A reader writes:
I searched your site to see if you had a list of suggested books.
I didn't find one though.
So, I was wondering if you would suggest some of your favorite books. I would be really interested in your top 10 fictions books, but also your top 10 books on apologetics/Catholic thought.
Thank you for working on your blog.
God bless
P.s. If you like, I can send you my lists as well.
I'd be happy to provide some book recommendations, only I don't know that I can provide a proper "top 10" list. So instead let me give "ten top" books (i.e., ten books that I like a lot, even if I can't rank them from 1 to 10 and even though there are others I'm not thinking of that I might put on the same level.
Let's do fiction in this post, and I'll follow up with theology/apologetics.
And I invite the correspondent, and other readers, to share ten of their top fiction picks in the combox!
Here we go (alpha by title) . . .
| At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. Genre: Horror. Although this is horror fiction, it isn't the blood-and-guts type of horror that was popularized by Lovecraft's younger friend Robert Bloch (author of Psycho). Instead, it is weird horror, in which the horror is subtle and idea-based. Lovecraft himself was an atheist, but he wrote fiction that including works that were highly supernatural (e.g., his dreamland series of stories) to ones that didn't involve the supernatural at all. This is one of the latter. There are no ghosts or witches or other supernatural creatures in this story. Instead, the horror arrives when an Antarctic expedition makes an amazing scientific discovery, suffers a tragic fate, and a whole pre-human world is opened up to those who investigate. (NOTE: I don't have this particular edition of the book, so I haven't read the introduction to this one. This edition also includes Lovecraft's essay on the nature of supernatural horror in literature, which is itself considered a classic.) |
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| Behind the Beyond: And Other Contributions to Human Knowledge by Stephen Leacock. Genre: Comedy. Leacock was a Canadian economics professor (or, as they called it then, a professor of "political economy") who wrote humor on the side. But what humor he wrote! Leacock was a comedic genius! Much humor is painfully time bound (try watching Saturday Night Live episodes from the 1970s. Ouch.). But though Leacock wrote a century ago, his work is still out-and-out hilarious! This work involves a number of short pieces, including a send-ups of going to a stage play, going to the dentist, having your picture taken, what it's like to visit Paris, and others. I think the ideal introduction to Leacock is Nonsense Novels (below), but this is a great book to read next. |
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| The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft. Genre: Horror. Here Lovecraft goes to the other extreme of his range, writing a novel that is entirely bound up with the supernatural. In fact, it has been considered by some to be the best supernatural detective story ever written. None of the main characters are detectives per se, but the family doctor of young Charles Dexter Ward must solve the riddle of what has happened to his patient, who has become strangely fascinated with a particularly creepy early American ancestor of his. In a way, the novel is like an episode of Columbo in that the reader has a clear idea of what is going on, while the characters are struggling to figure it out. It's not a "whodunit" but, like Columbo, it's a "howcatch'em." (NOTE: I don't have this precise edition, so I haven't read the introduction to it.) BTW, when you finish this, go back immediately and re-read the opening paragraphs. It's amazing to see how the whole story is foreshadowed so concisely in the first few sentences. |
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| Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Genre: Science Fiction. It's a couple hundred years in the future (exact date never established) and humanity is terrified of being invaded by an alien race known as the buggers (cause, y'know, they look like bugs; I imagine them looking like the Shadows from Babylon 5, only shorter). To meet the bugger threat, Earth desperately needs a brilliant military commander who has the genius of a Napoleon or an Alexander the Great. To find one, they're testing all of Earth's children . . . and they think they've found their future leader in a boy named Andrew ("Ender") Wiggin. A powerful story involving a great deal of psychological subtlety and insight as Ender struggles to prepare himself for the role of being humanity's last, best hope. |
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| Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. Genre: Science Fiction. This is not a sequel but a "parallel novel" to Ender's Game. That is, it tells the same basic events from the viewpoint of another character. The character in question is Bean, a young boy who grew up on the streets of Rotterdam–until he got tested and wound up in the same battle school program as Ender Wiggin. Bean is a supporting character in Ender's Game, but here he is the main character, and it's fascinating reading things from his point of view. There is a lot more to Bean than met the eye in the first book. Not only is he smart, not only is he smarter than Ender, not only is he inhumanly smart, he's also brain damaged. He led such a rough early life that he may have lost half of the intelligence he would have had, and yet he's the smartest kid ever to train in battle school. He also has a secret mission that Ender doesn't know about. This is actually my favorite of all of the "Ender" books. I re-read it most often of those in the series, but be sure to read Ender's Game first to get the maximum enjoyment out of the two. |
