a bicycle for two
Hands off handlebars

Brandon Baker
MCing and DJing
Form the tenets of Hip-Hop
Beats, art, “Future Shock”

Tricia Ambrose
Economic mess
Houses, autos, banks, oh my
Will it ever end?

Jamie Ward (who has clearly been reading Nietzsche)
Man’s will to power
stolen by the lamb, self-worth
is gone, suffer more

One last awful haiku from Jason Lea
Rain drizzles on roof —
I want to splash in puddles
but I have to work

Two last links, then I release you to the weekend. First, the judge has temporarily barred the publication of “Coming Through the Rye” in the U.S.

Second, J.K. Rowling is being accused of plagiarism. This isn’t surprising. A person can only make so much money before someone sues.

—Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

P.S. Willy the Wizard? Really?

Three short thoughts. I’ll try to be succinct.

First, ain’t nothin’ wrong with a little book-wise junk food, Tricia. It would be hypocritical for me to tout Dr. Seuss and make fun of your Harlequin fetish.

With that having been said, didn’t I just loan you my wife’s copy of “A Good Man is Hard to Find?” How is a Robin Palmer’s gift of trashy romance a higher priority than my gift of Flannery O’Connor?

And I shudder to think what sort of lasciviousness comes from the “home and family” Harlequin line?

Second, a U.S. District Court Judge has sentenced a guy to write a book. Dr. Andrew G. Bodnar was convicted of lying to the government, and his pharmacy company was fined $1 million for breaking antimonopoly laws. (Ugh, I put that sentence in double-passive tense. Bad Jason.)

You can read the whole story here.

What I want to know is, if Bodnar gets his book published, who gets the profits? Violent criminals aren’t allowed to make money from their memoirs. Should this guy? Moreover, can the judge throw Bodnar in jail if he gets writer’s block?

I contacted our local expert on creative sentencing, Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti, to grade the district court judge’s work. (Cicconetti is an old hand at creative sentencing. He’s ordered people to wear chicken suits, spend a night in the cold, and spell out apologies in pennies.)

Cicconetti said: I applaud Judge Urbina on his creative sentence.

Relevant justice should be the norm, rather than the exception, in cases where the punishment allows others to more fully understand the underlying offense and the possible consequences. Most importantly, the Defendant must relive his crime and better recognize the seriousness of his activity. It is simply to easy to "blow off" a suspended jail sentence and, perhaps some probation, leaving the Defendant with only a sense of relief as he walks out of the courthouse.

Finally, we have some more details on the Salinger law suit.

The best line in the story comes from the defendant, Fredrik Colting.

“In Sweden, we don’t sue people.”

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

JD Salinger is suing someone who has written a sequel of sorts to Catcher in the Rye.

The story is called 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye. It tells the story of a 76-year-old Holden Caulfield as he escapes from a nursing home and “embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York.”

The writer is a Swedish/American travel writer who uses the nom de plume John David California. He claims to have discovered Salinger’s masterpiece in an abandoned cabin in Cambodia. (Whatever man, he discovered Catcher in his sophomore English class like everybody else.)

Salinger’s attorneys have called the book a “rip-off pure and simple.”

This story raises three questions:
1. How much control do authors have over their creations?
2. Should California be permitted to release his book?
3. Did J.D. California think Salinger’s lawyers weren’t going to fight him?

Let’s address the last question first. California and Windupbird Publishing had to figure that Salinger or some proxy would sue. Salinger, 90, is notoriously protective of his work. Even though he could probably get a $500,000 advance for his grocery list, Salinger has not published a book in decades. He refuses to be interviewed or to sell the film rights to his story. (Thank God. I don’t need to see Jake Gyllenhaal playing Holden Caulfield.)

California had about the same chance of avoiding litigation as I would if I wrote Harry Potter and the Unhappy Marriage that Ends in a Vitriolic Custody Battle.

I’m not sure the legality of California’s situation; but I suspect Salinger and his attorneys will be able to block the book’s release.

Now here comes the hard question. Should they?

Should California be permitted to release his story?

Sure, Rye II: Electric Boogaloo might be hack work on par with Star Trek fan fiction. But it might be like Jon Clinch’s Finn, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead or Gregory Maguire’s modern fairy tales. Clinch might not be Mark Twain, and Tom Stoppard isn’t Shakespeare but their stories have merit of their own.

Makal Gilmore wrote, “When you create characters and a storyscape that occupy somebody else’s imagination, you lose the sole authority to determine how that work resounds in other’s dreams.”

This is especially true for corporately owned characters. Could you imagine if people could no longer write Mickey Mouse or Batman stories because their creators’ estates interceded?

Salinger can’t stop California and others from imagining The Further Adventures of Holden Caulfield. (Though he may be able to stop them from being published.)

I suspect someone will ultimately publish a sequel to Catcher. It may be under the auspices of Salinger’s estate decades after his death. It could be this June, if Salinger withdraws his objection. (Unlikely.)

Either way, it will not surpass Salinger or tarnish Catcher’s reputation.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

P.S. Other bad sequel ideas:

1985. Big Brother Discovers Whitesnake.

Richmond Heights. A modern retelling of Wuthering Heights in which Heathcliff can’t pass a school levy.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies