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The "Mad Men" reading list should keep you busy until Season Five
By Brian FairbanksOctober 18th, 2010, 10:29 amComments (4)
Last night, AMC's Mad Men wrapped up its stellar fourth season with Don Draper's fiery death at the wheel of his Cadillac Coupe de Ville. (Just kidding -- I haven't watched it yet, don't spoil it.) Now what are you going to do with your Sunday nights? Watch Boardwalk Empire? I have another suggestion: catch up on your reading.
The New York Public Library has been keeping tabs on every book that has made a cameo this season... and the list is quite surprising. It includes two books I couldn't make it through, one I refuse to ever pick up (spoiler: Atlas Shrugged), an F. Scott Fitzgerald book I haven't read, and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which I just needed an excuse to pick up anyway.
Here's the list:
Meditations in an Emergency - Frank O’Hara
The Best of Everything - Rona Jaffe
Confessions of an Advertising Man - David Ogilvy
Babylon Revisited and Other Stories - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword - Ruth Benedict
Exodus - Leon Uris
Ship of Fools - Katherine Ann Porter
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone
The Group - Mary Mccarthy
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon
The NYPL also has a bonus list of suggested followup titles, which includes Revolutionary Road, a book about advertising, and A Double Scotch: How Chivas Regal and the Glenlivet Became Global Icons by F. Paul Pacult. Enjoy it with your scotch.
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Commentarium (4 Comments)
Shot. If Don dies, it's like a monologuist killing himself: end of show. Like Spaulding Gray. But I could see Pete ascending to the throne, and slowly closing the door on Trudy, like Michael closing the door on Kay at the end of The Godfather.
Dude, pick up Atlas Shrugged. That book is full of strong opinions and interesting characters. You might argue wholly against the idea, but it's a great read.
Yeah, why refuse to pick up Atlas Shrugged? I don't care for Ayn Rand's philosophy, but its lasting popularity at least made me curious enough to read it.
That said, I don't understand why people think it has good characters. I thought the characters were more personifications of ideas, and weren't believable as human beings. Makes sense, as she was interested in her philosophy more than character development. If you get bogged down and give up during that 50-page speech, nobody will think less of you, but refusing to read it just strikes me as strange.
you forgot to add: "Sterling's Gold"