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| Expiration Date by Tim Powers. Genre: Modern Fantasy. This is not epic fantasy (like Lord of the Rings) or sword and sorcery (like Conan the Barbarian). It's an intense form of magical realism. That is, it's set in today's world, but with extra supernatural elements. In this novel those added elements are ghosts. They aren't the sinister, haunting-type ghosts that appear in most ghost stories. This is not in the horror genre. It is not about ghosts scaring people. In fact, in this book, the ghosts are the victims. They're . . . well, it's hard to explain in a single sentence because Powers actually includes about seven different types of ghosts in the story. I am agog at the sheer creativity he has packed into this book. Whereas most writers in possession of seven different ideas of how ghosts could work would carefully pace themselves and write one book about each idea, Powers has the audacity to throw them all in one work. We get a fascinating story about a young boy (Koot Hoomie Parganas, who has been given the nickname "Kootie" by the kids at school) whose life becomes intertwined with the ghost of a famous person from history. Both Kootie and the famous ghost are desperate to save themselves from the underground community of ghost-sensitives in Los Angeles. Amid the suspense there is great deal of quirky Powers-esque humor–even more than in his other books–which makes this one probably my favorite Powers book so far (I'm still reading my way through them). |
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| Last Call by Tim Powers. Genre: Modern Fantasy. This Powers novel doesn't involve ghosts. Instead, it involves cards. "What's supernatural about cards," you ask? C'mon. Every gambler knows that cards are magic–even if they're not Tarot cards. And so in this story we meet a group of characters who are card-sensitives, aware of the magical potential in an ordinary deck of 52. The main character–Scott Crane–is the son of the mystical "king of the West," and as a boy he narrowly escaped the fate his father had in store for him. But now his father is after him again, and the only way to save himself is to take his father's job and become the new king of the West. The odds are against him, but every professional gambler is used to dealing with long odds–particularly when things are desperate. Like Expiration Date, this one has an astonishing amount of creativity crammed into it (it won the World Fantasy Award), as well as Powers' trademark humor. A favorite example of the latter: At one point in the novel Scott, as the true son of the king, must do an Arthurian sword-from-the-stone bit, which in this case takes the form of a knife embedded in a cement wall. His friend tries and fails to dislodge the knife. Then Scott steps up and yanks it out. The friend instantly quips: "*I* loosened it." |
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| The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Genre: Science Fiction. It's a thousand years in the future. Mankind has moved out into space, colonized countless worlds, and we've never met another intelligent species. Then we find one. Only unlike most first contact stories, we are the star-faring race and they are confined to their own solar system. The aliens are very nice, very friendly. They are innocents, when it comes down to it. They very much want to get along with us. And they very much do not want us to learn one particular fact about them. Because when the reader finds out this fact, the reader suddenly starts thinking, "Even though this isn't their fault, we can not live in the same universe as these aliens! We need to wipe them out immediately! While we still can!" The novel becomes a race-to-the-finish page turner as the human characters struggle to come up with a way to avoid committing all out genocide. It's also a fascinating study of the alien culture . . . and the imagined human culture of a thousand years hence. BTW, I know readers will be curious about the title, so here goes: The vast majority of characters in the story are Catholics (Catholicism is, it seems, the official religion of the Second Empire of Man), but there are also some Jews and Muslims and . . . Himists. Himists are a small group of heretics who worship the Coal Sack nebula as God. Seen from the other side in the novel (so that it is between Earth and where the story takes place), the Coal Sack looks like a giant, hooded man with a burning red eye (a red giant star) with a tiny yellow mote (a yellow dwarf sun) in front of it. The heretics refer to the giant hooded nebula man as "Him," and the mote (the yellow star) in "His" eye is the home of the aliens we meet. So don't let the title put you off. Catholicism actually has a very fair and favorable treatment in the book. |
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| Nonsense Novels by Stephen Leacock. Genre: Comedy. How do I love this book! It was the first Leacock book I read, and wow is it great! It's a concept book: Each chapter is a parody of a different genre of literature that was popular in Leacock's day (100 years ago). The first story is a parody of Sherlock Holmes. Then we get parodies of the ghost story, the chivalric (Medieval) romance, tragic Russian literature, the old fashioned sea story, the young-man-seeks-his-fortune-in-the-big-city rags-to-riches story, the farm-has-been-mortgaged-and-is-about-to-be-foreclosed melodrama, and science fiction (which existed in Leacock's day, even though it didn't yet have that name). And more! This book is so funny that I won't even try describing it, because I couldn't do it justice. Just get it! |
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| Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle. Genre: Science Fiction. It's a few hundred years in the future (it seems), and mankind has colonized other worlds. One of them is Paradise–though the people who live there call it "Purgatory." It's a wild, frontier world, and it's also the home of Kip, the most important boy on the planet. Only he doesn't know that. He doesn't know anything about his past. He's just being raised at the remote Starswarm nature research station by his Uncle Mike, a professional hunter. Kip also has a voice in his head that only he can hear, and which has told him never to tell anybody else about the voice. Over time, the secret of Kip's past–and the mysterious voice–begin to emerge, and in the end Kip must embrace his destiny to save the lives of all humans on Purgatory. |
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Now a few notes about these books in general:
- They're all in print. I picked ones like that so I wouldn't frustrate readers by recommending books they couldn't get. Some of them are a hundred years old (Leacock's) or almost a hundred (Lovecraft's), which is a tribute to their staying power and how much people like them.
