English Teachers’ Favorite Books: Mr. Watterson
February 3, 2017
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner
“Like all of Faulkner’s stuff, it’s creepy and has a morbid curiosity about it. When I read it in college, it was the most confusing thing I’d ever encountered, but when I cracked the code and figured out how it was constructed, it became this delicious puzzle to solve. Most of the difficulty lies in the first portion of the text, which is narrated by a narrator who is probably autistic and has no sense of time. In pieces, he describes 19 events of his life, which are merged together without any real indication that he’s changing the subject. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, and you’re looking for this little piece in this little yellow corner.
One of the reasons why I was so interested in taking on the senior AP Lit and Comp course is because I knew this book was on the list. I loved it before I taught it, and teaching your favorite book in the whole world, is the high point of my school year.
In spite of the difficulty, and to some degree because of the difficulty, students end up really liking the challenge of it. When I ask students what [their favorite] book was, most say the Sound and the Fury, and some say it’s the best book they read in high school.”
Other recommendations from Mr. Watterson include:
The Monkeywrench Gang by Edward Abbey
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien
Car Camping by Mark Sundeen
Platte River by Rick Bass
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Deliverance by James Dickey
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Sula by Toni Morrison
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Reivers by William Faulkner
Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
Interview by Madison Olsen