Tuesday, July 12, 2005

One Hit Wonders

Radio stations get endless kicks out of playing OHWs, so why not a OHW book list? To qualify as an OHW, the most important condition is that the average bookworm should not know of any other book by the same author. And the nominees are:

  • Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Also called The Whale, apparently. No kidding, we always thought it was also called The Four Masted Schooner From Nantucket. Not sure if this really qualifies, Hermie seems to be the kind of boy who must've written more than this one book.
  • Dracula, by Bram Stoker - A genuine OHW. Nary a peep out of old Brammy after his magnum opus. Probably flitting outside our windows every night, looking for a way in.
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - A remarkable woman by all accounts, and a remarkable book. An indication of what hanging out with the likes of George and Percy does to one's constitution and temerpament.
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy - This is the quintessential OHW. No idea who the woman was. All that is known of her is that one J.R.R.T took one long hard look at the Orczy baroness and decided to name some nice furry creatures after her. Must've been something, eh?
  • To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Making a triumphant and successful entry into another list, is this classic.

Points to be noted, milard.
  1. 3 out of 5 are women
  2. 2.5 out of 5 are horror stories (a whale with a mind of its own, and a captain without one count as a 0.5 horror story)
  3. Couldn't think of anything else to note, but that didn't stop you from reading this note, did it?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had to add to the list - I would definitely count Gone With The Wind in. And there is that one novel by an Indian writer - an awesome one... the writer as well as the title fails me at this point of time. But I am sure it will come back.... So, maybe later.

Anonymous said...

Comrade,

http://www.online-literature.com/melville/typee/

melville must go.

Anonymous said...

[anonymous] Yes, GWTW qualifies. So also, "Uncle Tom's Cabin"? Once again, horror stories by women seems to dominate the theme :) Hmm...should we include "Gulliver's Travels", "Robinson Crusoe" and the lot, to this list? Ooh, here's a good one "Don Q." by M. Cerv. has got to count. But then its so old that it couldn't have been anything, but an OHW.

[tmkahhi] You want us to remove Melville from the list because of some execrable thing called Typee? Out of your mind? T'was quite clearly specified that an OHW was a book such that "...the average bookworm should not know of any other book by the same author..." We weren't referring to literary geeks of your stature.

Anonymous said...

Now, I get it - All About H. Hatterr by G V Desani - a Joycean narrative of a wise-foolish Anglo-Indian seeking wisdom - should definitely qualify. Read this once, and life gets divided into two parts - Pre-Hatterr and Post-Hatterr :).

Swathi Sambhani aka Chimera said...

how did I miss this post?
***wonder***wonder***

Ludwig said...

[swathi] Why wonder wonder?