- Some of them are suitable for children. Ender's Game and Starswarm, in particular, are written to be accessible to a young audience, though there are layers and layers in them that are there to make them enjoyable for adults, too (the way Bugs Bunny cartoons have simple jokes for the kids and sophisticated ones for the adults).
- None of these books presents a Hello Kitty view of the world where everything is cute and safe and happy. That is to say, they aren't written for preschoolers. There are frightening things in them (fear is the basis of drama; no dramatic tension, no story).
- Nor are they all about saints. There are characters who not only make mistakes but who do immoral things (though none of the protagonists is an anti-hero; the main characters in each are all on the side of good, no matter what mistakes they made or are in the process of making).
- They all have fundamental moral structure. That is, they all recognize that there are Things Humans Should Not Do, and the characters who ignore this fact do pay the price.
- There are no sex scenes in any of these. I don't like sex scenes. There is, however, discussion of sex.
- There are some cuss words in some of them.
- There are a few gross things, but not much and always (so far as I can remember), always in service of the plot (i.e., not thrown in just to be gross but to advance the story).
- Many of them could be family reading, but parents should always read a book before deciding if it is right for their children.
- I may have forgotten some things I ought to mention, but this is a blog post and I couldn't re-read them all before composing it. π Please excuse me if that is the case.
Having said that, I hope you'll check out the ones that sound interesting to you, and I hope you enjoy them! (Though, as always, de gustibus non disputandum est.)
In the meantime, what are ten of your top fiction books?
I’m really not very well-read when it comes to fiction — I spent too much time as a teenager reading Star Trek novels, and now that my tastes have improved/broadened, I just don’t have much time to read. But here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order:
– Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (also The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Abroad, and Tom Sawyer Detective)
– The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (be sure to start with the first book, The Eye of the World)
– The Great Brain (and sequels) by John Fitzgerald (Great series of children’s books about a Catholic family in 1890s Utah; I enjoyed reading them again as an adult)
– The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
– any mystery novel by Agatha Christie
I’m not even going to try to add to the list with my favourites. Suffice to say that these ten top wouldn’t necessarily be my ten top, but they would be in my 25 top. I think that, if I were to be able to sit down and have a discussion of fiction literature with Mr. Akin, our ideas and tastes might just coincide. Very nice list.
Oh, wow. I thought there would be at least one thing on Jimmy’s list that I’ve read – but there isn’t. Some of these look really interesting; I need to get going on them. Of course, my “reading queue” is already too long.
My own list would include:
Perelandra. Perhaps the best thing C.S. Lewis ever wrote, and coming from me that’s the most enthusiastic recommendation imaginable. Depicting paradise is a hard job for an author, but Lewis sells it. (This is the middle novel in the space trilogy, but it stands well on its own and if you only read one of them, it needs to be this.)
The Pilgrim’s Regress, another C.S. Lewis. Unlike the Narnia books, which are often mischaracterized as allegories, this really is one. Pretty rocky going in some places, but in my opinion worth it. (The allegory is less accessible than Bunyan’s, but the story, I think, is more so.)
The Lord of the Rings. No introduction needed. It just has to be mentioned.
Flatland by Abbot (Edwin, not Bud). A square in a two-dimensional world is lifted out of his dimension and finds a universe utterly beyond his imagination. Very thought-provoking.
The Winds of War by Herman Wouk. A very long and very involved World War II novel, which gives a confident overview of a tangled mass of military history while focusing on one military family which it is possible to care about. It gets no further than Pearl Harbor; the whole thing is actually only a prologue to an equally long sequel which I haven’t yet read.
The Backward Shadow by Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian in the Cupboard, even though the two books have nothing in common. This is also the middle book in a trilogy, but in my opinion the best and also the least offensive in terms of sexual morality.
Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes. They just don’t write children’s books like this anymore – unapologetically preachy, unselfconsciously joyful, unabashedly Christian, and a sheer delight.
And yes, the Great Brain books are terrific. Forgot to mention that.
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
LOTR and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
1984 by George Orwell
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John LeCarre
The End of The Affair by Graham Greene
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
You forgot World War Z! A great book even for those who can’t stand zombies. It’s insightful when it comes to human nature and even cultural natures of individual countries. It’s scary and funny!
I don’t overlap with Jimmy on Lovecraft, but I intensely agree with his nomination of the two Tim Powers books and the two Orson Scott Card books. And now I need to interlibrary loan Starswarm!
You are now my favorite blog since you have selected Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow as 2 of your favorite books! I would even recommend the entire series as interesting reads, but those 2 are definitely my favorites!
For stunning historical fiction check out the Aubrey/Maturin series of novels by PAtrick O’Brian.
The only downside (I have read all 20 books 4-5 times) is that reading anything else seems dry and stilted in comparison.
The Leacock books can be read online at gutenberg.org:
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=6242
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=627019
I’m afraid Lovecraft has never appealed to me. My top ten?
