To Read or Not To Read, That’s Not the Question
It’s the new year, which means it’s time to log the books I read in 2008 into my computer.
I like to keep track of the books I read each year so I can stay on track of my reading goal: three books a month, thirty-six a year. There’s nothing magic about that number. I just found it was a reasonable number for me, one I could attain if I stay focused. (If you’re a writer, you must first be a reader, they say. So that’s a minimum number, not a maximum.)
My yearly reading plan includes a good mixture of fiction and nonfiction, classics and popular current titles, with a few poetry books too. I’m not married to any particular ratio, and I don’t beat myself up if I’m too heavy in one category. But I think it is good to stay balanced in one’s reading.
Anyway, I read thirty-one books in 2008, which means I came up a little shy. But that’s okay. With all the chemo I had, all the days I felt miserable, a tough surgery in August, work, family, a new book released, and a lot of writing, thirty-one isn’t all that bad. I’ll try to do better this year.
But as I embark on a new year of reading, my dilemma is not how much I should be reading, but what I should be reading. With my days supposedly numbered, the titles I’m willing to consider are, quite frankly, not that many. I mean when someone comes up to me these days and tells me that I “have to read” the latest bestseller, I think, uh, no I don’t. Why would I want to waste what little time I have on crap like that?
I’m not being a book snob here (that’s a title my wife gives me every now and then). I’m just saying that I want to read the best books possible in all categories and absolutely nothing else. I don’t have time to read a book that’s pretty good or even one that’s good. I want to read the world’s greatest books, ones that will make an impact on my life.
So I’m asking for your help. (This is a blog, after all; give-and-take is the name of the game.) What are the five greatest books you’ve read, books that impacted your life, made you think, changed you? They can be classics or brand new fiction. They can be how-to books, spiritual books, science books, or memoirs. They can be contemporary poetry or something from one of the masters. I don’t care, so long as it’s wonderful.
To put it another way, what are the five books you would take with you to a deserted island? Or, what five books would you recommend to be launched into outer space with hopes that some alien out there would get a glimpse of who and what humans are?
In case you’re wondering what I’ve read before you make your suggestions, you can find a list of my favorites of all time in the books section of my website. (I’ve also read the Bible at least five times, so don’t worry about whether or not to include it.)
I’m serious about this. I want your help. And I may even ask to borrow one of your copies when your suggestions come rolling in.
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Comments
Well, I would start with your books, Jim, but I dont’ feel qualified to go much further. Enjoy any book, just don’t be without a pile beside the bed. I enjoyed most the books my daughter has read to me this year, Harry Potter – not just because they are fun, but because she read them to me. I am very very grateful for those momments. Jim, you inspire on many levels, reading is just one. See you soon, my friend.
Tom Hemry
Jim,
I think George Orwell’s books, Burmese Days, 1984, and Animal Farm are sheer genius. More so since my travels to Burma and learning that in Burma they refer to Orwell as “the profit”. I also learned that Orwell’s mother was Burmese and that he spent several years of his young adult life on the police force in Burma.
It’s good, but bittersweet to keep up with you via this blog. Blessings to you and your family.
edit – most have always thought that 1984 and Animal Farm were about the U.S. – but the situation today in Burma is portrayed on every page.
I’d have to say the Harry Potter series, even though I had to read them to myself. The one book that has actually changed me would be “Into Thin Air”. After reading it I became a pretty good rock climber and now I have about 75 book on mountaineering ranging from epics on Everest to guide books about the local crags. I just recieved your book in the mail today and I’m looking forward to reading it.
I’d have to say the Harry Potter series, even though I had to read them to myself. The one book that has actually changed me would be “Into Thin Air”. After reading it I became a pretty good rock climber and now I have about 75 books on mountaineering ranging from epics on Everest to guide books about the local crags. I just recieved your book in the mail today and I’m looking forward to reading it.
Hi, Jim! I’ll add:
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
White Noise, Don DeLillo
Dance Dance Dance, Haruki Murakami
*Note: I read the last two in high school…all I know is that they’ve stuck with me, which must mean something.
