The source book has been described as "a side-splitting tour that makes it a blast to read the Western literary canon, from the ancient Greeks to the Modernists." In other words, the books on this list are mostly well-known classics and should be able to withstand a bit of mockery.
This is the 1st instalment of a challenge derived from "The Western Lit Survival Kit: An Irreverent Guide to the Classics, from Homer to Faulkner" (Sandra Newman, 2012). The texts used in the challenge are those that Newman has rated from one to ten in the areas of Importance, Accessibility, and Fun. So it is worthwhile dipping into the source text.
To add to the humour, Robert Herrick's profile looks just like mine when I was in my twenties in the 1970's.
