Five things you wish you'd written

1) At Swim-Two-Birds (Flann O'Brien).
2) Common Sense and/or The Rights of Man (Tom Paine).
3) A Short History of A Small Place (TR Pearson).
4) Confederacy of Dunces (JK Toole).
5) Visions of Johanna (Bob Dylan).

 

Fiction
1) Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson
2) Father and Son, Larry Brown
3) Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
4) Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie
5) Racing in the Street, Springsteen

Nonfiction
1) Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger
2) Counting Coup, Larry Coulton
3) Road Swing, Steve Rushin
4) Soul on Ice, Charles Pierce
5) The Fiesta in the Town of Ghosts, Gary Smith

 

Damn good column -- from back when it wasn't quite yet entirely about Loopy and his family.

 

For love...


1. James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time."
2. Ralph Wiley's "White Lies" (as thorough a skewering of both O.J. Simpson and his detractors as has been written) - http://espn.go.com/page2/s/wiley/021113.html
3. Friday Night Lights. Everything a sports book could be.
4. David Ritz's "Divided Soul: The Life and Times of Marvin Gaye."
5. "Wish You Were Here." Song specifically, album in general.


For dough...

1. E.T.
2. The instruction manual to the iPod. "Turn the wheel round and round..."
3. One episode of "Law and Order." I'm told the residual rate is lovely.
4. A brief letter to Warren Buffett convincing him that a wild night at the 54 back in '79 left him with a son he won't want to tell his people about. Know what I mean?
5. "Dark Side of the Moon."

 

1. The SI obituary of Mickey Mantle that included the line "The world will always belong to those who swing from the heels."
2. "Fortunate Son" by CCR.
3. "Spirits in the Night" by Bruce Springsteen...I'd kill to be able to turn a phrase like "She kissed me just right, like only a lonely angel can."
4. "Boss" by Mike Royko
5. "The Godfather," by Mario Puzo. Newsweek once called it the best bad book ever written. The guy wrote two critically-acclaimed books that couldn't sell for shit, then writes this potboiler that gives him money, fame and the opportunity to write two Oscar-winning screenplays. As Don King would say, "Only in America!"

 

North Dallas Forty
Eight Men Out
The Fullback
The pilot for Pete Kelly's Blues
The pilot for Remington Steele

 

I don't know about five, but here's one thing I wish I had written:

Dear Boss:
I won Powerball. Fuck you.

old_tony

 

Hamlet
Macbeth
Othello
King Lear
Richard III

""Kings, for such a tomb, would wish to die.'' -- John Milton

 

1. All The President's Men
2. The Gospel of Luke (the original investigative reporter)
3. Two Cathedrals episode of West Wing
4. The Toughest Coach There Ever Was (Frank Deford)
5. The Mark Kram story on Ali-Frazier in Manila

 

The Armies of the Night
The Right Stuff
Semi-Tough
Johnny U
An American Requiem

 

Confederates in the Attic
Bringing the Heat
An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States
Jurassic Park
Washington's Farewell Address

 

Farewell, My Lovely -- Raymond Chandler -- A sad, sappy story told incredibly well with lines like, "...he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food. "
The Sound and the Fury -- William Faulkner -- Read it six times and you START to get it.
Bull Durham -- Ron Shelton -- There's little to say about the game that isn't said, shown or revealed here.
God Is a Bullet -- Johnette Napolitano -- If I could write four lines as tight as the first four in this song, I'd be happy forever.
Reggie at the Bat -- Jules Loh -- The first story that made me think about what it would be like to sit in a press box and write about sports.