Post by Flying Monkeys on Dec 25, 2017 12:16:06 GMT
| Rank | Title | Author | ||
| 1 | Catch 22 | Joseph Heller | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22 | The novel's title refers to a plot device that is repeatedly invoked in the story. Catch-22 starts as a set of paradoxical requirements whereby airmen mentally unfit to fly did not have to do so, but could not actually be excused. According to the novel, people who were crazy were not obliged to fly missions, but anyone who applied to stop flying was showing a rational concern for his safety and was, therefore, sane and had to fly. By the end of the novel, it is invoked as the explanation for many unreasonable restrictions. The phrase "Catch-22" has since entered the English language, referring to a type of unsolvable logic puzzle sometimes called a double bind. |
| 2 | All Jeeves and Wooster books | PG Wodehouse | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertie_Wooster en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeeves | Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich", he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligence manages to save Wooster or one of his friends from numerous awkward situations. As the first-person narrator of ten novels and over 30 short stories, Wooster ranks as one of the most vivid comic creations in popular literature. |
| 3 | The Last Temptation | Nikos Kazantzakis | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Temptation_of_Christ | The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface that by facing and conquering all of man's weaknesses, Jesus struggled to do God's will without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh. The novel advances the argument that, had Jesus succumbed to any such temptation, especially the opportunity to save himself from the cross, his life would have held no more significance than that of any other philosopher. |
| 4 | Holidays in Hell | PJ O'Rourke | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holidays_in_Hell | Holidays in Hell is a non-fiction book by P.J. O'Rourke about his visits to areas of conflict during the 1980s as a foreign correspondent, as well as to some less high-profile locations. |
