Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Been a while.  Time for THE LIST I'm into lists, in a major way.  I just really enjoy seeing things ranked--Best of this, Worst Ten that, Strangest Thing, Most Unusual Whatsit.  I have a ton of books of lists, including the Books of Lists 1-3 and even The 90s Edition.  I also own The 100 Most Influential People in History, the Greatest 1000 Albums Ever, The Top 500 Poems, etc.  You get the picture.  So I'll be using this space to include some of my favorite personal lists.  Today: TOP TEN BOOKS I'D TAKE TO A DESERT ISLAND I couldn't decide whether to make this "books" or "novels"; the former is obviously substantially broader.  And thus, more interesting. There are novels on this list, but I like nonfiction enough that I wanted to include it.  Beyond that, "books" allows more cheating.  Explanation below.  Obviously, this isn't a list of my "favorite" books, exactly, but some favorites are on it. 1.  The Columbia Encyclopedia--An enormous one-volume encyclopedia, 3000 pages long.  The NY Times called it "The standard of excellence as a guide to essential facts."  All the virtues of a full encyclopedia, but with less fluff, less bulk, but no pictures.  Definitely want to be able to expand my knowledge base while on a desert island.  2.  The Riverside Shakespeare--This is an example of cheating; this is the preeminent Shakespeare collection--it's all of his works, including sonnets.  2000 pages of the highest quality literature.  Not bad at all. 3.  A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving--this is my all-time favorite book.  If you don't love this book, you don't love yourself. 4.  A Light in August by William Faulkner--I'm a big Faulkner fan, and this is my favorite--many of his other books are too challenging for a desert island.  Not that Light in August isn't challenging--it is--but deciphering The Sound and the Fury is a bit much.  Certainly, this is one of the greatest American novels, period. 5.  The Lord of the Rings--cheating here, because I can get one big fat (and phat) book that has all three of the series.  I've discussed my feelings about this elsewhere. 6.  The Ends of the Earth by Robert Kaplan--nonfiction tale of Kaplan's journey across various virtual disasters in the world, ranging from anarchy in West Africa to AIDS and sexual exploitation in Thailand.  Thoroughly fascinating, thoroughly depressing. 7.    The 100:  A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael Hart--talk about a fascinating book.  For list lovers, this thing is the bomb, man.  Ambitiously, Hart actually ranks what he believes are the most influential 100 human beings throughout history.  Guaranteed conversation piece.  Detailed in explanation, and informative in historical perspective.  The top three?  Mohammed, Isaac Newton, Jesus H. Christ.  8.  The Times Atlas of the World--Positively a work of art, I could (and do) spend hours starting at this book, leafing through the pages. 9.  The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth--The quintessential thriller.  Awesome, fast-paced, intricately conceived start to finish and holds up extremely well to multiple reads. 10.  House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski--I don't know if you've heard of this one, but give it a look.  In brief, it's a story within a story within a story, designed to blur all the distinctions between reality and fiction while simultaneously exploding any notions of "space" that the reader may have.  The core story is about a guy who discovers that his house is bigger on the inside than on the outside, and then he discovers it is, in fact, A LOT bigger on the inside than the outside.  This book absolutely scared the living crap out of me, but not in a Stephen King kind of way--in a much heavier psychological sort of way.  I can't explain it well in this space, because there's just so much going on.  Make sure you read it in a room you are very familiar with, because you're going to be looking up and making sure the size of the room hasn't changed.  If you want a more detailed explanation for the book, this link isn't too bad.  At any rate, I loved it, and it's so complex that it really holds up well to multiple readings.  Highly unique.   2:24:45 PM    Let's hear it. []