The Lord of the Rings (Of course) The only hard bound book I have ever actually worn out, which tells you how many times I’ve read it.
Honor Harrington series (counted as one, or it would take up the whole ten)
Dragonriders of Pern (likewise)
Tarzan trilogy(the first three books of the series, before they became formulaic potboilers.)
The Chronicles of Narnia.
Starship Troopers
The Three Musketeers
The Stars My Destination and its inspiration:
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Last Planet by Andre Norton (The first real book that I ever read.)
#1 – Brother Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters (medieval monk, solver of whodunits)
Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels
Chronicles of Narnia
Lord of the Rings/Hobbit
Wooster & Jeeves stories – P.G. Wodehouse
The Little Prince – Saint-Exupery
Anne of Green Gables – Montgomery
Calvin & Hobbes cartoons – Watterson
Inspector Morse mysteries – Colin Dexter (minus some explicit passages)
There are some others, but as you can see, mostly a lover of English literature, juvenile fiction, and mysteries.
I’ve added the Tim Powers books to my list (oh is it long); I really liked The Anubis Gates, so I look forward to them.
My list (by no means complete, and in the order that they occur to me):
Possession by A.S. Byatt
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel GarcΓa MΓ‘rquez
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DΓaz
Lord of the Rings, by JRRT
The Harry Potter books, by J.K. Rowling
Dictionary of the Khazars, by Milorad PaviΔ
House of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski
The Belgariad by David Eddings
The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin
Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
I could go on and on . . .
Not yet mentioned:
Foulcault’s Pendulum/ Umberto Eco
The Moviegoer/ Walker Percy
A Canticle for Leibowitz/ Miller
The King Must Die/ Mary Renault
The Looking Glass War/John LeCarre
Havana Bay/ Martin Cruz Smith
Evening in Byzantium/ Irwin Shaw
Darkness at Noon/ Arthur Koestler
The Power and the Glory/ Graham Greene
Morte d’Urban/ JF Powers
The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke/ Rainer Maria Rilke
The Last Hurrah/ Edwin O’Connor
Jimmy ~ Doesn’t Ender’s Game present the Magisterium as the evil entity?
James
I’ve actually been reading through the Ender books lately. I read Ender’s game over 20 years ago, read Ender’s Shadow about a decade ago, but just recently came across the fact that Card has been releasing short stories in the ‘Enderverse’ on a regular basis.
There is a timeline/map of the writings surrounding Ender here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/Enderverse.png
A few notes about the series. Card (author) is a Mormon. Ender’s father is a Catholic, his mother is Mormon. If you want to understand the parents, and the anti-population control theme in the series, it’s a good idea to read ‘The Polish Boy’ and ‘Teacher’s Pet’, which go into his parents’ history. A book called ‘First meetings in the Enderverse’ has those two stories, plus ‘Investment Counselor’ as well as the original short story that was lengthened into the full Ender’s Game.
If you wish to carry on the Ender and Bean Story beyond the two books, the Shadow books on the right side are chronologically next, although I would read the first few chapters of ‘Ender in Exile’ (which is really 4 short stories edited into 1 book, stop when Ender and Valentine depart the solar system). After finishing Shadow of the Giant, continue with the rest of ‘Ender in Exile’, before continuing down the left side of the map to the end.
The other side stories are only available from Card’s website if you by electronic back copies of the magazine issues they were printed in.
I’m currently waiting on Speaker of the Dead to come available through my library to read to the end of the series myself. Each book takes me about a week to complete. Card’s style is very quick and easy to read, and the entire series can be read in 2-3 months without too much effort.
I’ve read most of the Robert Jordan series. It gets to be a very long slog from between books 4-8, and there is a large number of characters to keep track of. Unfortunately Jordan passed away a few years ago, but another popular writer, Sanderson, is completing the work Jordan started almost 20 years ago. I have not yet decided if I will be rereading the entire series before picking up where I left off.
I will second JohnE’s recommendation of the Three Musketeers (as well as half of the rest of his list, I’ll have to check the rest of his recommendations since his list matches many books I like). You might actually read the rest of the d’Artagnan series which continues with Twenty Years after and The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, which is typically broken into smaller pieces with different names. The rest of the series essentially follows d’Artagnan and Aramis’ ambitious advancements while being accompanied by Athos and Porthos. The four are written into the most important events in 17th century French and English history. The 4 are loosely based on 4 real soldiers figures from French history, but the times of those mens’ lives do not line up with the correct times of the events depicted in the books.
I recommend searching for fiction classics (and nonfiction for that matter). Many things written before 1920 are available by free download from gutenberg.org. They have ported many of the works to the epub format which is compatible with many ereaders. I’ve actually started collecting books that we will be providing to our children when they get old enough to start reading novels.
From the classics:
Frankenstein is interesting due to the moral implications in science today.
Dracula is great, despite the sacrilegious use of the Eucharist and other sacramentals.
Jane Austen’s, specifically Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Interesting how important money, inheritance, and ambition played a part in social circles and marriage when her books were written 200 years ago.
