Blaine's Top 10 Books - Day 6

Spares, Michael Marshall Smith

One day about 15 years ago I picked up a battered paperback copy of this book at a branch library in Seminole County, FL.  Then I put it back down since it didn’t look very promising.  It was, however, pretty slim pickings at the library that day so I picked it back up again and checked it out.  Now it’s in my top 10.

It starts out, as you might be able to guess, as a story about clones used for spare parts, but that storyline, while continuing throughout the rest of the novel, really takes a backseat to a host of other plotlines and a really weird & nasty parallel world that’s spilling over into the real one.  It gets confusing, and you may need to read it twice to catch everything and sort it all out.  I’ve read it three times.  So far.

Be warned, it is weird.  It’s sublimely hilarious at one turn and brutally violent in the next.  Crime, distorted reality, flying shopping malls, side-slipping, cats, a drug called Rapt, and a main character intent on avenging the past make for a really wild ride.  Even so, I probably wouldn’t be such a fan except for the fact that I just really like how the author writes.  There’s a cleverness to his writing that I can’t help but appreciate.

A few years ago I found a limited edition hardback copy of Spares signed by the author (#106 of 500) at our Friends of the Library book store here in little old Liberty, KY.  I got it for $1.  Giddiness ensued.

(also: One of Us;  Only Forward both also by MMS, both also very weird)

Blaine's Top 10 Books - Day 5

Shōgun, James Clavell

Desert island time.  My one food?  Cheesecake and original Gardetto’s  (Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know that’s two, but it’s my island.  Sue me.)  My one book?  Shōgun.

Shōgun is just simply my all-time #1 favorite book.  I’ve read it four times – I don’t read anything four times – and I fully plan on reading it once or twice more before I die if things work out that way.

Why?  It has just about everything you could possibly want in a story:  Kings & peasants, soldiers & priests.  True love, impossible beauty, sex, hope, and heartbreak.  Unbelievable bravery, incredible deceit.  Planning, scheming, warring, building, destroying, & backstabbing.  Interesting characters, an exotic location, and a mesmerizing time period all set within one of the most fascinating cultures on the planet.

Whenever I read this book, I walk around for days afterward in what I can only describe as a literary hangover.  The beauty and violence keep spinning around my head in a delicate ballet.  Samurai swords continue their lethal flashing.  And Mariko won’t let me go.

Is it great fiction?  I don’t know.  Is it historically accurate?  I don’t care.  When you love something, facts don’t really matter.

Blaine's Top 10 Books - Day 4

Animal Farm, George Orwell

I know, I know, right?  There are only 10 books on the list and Orwell has two of them? 

 

Well, . . . yes.

 

Sorry.

 

The thing about Animal Farm is that it’s so simple a child can read it, and – better yet – understand it.  And yet, it’s absolutely an “adult” book.

I can’t think of any other story that so clearly shows the decay and bastardization of a good idea.  You see it coming, you know it’s going to go bad, and yet it still surprises you.  No other book has made me actually want to call out and warn the characters of what’s happening, and the fact that you can’t do anything to stop it is what stays with you long after you put it down.

Animal Farm may have been written to depict the Russian revolution and subsequent installation of communism, but it just as easily applies to any and all governments today, regardless of ideology.  All books about human nature are equal, but this one is more equal than others.

(also:  Lord of the Flies)

Blaine's Top 10 Books - Day 3

Lost Star of Myth & Time, Walter Cruttenden

This book, while not a novel, isn’t “non-fiction” either – it’s more along the lines of “speculative theory” – and it’s on the list because it quite simply blew my mind.

It all centers on a very simple idea that, to me, makes so much sense it has to be true.  The premise?  Our sun is in a binary orbit around another star.  Seriously, why would our sun just be sitting still?  And if it’s moving, why wouldn’t it be in an orbit around something?  Everything else is.  To elaborate just a little more, as our sun travels around this 24,000 year orbit, it pulls our entire solar system with it through space that we have actually already been through before. 

What was the Golden Age?  How could ancient civilizations know so much about astronomy?  What is precession and what’s the real purpose of the signs of the Zodiac?  For that matter, what’s the real story with the Mayan calendar?  Why do we measure time in a 24 hour cycle, with 12 hours ascending and 12 hours descending?  What if the written word is actually a product of a lower intelligence?  What if most of what we thought we knew about the past was wrong?  What if, what if, what if . . .

