The Top 11 and why it Matters
The Top 11 and why it Matters by: Ben Washburn
In an effort to showcase, promote, highlight and remind of two American authors and novelists with the work of Jack London plus Mark Twain, I set out to post this piece to those reading today in July 2020.
Our startup-world and its technology have brought dynamic and massive amounts of information to our fingertips in the form of search and searching to locate the basic information we want and need. SEO or search-engine-optimization is the online or world-wide-web of organization, cataloging and retrieval within seconds and even split seconds.
Before the rewind button on a VCR and remote to rewind a VHS cassette tape or Throwback Thursday on Facebook or a decade of disruption and new companies spelled in new ways, we had our norms and ways within our society over time to locate, educate, life-long learn and find the hottest, greatest reads, books, short-story’s, poems and essays for entertainment, education, enjoyment and the like.
Of course you were in the know if you read these greats, their work and legacy’s on us all through their pioneering influence on education, enjoyment and the pursuit of happiness as told through the lens of entertaining perfection that enabled dreaming, learning, discussion, education and all that accompanies reading.
Well, folks, it is time to “dust off” these great reads just in time for an upcoming fall school year and for us all. Any and all ages that frankly…can read are welcome. Come one, come all, get in your reading mood, hack your time online or just incorporate these into your things-to-do lists or your favorite book clubs or an old fashioned book report assignment.
Personally and professionally, I understand and can relate to ‘information overload’ or ‘propaganda’ or ‘intrusive technology’ or too many ‘addictive apps and ads’ or finally, too much ‘screen time’, etc. etc. etc.
In today’s environment of work-from-home, co-working, uncertainty, day care and schooling challenges and preparing for yet another American fall season of backpacks, homework, campfires, football, fall soccer, and not forgetting that it is still summer, take this friendly reminder now from yours truly!
The power of a good read, great book, poem, awesome quick read and the knowledge and entertainment these discussions bring to book clubs and classrooms, look no further than these American authors and novelists:
1.) The Call of the Wild by: Jack London (American novelist and book series writer)
2.) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by: Mark Twain (American author and humorist) book is also known as the greatest American novel ever written.
As mentioned, friendly reminder the recommended age for reading these is all ages able to read, however your local superintendent and teacher and librarian can advise you as well.
The Top-11 (in no particular order) is:
· Robert Lewis Stevenson
· F. Scott Fitzgerald
· Charles Dickens
· John Steinbeck
· Edgar Allan Poe
· Walt Whitman
· Ralph Waldo Emerson
· Emily Dickinson
· Ralph Ellison
· Oscar Wilde
· Walter Scott
The fact of the matter is that these 11 & 2 with many others to follow, are to be read, celebrated, and discussed while their works spread like wildfires to scatter into our American culture, society and classrooms for every child and child within us to read them again and now.
Ben Washburn
BenWashburn Dotcom