James,
I don’t recall what you are talking about.
However, as I mentioned in my previous post, the Wiggins are against population control for religious as well as common sense reasons, and Card treats this as matter of fact, and it seems that it’s his personal opinion. In the Bean stories, his rescuer and mentor is Sister Carlotta, a nun who worked and had contacts in the Vatican. Bean wrestles with faith in his saga.
For fiction and a beautiful, mystical awareness of the nature of creation, try Dean Koontz. He’s Catholic, and even when his characters aren’t, they illuminate all the ways a moral compass can point, and why. He can be as scary as Lovecraft, and incredibly funny, too. Favs include the Odd Thomas books, and _From the Corner of His Eye, One Door Away from Heaven, and The Face.
Charles Williams, the forgotten colleague of Lewis and Tolkien is also grand. He wrote seven books, of which _All Hallow’s Eve_ is a favorite. If you remember That Hideous Strength, the 3rd of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, that’s a taste of Williams’ style.
You can’t beat Gilbert K Chesterton, either. _The Man who Was Thursday_ and _Manalive_ are two of my favorite fictional romps.
Oh yeah…I read “The Taking” by Koontz and liked it.
James,
The series with the Magisterium as evil is His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
Watership Down.
Erick R, credit where credit is due. I believe the list you were referring to was TerryC’s. I’m pretty much illiterate.
Jimmy – thanks to you, I got hooked on Tim Powers. “The Stress Of Her Regard” and “Declare” are two of my favorites. TSOHR was downright brilliant and scary – I wonder why no one has ever bought the rights to make it into a movie.
I can’t compile a list now, but one book *series* I really like is Arthur C. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Adventures/Return/etc.
The Phantom Tollbooth
Ten books?
How do I know what my top ten books are, since I haven’t read all of the books I’m going to read, yet π This is a deathbed question, isn’t it?
In any case, they say you can tell a lot about a man by his library.
My partial list of ten book I would enjoy to re-read (not necessarily the top ten and not necessarily in order):
1. Sherlock Holmes Collection – Doyle
2. The Foundation Trilogy – Asimov
3. The People – Zenna Henderson (if you want sheer poetry in writing, try this series – even the pro’s of science fiction were in awe)
4. Superman 143- 172 (hey, comics are fiction)
5. In this House of Brede – Gooden
6. Agatha Christie collection
7. The End of Time – Asimov
8. The Thinking Machine – Jacques Futrelle
9. The Taming of the Shrew – You-Know-Who
10. The Tenth Room – I have no idea who the author is and I suspect a story hasn’t been written, but if it were, I’m sure it would be on my top ten list, jut for the title, alone π
– Lord o the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien
– Wizard of Earthsea by ursula Kroeber Le Guin
– Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski
– Tobie Lolness by TimotheΓ© de Fombelle
– Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
– Chronicles of Narnia by Clive Staple Lewis
I canΒ΄t think of more π
Yes to Watership Down, and I found the movie to be as good as the book.
Regarding the Wheel of Time series, Eric R wrote:
“I’ve read most of the Robert Jordan series. It gets to be a very long slog from between books 4-8, and there is a large number of characters to keep track of.”
If you have only read through book 8, then I’m afraid that you have two more books to get through before the “long slog” is over. π
But the story does finally pick up again very nicely in books 11 and 12. Book 12 especially moves the action forward much more than the previous books.
– Chronicles of Narnia by Clive Staple Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do that before. Don’t you think poor John Ronald Reule Tolkien is getting shortchanged?
Hi Jimmy,
Sorry it took me so long to get to this. I, like you, will get a “10 top.” While “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” belong here, most everyone has heard of them, so I will do people the favor of suggesting books they haven’t heard of.
1: Farmer Giles of Ham – J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a delightful little book. I think it is a satire, but I do not know of what. If I did, I would probably enjoy it even more. For all Tolkien fans, this is a must. This book made me cry from laughing.
2: Smith of Wootton Major – J.R.R. Tolkien. This is one is as touching as “Farmer Giles” is funny. A very beautiful tale of the importance of myth. The book made me cry.
3: The Vicar of Wakefield – Oliver Goldsmith. This book is full of witty and ironic humor, and is a great tale of a rather pompous family who falls from wealth, gets a taste of poverty, grows in humility, and finds a happy ending. This book made me cry from laughing.
4: David Copperfield – Charles Dickens. This is Dickens’ masterpiece, and probably my favorite all time work of fiction. If someone asked me what was the greatest work of English fiction, I would have a very hard time choosing between this and “Lord of the Rings.” I can’tithink of any that has anywhere near this many believable characters. Additionally, Dickens managed to create a character who is arguably the most despicable character in any fictitious work, in addition to characters that you absolutely fall in love with, and want very much to imitate. This book made me cry.
5: Great Expectations – Charles Dickens. Not quite as good as “Copperfield,” but still very entertaining and very edifying. It is a great tragedy, and gives the reader a glimpse of what happens when someone doesn’t live an evil life, but lives a lazy life full of white lies. This book made me cry.
