On Facebook, I saw that one of my high school classmates had done this little activity in which you take 15 minutes and jot down the titles of 15 books that made an impact on you, in no particular order. It sounded like fun, so I thought I’d give it a try as well, with the following modification: I’m going to make two lists, one for 15 sports-related books (the bulk of my reading) and one for non-sports works.

Here goes (non-sports first):

1) “The Catcher in the Rye,” J.D. Salinger.

2) “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Ken Kesey.

3) “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” Edward Abbey.

4) “Desert Solitaire,” Edward Abbey.

5) “Travels with Charley,” John Steinbeck.

6) “Listening for Coyote,” William Sullivan.

7) “Blue Highways,” William Least Heat Moon.

8.  “A Farewell to Arms,” Ernest Hemingway.

9) “Like I Was Saying,” Mike Royko.

10) “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald.

11) “Marley and Me,” John Grogan.

12) “Band of Brothers,” Stephen Ambrose.

13) “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee.

14) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain.

15) “All Creatures Great and Small,” (the first book, it represents all books in the series), James Herriot.

And sports:

1) “The Boys of Summer,” Roger Kahn.

2) “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,” Jane Levin.

3) “I Am Third,” Gale Sayers.

4) “Hungry Hurler,” (the holy grail, it represents all books in the series), Clair Bee.

5) “From Ghetto to Glory,” Bob Gibson.

6) “Good Enough to Dream,” Roger Kahn.

7) “Five Seasons,” Roger Angell.

8. “The Breaks of the Game,” David Halberstam.

9) “Summer of ’49,” David Halberstam.

10) “Ball Four,” Jim Bouton.

11) “The Science of Hitting,” Ted Williams.

12) “Train,” Pete Dexter.

13) “The 23rd Street Crusaders,” John Carson.

14) “The Era,” Roger Kahn.

15) “October Men,” Roger Kahn.