The essential Boston reading list

By adamg on Tue, 04/04/2006 - 4:32pm

Dan Zarella starts the list. Chris Cagle adds to it. Charles Swift compiles the historical addendum.

And I pile on with Cleveland Amory's The Proper Bostonians, which remains a hysterical look at the Brahmins who once ran this town (and which offers the modern reader many "aha!" moments when you see all the family names that to this day are scattered about our streets, institutions and even a city or two).

Topics:

History

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Comments

Don't forget E B White's

By bebere on Tue, 04/04/2006 - 5:44pm.

Don't forget E B White's Trumpet of the Swan. A major reason why I came to Boston was to see if there really were swan boats and a Ritz Carlton.

Posted on Lists of Bests

By tjarrett on Tue, 04/04/2006 - 7:29pm.

This seems like a good time to plug Lists of Bests, a collaborative media list making web app. I started a version of the Definitive Boston Reading List there and am adding some of the titles mentioned in the links above, and other Boston readers should feel free to pile on.

In Honor of My Mother, Let's Not Forget...

By Alison Rose on Wed, 04/05/2006 - 9:20am.

The Late George Apley, by John P. Marquand. One of my mom's favorite books and a truly Boston book to boot. It was out of print for awhile, but has since been reissued in paperback.

why not just pile on the list on puritan city

By Dan Zarrella on Wed, 04/05/2006 - 3:39pm.

instead of starting new lists (on best of lists) and sourcing oddly, why not just comment on puritan city's list as it builds?