6: The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins. I think this was the first mystery book every, although I could be wrong. It is in my mind one of the greatest. Anyone who love detective stories, or romance stories, will fall in love with this book. Like Dickens, Collins has so many believable characters, some who are lovable, others who are despicable, and one who is so altruistic, so loving, that I have yet to find his equal in fiction.
7: The Cure of Ars – Mary Fabyan Windeatt. Don’t make fun of me for liking a kids book, but this is one of the most inspiring saint stories I have ever read. Not a pure work of fiction, but still worth reading even for adults, I believe.
8: Martin The Warrior, Redwall, and Mossflower – Brian Jacques. These are books fall into the categories that Jimmy laid out. The characters are not saints, but the protagonists admirable and have good qualities that we could all imitate. The enemies, on the other hand, are usually evil and not portrayed as being “cool” because they are evil (like so many modern movies). The rest of the books from this series are great as well.
9: Riley’s Luck – Louis L’Amour. L’Amour was one of the greatest western novelists, and this is one of his best 5 books. This is the story of an orphan who is raised by a quiet but loving gambler. The orphan grows up to be a strong, good man who is quick with a gun and his wits. This book weaves together stories of love, friendship, romance, and revenge in a wonderful way. My father read this book to me when I was about 8 years old, and I have read it many times since.
10: Comstock Load – Louis L’Amour. Again, a story of an orphan, revenge, hard work, luck (Divine Providence) and a wonderful look at gold rush and western culture, which was a hodge podge of immigrants from around the world. If had were to make one complain about this book, and the other L’Amour book, it’s that revenge/retributive justice is seen as a perfectly normal pursuit in the life of man. However, since it is a work of fiction, you could explain that away by saying that the justice that is done in the end is indicative of the Divine Justice that comes in the end. I will let you be the judge.
As I am writing this, I am feeling my face burn because I touched my face after chopping a jalapeno, without washing my hands. Please don’t ever do this.
Hey, I have something in common with The Masked Chicken! A positively scintillating blog post, Mr. Akin! π
BTW, Daniel B, I like your mentions of Tolkien’s less-known works.
Hmm, perhaps I’ll give it a shot…
1) The Brother’s Karamazov – by Dostoevsky. Amazing look at the state of man’s soul and the division of it caused by the fall. This book contains insights into suffering as redemptive and the solidarity of humanity that I haven’t found anywhere else.
2) The Lord of the Rings – by Tolkien. This is a bout as epic as it gets. The books has such a great intuition on the interactions of Providence and freedom, and I love it’s presentation of classical virtue. It also has the ability to break your heart with joy and sadness flowing together. A stunning work.
3) Till We Have Faces – by C.S. Lewis. This little-read book is, I think, his most profound fiction. It is a re-telling of the Psyche and Cupid myth, which Lewis himself said always haunted him. It address perhaps one of greatest mysteries of human life: “Why must holy places be dark places?” Why do the gods hide themselves from us, and speak only in signs and symbols? It looks at the seeming conflict between mysticism and philosophy with the proper intuition and subtlety needed. It also addresses, in a way, Nietzche’s idea that God can’t exist because, if he did, we could not bear not to be him. The problem of self is shown in a brilliant light here.
4) Lewis’ Space Trilogy – Very good science-fiction, culminating in the dystopian tale of That Hideous Strength, which is a sort of fictionalization of Lewis’ warning against modern scientism, The Abolition of Man. Perelandra, the second book in the series, contains an absolutely breathtaking vision of medieval “metaphysical cosmology”, where nothing is out of place, even the smallest grain of dirt; All are reflection of Meleldil (God) in a totally unique way. Beautiful series of books about spiritual and cosmic warfare.
Well, that’s about all I can muster up about now. Perhaps I’ll think of more later. Is epic poetry included? If so, who could leave out Dante’s Commedia? He still has to be considered one of, if not the, greatest poet to live.
Er, sorry for the off topic question, but is anyone else having trouble with the new immigration post? It looks like the post has somehow been removed, perhaps accidentally, and can only be accessed using a cached page from Google. Any information?
I posted the immigration post without realizing that it was behind a paywall at NCRegister. I didn’t want to frustrate lots of people by having a big lead-in for it here, only to have them smack into a paywall there. So I unpublished it here. Couldn’t do anything about the comment that originally alerted me to the paywall issue, though. Sorry.
When the rights revert to me, I should be able to post it in full here.
