Ji Yeon [Everything We Are]

One of my biggest fears has always been that I would father complete idiots. This fear has shown it's ugly head in various ways, to the way that I treat women, to siblings and elders, to actual children- single mothers and so forth. It has been the basis for my absolute lack of faith in today's youth when I'm riding the train or the bus in complete silence just... observing and absorbing the words, mannerisms, actions of the ill-fated populace.

Don't get me wrong. I'm SO FAR from perfect. Any of my friends will gladly tell you a story from the library of "Tony is a Jackass." This library is stocked with nakedness, marriage, alcohol, drug use, violence and vomit. I'm full of shit, I'm always knee deep in scandal and a bit of a manipulator. However, I think they can all agree that when it's absolutely needed, my brain is a lethal weapon that is not afraid at all to walk out on that mound to save the game. (and my life in several occasions.)

Anyway, I was going through my bookshelves looking for a specific book to let someone borrow when it occurred to me that this person had come to me for the book instead of the library. I was completely touched, yet at the same time my scatterbrained mind began to race. See, most folk who are scatterbrained will tell you. We can connect dots like clockwork. We can interrelate a can of Lysol and nuclear fusion in normal conversation while standing in line at Wendy's figuring which combo would taste better. I began to think why hadn't she read this book already? Just last week she was explaining to me why Beyonce's new single was her "coming of age...BLAH BLAH BLAH" yet she had not ever read, nor heard of "1984" She's 3 years older than me.

Whatever happened to 'getting lost in a book'? It seems as though nowadays the general public is being force fed their imagination through the mental gluttony of music videos, 'reality TV' and video games. It seems possibilities used to be endless, and now that has faded to either "slingin' crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot" as my boy so cleverly put it. (The Notorious B.I.G., "Things Done Changed" ('Ready To Die' LP)

I guess I fear my offspring will be a part of the mindless masses connected to the Matrix. It was Groucho Marx who said that TV was very educational- every time it was on he went to to the next room and read a book. HA. I bet if that were true today, kids wouldn't be the way they are. I'm not saying I know how the world is supposed to be, I just wish folk had a more... open outlook towards life. A creative-view towards what tomorrow will bring. I'm SO sick of hearing and seeing that it's all about "money, and bitches...aristocracy." (although they never use that last word.)

...*sigh* maybe T.H. White was right when he implied that if we had wings we would be to interested in God's majesty to be dull, or warmongers. ('The Once and Future King')

So I decided to compile a list of SOME books I will demand my child have already read and understood by the age of 15. Feel free to look and wonder if you've read any of them.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not saying that if you read any of these it all of sudden makes you smart. I'm not saying if you haven't read any of these, you're an idiot. I'm not that kind of pretentious fuckwad. I'm simply saying I would like for my offspring to have a basic understanding of humanity, life...and classic literature. These have greatly helped me over the years, and I greatly believe they will help any who read them. The "Constant" once said about me that I'm the greatest survivor she's ever met. Maybe it's because I've read these. Maybe it's because the way I was raised. Maybe it's because God looks out for me a lot. Who knows? Read the books.
(These ARE NOT in order of importance.)

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -Mark Twain
2. Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
3. That Damned Human Race- Mark Twain
4. What Is Man?- Mark Twain
5. Animal Farm- George Orwell
6. 1984- George Orwell
7. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret- Judy Blume
8. Black Boy- Richard Wright
9. Catch 22- Joseph Heller
10. The Catcher In The Rye- J.D. Salinger
11. The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
12. Mein Kampf- Adolf Hitler
13. Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes
14. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Mark Twain

15. The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde

16. Aesop's Fables- Aesop

17. A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens

18. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald

19. The Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison

20. The Invisible Man- H.G. Wells

Now I'm ending it here, because I'm curious to see what my readers will put. (Which would also explain the omission of certain books because I know they'll put them. My actual list has 30 more books.)

"Everything we are. Everything we have. Everything we do." - 'The Call', Os Guinness