” One Hundred Years of Solitute” by Gabriel Garsia Marquez the only book I have ever read in both English and Spanish. It spoke to my soul and it helped me understand where I come from, my roots and the richness of my country and its people. It is also a great story with many rich and interesting characters.
I think you would like it.
Here’s mine:
“Nobody’s Fool” by Richard Russo
“A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving
“Ironweed” by William Kennedy
“Roseanna” by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
A Flannery O’Connor short story collection that includes “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
I don’t read a whole lot for enjoyment, but I recently read “The Shack” by William P. Young and I highly recommend it. Also, on a different note, I read on your website about you finding that dead guy at school when we were in junior high….I actually remember that! Hope to see you Saturday in Tulsa!
Jim, I’ve really enjoyed your poetry at the Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah each summer, and I’m looking forward to hearing more this July.
I love an excuse to make lists, so my off-the-top-of-the-head Top 5 would look something like this:
1. Lolita, by Nabokov
2. Shelby Foote’s 3 vol. Civil War history
3. Portrait of the Artist, by Joyce
4. T.C. Boyle’s short stories, especially “After the Plague”
5. Nick Hornby’s list-packed novel, High Fidelity
Here’s my list:
* “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
* “My Dark Places” by James Elroy
* “My Life and Hard Times” by James Thurber. I also need to include another Thurber story not from that collection called “The Last Flower.”
* “Get Drunk” by Charles Baudelaire
* “The Baron in the Trees” by Italo Calvino
While I don’t feel qualified to give you book ideas…because you are the person I go to for book ideas…here are some of my favorites. Your books definitely make my top 5, because I have read and reread them a few times, but obviously you have read them, so I’m leaving them off…just know, they’d be here if I was making this list for anyone else.
1) “The Child Called It” series by Dave Peltzer
2) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
3) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
4) any James Patterson books
5) Relentless Pursuit by Kevin Flynn
See you tomorrow in Tulsa!! Can’t wait!!!
Here are my 5 for you – books that I would keep with me on a desert island – and you may not have read any/all of them.
- To the Wedding (John Berger)
- Operation Wandering Soul (Richard Powers)
- The Chess Garden (Brooks Hansen)
- Love Warps the Mind a Little (John Dufresne)
- Sexing the Cherry (Jeanette Winterson)
Enjoy – Cristina
Another one I just thought of – I read it to my son this year and both he and I couldn’t put it down- it’s ostensibly a children’s story, but since you are a film buff, it will work on lots of levels
“The Invention of Hugo Cabret”
My five:
The Pillar’s of the Earth by Ken Follett
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Bible by multiple author’s 
A Prayer for Owen Meany – Irving
Poisonwood Bible – Kingsolver
To Kill a Mockingbird
I’m adding The Shack, not because it’s well written, but because it’s thought provoking.
The Giver
Bible
Travelers Gift / Andy Andrews (I’ve given this book to several friends & family, it is especially good for graduating high schoolers)
Quiet Strength / Tony Dungy
Till We Have Faces/ C.S. Lewis
Dirty White Boys/ Stephen Hunter
Jim,
May I suggest for a book you will not want to put down.
I just read it today and it will amaze you. I challenge you to find this book and read an eye opening book.
“Azusa Street – They Told Me Their Stories” by Tommy Welchel, Storyteller, Captured in Print by Dr. J. Edward Morris & Cindy McCowan
Dare2DreamBooks, Mustang, Oklahoma
God Bless You and Your Family
A very small book, but one I kept checking out in grade school because I wanted to read it over and over:
Angel Unaware by Dale Evans Rogers.
Keep up your good fight and count your blessings because it seems you have many!
The Thirteenth Tale/Diane Setterfield
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter/Kim Edwards
The Maytrees/Annie Dillard
Scarlet Feather/Maeve Binchy
Back When We Were Grownups/Anne Tyler
1. Growing Up (Russell Baker memoir)
2. The Adrian Mole Diaries
3. My Family and Other Animals
4. The Man in the Mirror
5. Mere Christianity