1. Tim Powers – Expiration Date — Takes you into another world, especially enjoyable if you are familiar with Los Angeles and surrounding areas, intrusion of what is normally considered supernatural into the everyday world
2. Tim Powers – Last Call — Same as 1 except it takes place in Orange County (CA) and Las Vegas
3. William Peter Blatty – Legion — Excellent characterization, superb, realistic dialogue, serious reflection on the problem of evil and good arguments for the existence of a loving God
4. Most novels by Charles Dickens — He makes you love his characters, and while bad things do happen, good always triumphs
5. C.S. Lewis “Space” Trilogy — Fascinating conceptualization of space travel from a time before it had ever been done; edifying and encouraging
6. John C. Wright – The Golden Age — Science fiction, written by a Catholic convert before he converted, amazingly conceived picture of future technology and how it affects the way people live
7. Douglas Adams – The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul — Hilarious, fantasy-intrudes-on-the-everyday-world, involving Norse gods
8. Douglas Adams – Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency — Also hiliarious and clever
NOTE on Douglas Adams: His most popular books are the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series, all of which I have read — but I don’t consider those to be nearly as clever and well-written as nos. 7 and 8 above. So if you don’t care for the Hitchhiker’s series but like the idea of hilarious fantasy, do still give 7 and 8 a try.
9. Ross MacDonald — practically any of the Lew Archer detective novels; extremely well written page-turners, more substantial than the average mystery novel; the later ones may be “deeper” than the earlier ones, but the early ones are good too, just in a different way — possibly not as deep, but hard-boiled and entertaining
10. James P. Blaylock – Winter Tides — Blaylock is a friend of Tim Powers and some of his books are in a similar style, i.e. supernatural-intrudes-on-the-everyday, in familiar surroundings if you live in Southern California
I think Sandra Miesel said in a science fiction book thread over at Mark Shea’s blog a few years ago that Jerry Pournelle is Catholic. I do know that Tim Powers is.
OK, here are some of my favs:
LOTR & The Hobbit – JRRT: Best ever.
Eifelheim – Michael Flynn: Brilliant science fiction. If you like SF, read it immediately. Jimmy, you must read it ASAP! Everybody else, too. Mr Flynn is a Catholic & a brilliant writer. It’s just a joy to read, it’s so well-written. His blog is amazing! PLEASE: do NOT read ANYTHING about this book before you read it. I beg you. It will ruin the discovery of it all. I almost couldn’t finish it because of where I thought it was going. Let’s just say, I could never have guessed. Stunning book!
Anything by Flannery O’Conner but especially the short stories.
Winter’s Tale – Mark Helprin: Magical. Beautiful. One of my very favorite writers who really knows how to write the English language. His other books are excellent, too. Memoir from Antproof Case is lovely, as if A Soldier of the Great War.
Sandman – Neil Gaiman: Somebody else chose a comic, so I’m gonna, too! Gaiman is a mythologizer, if you will, more interested in the exploration of human nature through myth, & how myth affects us, than how the story will affect us. Sandman, all 90 or so issues, is a blend of myth, religion, horror, comedy, & poetry. There are moments of beauty & extreme sadness. Gaiman is not, that I know of, a religious man at all & that shows in his writing but he nails human nature in a Catholic way, IMO. Challenging but great. Not for the kiddies (no sex or anything, I’m like Jimmy in that department).
Ender’s Game – OSC: I do love all 4 books of the original series. Haven’t read the others but I need to get Shadow now that I’ve read Jimmy’s post! Card is a brilliant writer. Jimmy, didn’t you post reviews of these books on here a while back? Look for ’em, folks; they’re excellent!
Pretty much anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald, especially This Side of Paradise.
Empire Falls – Richard Russo: Wow. Do NOT watch the stupid movie they made of it.
Akira – Katsuhiro Otomo: A Japanese comic about post-apocalyptic earth & government-created super-humans. Epic. Crazy epic.
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter Miller, Jr: Another post-apocalyptic (kinda) story but 1 that takes religion very seriously. Fascinating book.
BTW . . . you all have added to my Amazon wish list!
I love you & hate you (in a good way) all at the same time! π
Wow. Now I want to read *all* of these.
Most of the science fiction books listed by the people, here, are relatively recent and somewhat brooding. I would think that there should be more classics in the top ten lists, such as works by H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Surely for sheer poetry, the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, should be on anyone’s top ten list. The lists above are idiosyncratic and too parochial in a sense. Com’on guys, you’ve read more books. Look at the broad spectrum a top ten list is not the same thing as My-Favorite-Books. One may like a book, but consider a book one hates to be more worthy of being in the top ten because of artistic reasons.
As for mysteries, in all the lists, above, there are almost no mysteries (Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, aside). There are many authors who works rival the science fiction mentioned, above. There are even ecclesiastical mysteries and mysteries involving clerics and religious. I would say the Rabbi Small series by Harry Kemelman is every bit as authentic in terms of its portrayal of modern Judaism as the Louis L’Amour or Ross McDonald books for Western or Detective atmosphere.
Expand.
Not a single work before 1800, either.
The Curmudgeonly Chicken
Chicken – Jimmy stated in his post that his list is more of a “ten top” list, meaning 10 books taken from his much larger list of top books. I followed suit in choosing my books. So many have read the older books I’d have listed that I thought I’d give a few that aren’t as widely known, just to spread them around, get their titles out there, Eifelheim, especially. I, for one, was purposefully idiosyncratic, I guess.
