Good list. I think The White Ship is underrated. At The Mountains of Madness is arguably the best story he ever wrote.

Ha, “normal fiction”.

Idk how old you are but kudos to you if you are under 30. I think the goals you have in this endeavor should be implemented by all for it is easy (speaking for myself) to utterly forget books you've read. Only in my 50s have I started to keep track and make notes about my reading material.

McCarthy ain’t easy but very edifying if you stick with it. Probably one of the most impressive American writers in the last 100 years.

The Road is McCarthy’s most accessible and arguably his best book. Ultimately it has a positive message and moral lessons for father/son relationships. But also there is some deep, dark, scary, shit in it that when subtracted from the post-apocalyptic setting are things that regular people have to face and endure though not in the same circumstances. McCarthy never lets on about how the world got to where it is, it’s all about survival and trust. Is everyone just out for themselves or is there still compassion and unconditional love left in what remains of humanity? I love McCarthy’s older work, my favorite is probably Blood Meridian and/or The Crossing. I’ve read nearly all of his books and I think The Road is his most succinct, most artfully distilled creation. After reading it I was struck by its power for a long time.

I’m of the opinion that most of King’s best work is from his pre-sobriety days. Since then only Gerald’s Game stands out for me but I’ve yet to read a lot of his recent work. The Shining was the first King book I read, I think I was 12. Re-read many times. Not a big fan of the film and Dr. Sleep even less so. Kubrick’s film is great if you divorce any notion that it’s based on the book. This thread has sparked my interest in reading Dr. Sleep. Any other standouts in King’s post-alcoholic period?

John Adams was a legendary annotator. I do the same thing in my books: notes, highlights. The pristine-ness of certain books I do want to preserve but many of my non-fiction books are marked up with no pangs of guilt.