Five things you wish you'd written

From a Jones challenge off the Books thread...
Here, in no particular order, are five things I wish I'd written.

1: Invisible City, by Pete Hamill. This gorgeous collection of sketches of people and their sadness.
2: The Corner, by David Simon. Gave birth to The Wire. Brilliant in its own right, and brilliantly-reported.
3: Racing in the Streets, by Bruce Springsteen. Hope, loss and a stab at redemption, all in four minutes.
4: A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. More people I know say this is their favorite book than any other. There's good reason for that.
5: "'E was there when 'E was Needed," Jimmy Breslin in London, for the death of Winston Churchill (or any one of a number of other transcendant columns from The World of Jimmy Breslin). He was at his peak here, and at his peak, no one told a story like Breslin.

What are yours?

 

Cat in the Hat
Pokey Little Puppy
Harold and the Purple Crayon
The Bible
How to Eat Fried Worms

 

The Right Stuff
Semi-Tough
Blood Meridian
All The Pretty Horses
As I Lay Dying

 

Not in any particular order.

1. Shirley Povich's story about Don Larsen's perfect game.
2. Double Down's post about frustrated writers who think they're terrible when they're not.
3. The Stevie Nicks song "Stand Back."
4. "Date of Infamy" speech.
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

It Can;t Happen Here
The Naked and Dead
The Glory and The Dream
Green Eggs and Ham
A deposit slip for a $275M powerball winner

 

"I Have A Dream"...
All Over But The Shoutin' by Rick Bragg.
"There's A Wocket In My Pocket" Dr. Seuss.
Jim Murray's Column about the loss of his eyesight (The title escapes me right now).
"Death of a President" William Manchester.

 

Threads like these make me cry because of stories like these...

1) Gay Talese - Frank Sinatra Has A Cold
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ1003-OCT_SINATRA_rev_
2) Wright Thompson - Holy Ground
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=fathersday
3) Jim Murray - If You're Expecting One-Liners
http://www.alydar.com/03/jim-eye.html
4) Rick Reilly - Funny You Should Ask
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/lifeofreilly/1999/0412/
5) Jimmy Breslin - Digging JFK's Grave Was His Honor
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/digging-grave-an-honor.htm

 

For purely financial reasons:

1. The Da Vinci Code
2. The Client
3. Gone With the Wind
4. the first Harry Potter book
5. a check for 100 shares of Google stock at $20 per share, circa 2001 (and sold it for $500/share in late 2006)

For artistic reasons:

1. The Catcher in the Rye
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. the original Baseball Encyclopedia
4. pretty much anything George Orwell ever wrote
5. the pilot for The Sopranos

 

"If you're expecting one-liners," which does not make my list but is one of my favorites.

1) A Tale of Two Cities
2) "The Day Bobby Blew It"
3) Less than Zero
4) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
5) The "Firefly" pilot or "Serenity"

 

Ulysses

The Recognitions

Dispatches

The Great Gatsby

Huckleberry Finn

 

In no particular order:

1. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
2. Gettysburg Address (Lincoln)
3. Miracle at Coogan's Bluff (Smith)
4. Casey At The Bat (Thayer)
5. All The President's Men (Woodstein)

 

On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Moby Dick - Melville
Leaves of Grass - Whitman
Straw for the Fire - Theodore Roethke
Walden - Thoreau