The Influential 15: Books

An interesting fact was brought to my attention by the person who is directly responsible for this interesting fact. A few weeks back I mentioned how difficult it was for me to write when I am incredibly happy and how I felt that I was a better writer when I was cynical and bitter. The odd thing is now that I am smiling on a pretty much constant basis my blog readership has nearly tripled. So apparently people really like reading what Happy Chris has to say. I just promise to do my best to keep it that way.

(Though I will admit that being happy is not a regular state of existence for me. I’ve said in the past that I really view myself like the main character in Herman’s Head where there are several people in charge of my day to day internal operations. Right now they are all scurrying about yelling things like “What do you mean we don’t have a manual on how to deal with happiness?” and “Are you sure that there is no historical data to compare this to?”)

Anyway, time to continue with the Influential 15. Tonight, the 15 books that most influenced my life.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: Not only is this one of my favorite books but it is also the one that is most directly responsible for my writing style. The constant asides and footnotes, the slightly detached view of everything, my complete inability to write a coherent plot, it all stems from the dozens of times I sat down to read this book. It is science fiction and humor and philosophy all tied up into one neat little package. Oh, and in one of the sequels you learn how to fly. That is an incredibly useful skill to have.

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne: The story of Eeyore as he confronts the harsh truth of reality while all of the other characters blindly pursue their immature goals. What? Doesn’t everyone read the book that way? This is the one book from my childhood where I still have the actual book on my shelf. The reason is very simple. Christopher Robin was the first character I ever came across who had the same name as I did. There isn’t much more you want as a little kid than to share your name with a favorite character.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Simply the greatest novel ever written. The reaching for the green light, Gatsby catching time in his hands, the impotent eyes of Dr. Eckelburg, “her voice is full of money” and my favorite scene of all time of Gatsby flinging his dress shirts into the air to show just how successful he has become. I’ve named the blog and the URL after the book, I find myself turning back to it time after time and sometimes I wonder if maybe, just maybe, that fortune teller was right.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: I wrote a paper on this book in high school and received an A and an F at the same time. Essentially my analysis of the work was spot on but, in writing a book in which the plot goes from the present to the future to the past, my verb tense also would go from the past tense to the future tense to the present tense often within the same sentence. As a result I learned to not base my master’s thesis on stories that involve time travel. While much of the power of this book comes from the fact that it strips the façade off of the glory of war and shows it for what it is: random, cruel and bafflingly meaningless, for me it was the first book that showed me that there are other ways to write. I didn’t understand that novels did not have to follow a linear time frame, that the author does not have to stand apart from his work, until I read this.

13th Gen by Neil Howe and Bill Strauss: Ok, odds are you have never heard of this book and it wouldn’t surprise me. It is a non-fiction examination of Generation X written in the early 90’s (the title 13th Gen is in reference to the fact that Gen X is the 13th American generation since the Declaration of Independence and is seemingly cursed as a result.) They were so spot on in examining our generation and predicting what we would face in the future that it is rather amazing. Reading this was the first inkling I had into looking at society from a cultural and generational perspective and I would like to think that this has influenced my way of thinking ever since.

A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters by Julian Barnes: It begins with the story of stowaways on Noah’s Ark. It ends with a preview of heaven. In between you find insects on trials, a discussion on why you should always travel with an Irish passport, a view of art history that focuses on history as much as art, and stories about people coming to grips with the world around them. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Every chapter brings you another bit of brilliance that you never expected to find. Sometimes the book makes you stop and think and feel rather ashamed to be part of the human race. But you never stop being awed by how well written it is. I wish I could write something like this.

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman: It’s not a comic book, it’s a graphic novel! In fact, this collection marks the first time that I felt that comic books could legitimately be considered literature. It is the story of Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, who must decide whether to change after millennia of presiding over the universe in a certain manner. If that sentence doesn’t make much sense all I can say is that after reading the 75 issues it will be perfectly clear. Neil creates his own mythology in this series out of whole cloth. You actually begin to believe that you could check sources from 200 years ago and find a story about the goddess Delirium who was born Delight. Get over the fact that it is a comic book and read it.

The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke: I could pretty much link together all of James Burke’s Connections series (in both book and television form) in this one entry. This is the way to teach history and science in a way that people actually understand. What James focuses on is how seemingly unrelated events can build upon each other until suddenly there is a fundamental change in the way we view the world. Like we wouldn’t be able to fly to the moon unless someone had created the raincoat first. Just fascinating stuff and my first understanding that science can be taught without formulas.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare: The first Shakespeare play I ever read. I was thirteen years old and in eighth grade. This wasn’t because I was in some amazingly advanced grade school where we read Shakespeare. I did this on my own because I wanted to read Shakespeare. That is the type of kid I was. This did start my long relationship with the Bard as since then I have averaged reading a play a year and have now completed all of the romances along with most of the comedies and tragedies. It took a good decade before I could read and understand what I was reading (as opposed to just looking at a lot of words) but now I can follow the masterpiece without much guidance. One day I would like to teach Shakespeare to kids to see if maybe, just maybe, I could get them to see his work in the same way that I do.

Animal Farm by George Orwell: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” I would say this book had a bigger impact on me than 1984 (though Brave New World probably had an equal impact). Maybe it was more effective because the idea of the story being told via talking pigs seemed more realistic than having the government spying on us 24 hours a day. Oh how naïve I was at 14. Again, this was one of those times when my eyes were opened as to what a story could be. Here was political allegory told in the simplest format imaginable. The symbolism and the meaning were on display but you weren’t pounded over the head with them. And poor, poor Snowball.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: Yes, I know that this was an Oprah Book Club selection. It also happens to be the best written book that I have come across in the last twenty years. I like to fancy myself as a writer but after reading this book I was tempted to give up knowing that I would never get anywhere near Cormac’s mastery of the language. I will also state that this book is, without a doubt, the most depressing work of fiction I have ever read. It is just brutal and heart wrenching page after page after page. I read it on vacation and one should never be horribly depressed while travelling. They have finished filming the movie but haven’t released it yet because I don’t think people want to see the world brutally end right now for their evening entertainment.

About a Boy by Nick Hornby: I actually prefer this one to High Fidelity. I’m not listing this just because it is a great book. This is also the first book I point to when I say, “This is what I want my novel to be like.” I really want to be the American equivalent to Nick Hornby. Partly because it would mean that I would be a great novelist but mainly because it would give me an excuse to write about music and soccer all day.

Life After God by Douglas Coupland: This is one of my desert island books. Despite the fact that every critical analysis of this book completely pans it I just think it is brilliance. Maybe it is just because I like the tone that Douglas takes in it. A very lackadaisical, pondering, introspective style. It is a book that meanders its way through sets of stories. Occasionally there is a glimpse of wonder but there is never a rush. It is one of those books that I like because of the way it reads.

The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams: The first collection of trivia, miscellany and imponderables that I ever purchased. In it I learned why pigeons bob their heads when they walk and why Betty wasn’t included in Flintstones vitamins. This is vitally important information to have in life. For those who wonder why I seem to know so much minutiae on so many subjects it is because I have spent much of my free time devouring books like this one.

Ulysses by James Joyce: Influential if only because I challenged myself to read it and understand it in one month and I succeeded. Easily one of the most challenging books I have ever read and to be honest it is a very satisfying read. It is just a book that requires a great deal of effort and concentration in order to gain anything close to a full understanding. I’m so proud that I have a picture of myself with a copy of the book in hand standing on the very spot where the novel begins. I might not have an English degree but I have proven to myself that I could if I wanted to.

Tomorrow: Movies. And probably some complaining about how difficult it is to come up with fifteen of these things.