...Hemingway's Recommended Reading List...30mar14...

There is a terrific article as to not have to rehash it on openculture.com, about Arnold Samuelson and his request for writing advice from Ernest Hemingway.  Samuelson was a 22-year-old who not only sought out Hemingway, but became his assistant for a year.  At a dollar a day, the young man slept aboard Hemingway's cabin cruiser, Pilar.  When Hemingway took out the cruiser for fishing expeditions or make runs to Cuba, he would offer the young man advice, eventually culminating into this article for Esquire.

I'll make no insipid allusions to Hemingway, but I ran into some parallels of books I enjoyed in my younger years.  The hand-written note is below, but I've repeated it here for easier reading.  I've also included links that will get you free versions:

Stephen Crane - "The Blue Hotel" or "The Open Boat"
Gustave Flaubert - "Madame Bovary"
James Joyce - "Dubliners"
Somerset Maugham - "Of Human Bondage"
Thomas Mann - "Buddenbrooks"
"The Oxford Book of English Verse"
e.e. cummings - "The Enormous Room"
Emily Bronte - "Wuthering Heights"
Henry James - "The American"

There was a time, so long ago - when I had tons of time to commit to reading and generally enjoying life - I was lucky to walk a similar track.  So, Ernest and I may not have made exactly eye-to-eye, in fact I don't know how he would react to my brooding unlike-ability. But to downplay this whole thing, I'll describe each story the worst way possible, in the voice of a disinterested high school sophomore that is totally into YA but can't stand what the teacher assigns:

Stephen Crane - "The Open Boat" - it's about these four guys that are adrift in the ocean, but then they decide to go risk their lives for shore.  They wish they had Percy Jackson there to roil the ocean waves.  I just learned that word, 'roils'.
Somerset Maugham - "The Razor's Edge" - worst character name, Larry Darrell, who sounds like a 70s sitcom next door neighbor, is really sad after his experience in World War I.  Even a two-dollar hooker couldn't make the man move until both had respective epiphanies.
Thomas Mann - "Death in Venice" - dude is a little too interested in a blonde kid at the beach.  I'm like 'what?' there's a beach in Venice?  And why are their vacationers during the plague?
"The Oxford Book of English Verse" - there were so many prints of this book, it rivaled the Bible.  JK, the Bible is always number one.  I totally looked it up.  It's a fact.
e.e. cummings - "100 Selected Poems" - love that he wrote short poems, I'm mean really, really short poems.  It reminds me of getting a handful of fortune cookies and then having to do a book report on it.  Give me more, bitches!
Emily Bronte - "Wuthering Heights" - omg, I can't say anything bad about this book, because I'm tearing up right now.  I just pray it never happens to me.  So sad and beautiful.
Henry James - "The Ambassadors"  - Can anyone explain this one to me?  It's in English, but the words aren't making any sense in my head.