This book changed how I look at almost everything, and it provided possible answers to many questions while also generating scores of other questions that I had never even thought to ask before.  Interestingly, it doesn’t conflict with Biblical history;  it simply requires in some instances that we re-evaluate what we thought it meant.  And we have to do that since the premise also pretty much debunks the entire theory of evolution, which is maybe the real reason why nobody seems to want to talk much about the possibility of our sun being in an orbit around another star.

Mind food.  And yummy at that.

(also:  any of Graham Hancock’s books)

Blaine's Top 10 Books - Day 2

The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk

Maybe you have to be ex-military for military books to really appeal, but I have to believe that this one would easily cross into the mainstream readership of any civilian bibliophile.  As a former sailor myself, The Caine Mutiny was easy to relate to, and the concept of incompetent leadership – and the untouchable dream of maybe actually being able to do something about it – is certainly nothing new to anyone who has ever put on a uniform.

The problem with The Caine Mutiny is that it seems like it’s going to be a totally justifying ride;  you see the incompetence – bordering on what appears to be insanity – and you can’t help but smile and nod when comeuppance finally walks in the door.  And then, just when you’re ready to close the book in self-righteous completion, Wouk does something really dirty.  And as much as you hate it, you know he’s right.  I won’t elaborate any more than that;  read the book and find out.

(also:  Das Boot;  Run Silent, Run Deep;  The Circle;  The Hunt for Red October;  Sand in the Wind;  Fields of Fire;  All Quiet on the Western Front;  The Thin Red Line)

Blaine's Top 10 Books - Day 1

1984, George Orwell

 

Wow, was this a “gimme” or what?  If you know anything about me at all, you knew this one would be on the list. 

 

Almost everybody is familiar with 1984 and its all-aware concept of “Big Brother” which is bandied about more than ever these days, but most people have never actually read the book.  That’s a shame, because if there is one piece of fiction that everyone should read, it’s 1984.  I’ve read it three times, and I’m still amazed at how many things Orwell nailed, and how many other things appear to still be in the process of being hammered as we speak.

From the slogans and the Ministries to Thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Doublethink, perpetual war, instigated hate, memory holes and more, the parallels between this quirky little book and the modern day world we live in today are incredible.

 

Thirty years ago it all still seemed a little silly.  Now?  Not so much.

(also:  Brave New World;  Fahrenheit 451;  Alas, Babylon;  One Second After;  The Road;  The Giver;  Gathering Blue;  Life as We Knew It;  Anthem, On the Beach)

Blaine's Top 10 Favorite Books - Introduction

Over the next two weeks I will be listing my 10 favorite books.  One title each day along with a brief or verbose explanation as I may see fit to give.

Why?  I don’t know.  It’s just that over the course of my life I’ve probably read in the neighborhood of 2,000 or so novels and I was thinking about my favorite books a few weeks ago and starting to wonder what my “Top 10” would be.  This led to a listing which, at first, fit neatly into 10 titles but which also subsequently grew – and continued to grow – far beyond that nice, neat “10” despite my best and most frantic whittling.

At some point, much like an airplane, the ever-increasing altitude of the list reached it’s vertical stall limit and began to fall softly back to earth, but only after continued cutting and the implementation of some parameters regarding what books are allowed on the list which led to a second – albeit smaller – list that the first list is governed by which I have thoughtfully included below:

 

- No non-fiction.  That cuts out a lot right there, including some great biographies, self-help titles, and historical events, as well as the all-time biggest selling book ever, the Bible.  So be it.

 - No classics.  Can I make a case for Silas Marner, David Copperfield, Last of the Mohicans, The Moonstone, East of Eden, Treasure Island, White Fang, etc., etc., etc.?  Yes.  Do you already know that you should read them?  Yes.

- I’m allowed to list other books that should be on the list but can’t be because there can only be ten.  I realize that this could be seen as “bending” the rules, but these books are not actually “on” the list per se;  they’re listed as alternatives or additions to “listed” main titles.

Bear in mind that I’m not saying that any of the books on my list are “great fiction”, or “important”, or any other literary claptrap distinctions like that.  They are simply my favorites.  The predominant characteristics about each of the books on my list are that they made me feel different, they prompted me to think, they made me want to experience them again, and they have never wandered too far from my mind.

Just as every family has a couple of stray cousins that don’t fit the mold, an estranged black sheep or two, and a crazy uncle who lives in the basement, my list is simply my literary family.  The fact that I may have more than one crazy uncle just makes them all the more endearing to me.

See you Monday!