AROUND THE WORLD IN 200 BOOKS

This is the appealing sub-title of Jim Flynn's The Torchlight List (Awa Press)  which is due for publication on 2 December, which everywhere man Finlay Macdonald describes as "an ambitious celebration of the power of literature".

Jim Flynn is on a mission to persuade people, especially young people, to read great works of literature. And he doesn’t just mean classic epics such as War and Peace, although it’s certainly on his list. He’s also talking modern works, from Richard Dawkins’ The Blind Watchmaker to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun – and works in translation you may never have heard of, such as The Vagrants by Yiyun Li and The Hive by Camilo José Cela.

Flynn, who is emeritus professor of politics at Otago University and a leading world expert on intelligence and IQ, has concluded, after fifty years of university teaching, that the best possible education is not studying and sitting exams, but reading for pleasure: novels, histories and other well-written non-fiction, poetry, and plays. And he says people who want to raise the IQ of their children should not only encourage them to read widely from an early age, but set an example by reading great books themselves.

He  expounds these views in his new book which I found to be a fascinating romp through the history of civilisation through books. Whether Flynn is talking about the evolution of human language, the Mexican revolution or the Jewish diaspora, he suggests books you’ll not only love reading, but will come away from filled with a richness of knowledge, effortlessly acquired.

I liked his quote which gives us a clue as to how he chose his title -  “Many of the university professors who are my colleagues no longer read outside the professional literature. Thus, if you read great books, as my Uncle Ed did by torchlight, you will know more than many university professors.”

The Bookman has a  list of titles that I have always used as my own small check on lists of books that I have come across over the years. That list includes The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, Man Alone by John Mulgan, Changing Places by David Lodge, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame, Watership Down by Richard Adams, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, Plumb by Maurice Gee, A Fine Balance by Rohinston Mistry and a handful of others.

It is not at all a complete or balanced list but just one I made up a few years back as a guide to the comprehensiveness of the book lists I came across.

I'm pleased to say that Jim Flynn included all of my brief list in his much more extensive list except for Watership Down by Richard Adams so I give him a big tick.

THE TORCHLIGHT LIST: AROUND THE WORLD IN 200 BOOKS
BY JIM FLYNN
AWA PRESS - RRP $33, 
RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 2, 2010.

Booklovers should put their name down for this title at their bookseller or library now then on 2 December they can check out how many of Jim Flynn's list they have read. I scored 72 !!

Read story from Otago Daily Times, 13 November.