I could have listed Pride & Prejudice, Little Dorit, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Man Who was Thursday, Nine Stories (Salinger), etc but they’re all so read already. Yes, many other listed 2 books that I did, Ender’s Game & LOTR, but those books will always be in a list of my top books, whether it’s a list of 2 or 1000.
Gene,
You are correct. I got too worked up when the lists were supposed to be for fun. On with the lists.
The Chicken
My tEN tOP list, if you will, with commentary (these are in no particular order):
1) THE TAKING by Dean Koontz – The powers of Love, Hope, and Faith take on an alien invasion and win. Despite the sins of the main characters, they are given special graces, and it’s *awesome!*
2) BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON by Dean Koontz – Lately I’ve been on a Koontz kick. In addition to being a great story, full of action and sci-fi goodness, Koontz presents a realistic and thoughtful look at Autism, handled with care and charm. Koontz keeps it real, even in sci-fi.
3) I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC! by Ray Bradbury – A collection of short stories that includes the title short story (also known as “The Electric Grandmother”) and a wonderful poem called “Christus Apollo,” discussing the possibility of Christ on other planets! You can read it at this blog: http://onefracturedfairytale.blogspot.com/2007/11/christus-apollo-by-ray-bradbury.html
4) THE ELENIUM TRILLOGY by David Eddings – WARNING! This is not a Catholic-friendly trillogy, but it’s not exactly a Cathoilc-bashing one, either. On a fictional world, there are two groups of people, the Elenes and the Styrics. Elenes basically have a Catholic-like religion with the worship of one God (though without the three Persons of the Trinity and without a Christ-figure), and Styrics worship a bunch of gods and goddesses, many of whom show up and propel the story. Or interfere. I like it because it’s an exciting story, and I also like that one fully human character frequently puts this one “goddess” in her place. The story shows, unintentionally, why Catholicism is superior to either paganism or to watered-down theology. At the same time, a lot of the Elenes are fully faithful to their God, and are shown in a positive light. I think that it’s a series you have to use your discression on before picking it up. I count these as one book, despite being a trillogy, because the series relies on all three books to tell the story, rather like LotR.
5) THE TAMULI by David Eddings – Another trillogy, the direct sequal to THE ELENIUM, taking place about six years (give or take) after the last book of that series. Again with the pagan/pseudo-Christian dynamic, and some more gods show up to make a mess of things, but the story is fast-paced and fun. I think that the real reason I don’t get offended is that 1) the main character of both series is a pseudo-Christian and remains faithful in spite of everything that happens to him, 2) that he shows more positive attributes and most of them are formed by his pseudo-Christian heritdge, and 3) he really *does* put one of the “goddesses” in her place, showing her to be less than what some people see her as. If the stories were pure Catholic-bashing, I couldn’t see enjoying the pace and the action as much as I do. Again, use discression before reading.
One interesting note – there are some slight sexual implications, but nothing ever overt, and there are almost no swear words at all. I think one person refers to another as a donkey, using a three-letter word, but actually *means* donkey. It’s rare to read a single book, let alone six of them, with such clean language.
6)PETER PAN by James Barrie – a story about innocence and adventure. One of the better fairy tales, in my humble opinion.
7) RELENTLESS by Dean Koontz – One of the more overtly Catholic novels Koontz wrote, but also with more than a smattering of sci-fi and dog lovin’. I mean, come on, the bald guy driving the stolen federal vehicle is a good church-going guy with a dog named Lassie! What more can you ask for?
8) CORALINE by Neil Gaiman – The book is much more fair to the parents than the movie was, and there’s a tenderness in the story between Coraline and her parents that’s missing in the show. A great modern fairy tale.
9) TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis Stevenson – Sevenson single-handedly invented the entire pirate mythology with this one work. It’s a lot of fun and totally unrealistic. I love it for its reformed pirate and exciting battles.
10) THE WOUNDED SKY, a Star Trek Novel, by Diane Duane – Okay, the religious stuff is a bit iffy here, because for one thing, the crew of the Enterprise has to rescue a proto-God, but the story is awesome. It’s another “be wary before you read” story, but this one treats religion and God with a lot of respect, and tries to be fair to Christians, though it has way too much “we are the world” feeling to it at times. Still, it’s a novel that I read and get misty-eyed about when I think about loving God, so… yous your best judgment.
I’m so glad to see that you appreciate good science fiction; science fiction which has a point beyond “Lasers are cool, space is cool, robots are wicked cool.” (Granted, those are all true, but basing a book or story on those three themes is hardly interesting!)
With this in mind, I thought you’d be a good person to ask about a book: I’ve recently come across the book “A Case of Conscience” by James Blish. Do you know anything about this book? It sounds pretty intriguing, but I’m wondering if you know whether or not it’s portrayal of/approach to Catholicism is less than desirable. I am planning to read it soon-ish, but was wondering if anyone could give me some info first.
(This question is of course open to anyone who may see it)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Case_of_Conscience