The very literate Corey Vilhauer over at Black Marks on Wood Pulp (or is it White Spots on Black Dogs?) celebrates S.D. Great Writers Week. 

My list is at http://cdub.driscocity.com/index.php/2006/09/18/top-ten-writers-%e2%80%94-the-bloggers-part-one/

Some of your other favorite bloggers are also polled for their favorites.  I'm honored that Corey asked me contribute my favorites.  I'm sure some of you are surprised that my favorite books aren't the "Jane Fonda Progressive Coloring for Liberals" series.  It was close but didn't quite make the list.  Maybe next year.

One of the few advantages of having been an English major is that you have to read a lot of classic books and literature.  Like boot camp, it is good to do--once.   John Steinbeck is my favorite writer, far and away. Also, thank goodness for Cliff Notes.  Thanks to them, I learned that in John Milton's "Paradise Lost," Mr. Satan loses and isn't too happy with God about getting tossed out of heaven.  (Wait, that sounds a like my life the past week.  Never mind.)

Anyway, in my old age, I've become more middle brow in taste and prefer to watch a good TV show or listen to music rather than read.  As a lawyer, I do lots of reading as it is, and most of it isn't all that interesting, unless the S.D. Rules of Civil Procedure, my opponents' appeal briefs, or water law cases from California are your ideas of fun.  

I think that best stuff today that is being written is on TV, namely, HBO and cable, and even some of the network programs.  Tell me that HBO's "Deadwood" isn't high literature in a Shakespearean vein?!   Tell me ABC's "Lost" isn't something that wouldn't make Arthur C. Clarke or  Edgar Allen Poe proud?!  Tell me Bruce Springsteen isn't a poet of the highest order?!  Tell me that Sibby isn't the greatest blogger on the face of the earth?!  Ok, I went a little far on that one.  Greg Belfrage is.  Greg, I kid because I love.  And we share that obsession about SCTV.

But I digress.

And if you can' read well you can't write well.  One wonders what Sibby read as a kid.  The US Army Field Manual (my favorite chapter is on how to field strip your M-16 while blindfolded.)?  "Mein Kampf"?  The "Nancy Drew" collection? "Th Great Gatsby?"  Ayn Rand?   Corey should ask him for his top ten list.  I bet that is interesting.  And Steve, I kid because I love you too.  Seriously, I like you.  Of course, in a manly sort of way that is appropriate between heterosexual men who do not cohabitate in Cornpalaceville.  We'll always have Cabelas.

Damn, but I digress again.    

So, here's to reading!  Take a starving author--or blogger--to lunch this week!  And read a freakin' book, if you know what's good for you!  (Except of course Ann Coulter.  Just momentarily admire her tremendously leggy legs and cascade of luscious blonde hair on the cover of her latest screed against godless liberals like me and move on to Al Franken's books bashing zealot conservatives like Ann Coulter.   You'll be glad you did.)