I was tagged by Julie Dowd to make a top ten list of books that I still think about on a regular basis, or something like that. Lets just say its a list thats influenced me to a great deal. 1. The Illuminatus Trilogy - Robert Anton Wilson I have Keith David Reeves to thank for this one. This is the one that started it all for me. It blew open so many new avenues of thought in my brain that I suffered from irreparable damage and never quite recovered, but it was all for the better. (Or was it?!) (fnord!) 2. Ishmael - Daniel Quinn Whenever I think about books I typically divide my reading life into the time before I read Ishmael and the time after I read Ishmael. Ishmael planted the seeds for my eventual political-social-enviromental leanings. 3. House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski One of the most original novels Ive ever read and the only one to legitimately scare me. Its quite an undertaking and at some points you get lost as to how to even read it, but its well worth the effort and something that is very hard to forget. 4. V.A.L.I.S. - Philip K. Dick The first novel I ever read by my now favorite sci-fi writer of all time. Dick showed me there was a different kind of sci-fi that didnt have to involve aliens or time-travel or what have you. His sci-fi was always more of a slightly bent reality or dystopian future, which made his stories more believable and powerful. V.A.L.I.S. was incidentally towards the end of Dicks life where his rampant paranoia was carrying over into his now quasi-autobiographical novels. Sad for Phil, awesome for readers. 5. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig When I first read Zen and the Art, which chronicles the road trip of a father and son across the country, the philosophical lessons in it were pretty mind-expanding at the time. Over the years afterwards I routinely see this book get scoffed at by more achieved thinkers as light philosophy. But I will always recommend this book to anyone looking to know more about their purpose in life, because its a great jumping off point and a pretty easy read. 6. A Peoples History of the United States - Howard Zinn 7. Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky Both Zinn and Chomsky have been immeasurably influential to my socio-political life, have refined my chaotic thought process while opening me up to myriad new understandings on how the world works, and have helped me understand class struggle, foreign policies, racism, inequality, colonialism, etc.,etc., in terms that make sense to our world today, and how to fight back against them. For anyone interested in modern politics, I cant recommend either Zinn or Chomsky enough, especially these two works. 8. Endgame Vol. 1 & 2 - Derrick Jensen These are dangerous. Dangerous in the sense that they will make you hate the world and want to destroy everything around you. Theyre also dangerous because theyre seditious and will probably get you on some sort of government watchlist for reading them. I tend to think of Endgame as Ishmael on steroids. Endgame was important to me because I read them at a time where I was still confused as to where I needed to point my intentions in life, and Jensen certainly helped me understand how in danger the earth was, and how much we need to fight to save it. Even though I dont exactly subscribe to Endgames anti-civilization doctrines there is certainly a plethora of important information to take away from both volumes. 9. Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse Bland writing, slow pacing, unexciting plot line...until about the last 25% of the book, which is well worth getting through the first 75%. Siddhartha teaches you how to deal with loss and depression and teaches you the intricacies of acceptance in a world that can suck a lot sometimes. Its a accessible read, and I always recommend this and continuously give copies of it out as Christmas presents. 10. In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust Phew. Im only about 1,300 pages into this 4,000+ page megalithic tome, so it doesnt really qualify as a finished book, but by God, Ill get there. And by God, Proust was amazing. (And why do I keep saying by God?) Either way, The Search (so far) has affected my emotional capacity greatly and will probably continue to long after I finish it. The book barely has a plot as its just a guy remembering his life, but it one of the most engaging pieces of literature Ive ever read. Simply, its about love. More specifically, its about memory. Proust had the tongue of a poet, the delivery of a philosopher, and the precision of a neurosurgeon. More than anything, its taught me the value of seeing beauty in everything, or seeing deeper beauty in already beautiful things, or not being able to escape seeing beauty around you, or a mix of those things! Who knows. Read Swanns Way and when your heart returns to a normal pace we can talk. Theres my list. Im not going to tag anyone because I hate the coldness of coercing someone into doing something over the internet, but we can certainly discuss these if anyone would like.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 16:29:35 +0000
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