8 must-read books

With a wide-variety of literature to choose from, it may be difficult to decide what to read. In order to help you get to know me better, I'm going to give you my top eight all-time favorite books. Why eight? Because everyone else does a top-ten and top- five, so I decided to do something a little different.

8. Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel

Although getting a ton of praise for his Life of Pi novel, Yann Martel's follow-up about a writer who establishes a book deal with a full-time taxidermist gets a little macabre, leading toward a relatively thrilling ending when the main character makes a disturbing discovery. If you like a little sadness, this book is full of that too--just read the last chapter. Oh wait, that's not a spoiler, because you'd have to read the rest of the book to have the full appreciation of the effect the author was going for.

7. Walden - Henry David Thoreau

As well-known as this book is, there are actually very few people who have read this 19-century philosophical gem. If you like a microscopic look at living simply and a circumspect reflection about a man and his relationship to the world around him, then this is your book. Although I heavily disagreed with a lot of Thoreau's ideas here, I still found a lot of common ground with him. And I think most people could find something they appreciate about it. I loved his deep analysis of the fishing at Walden and the surrounding ponds, but if you know me, that should not come as a surprise.

6. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin

I know many of you guffawed when you saw this on the list, especially since it was written for children. But Raskin was a wizard at creating lively and interesting characters with a complex enough series of events and discoveries that are clever;y and methodically unearthed as the story progresses. There is a light and sometimes campy mood in this one, but the mystery is so clever and well-written; you can laugh along with it like a child for which it was originally written. On the bright side for those of you who don't feel inclined to condescend to your inner adolescent, the lexile level of this book makes it quick, fun, and entertaining for any adult to read.

5. God in the Dock - C.S. Lewis

Although not as endearing as his fiction, this collection of essays is one of Lewis's best. Lewis spares no level of intellect, logic, and reason as he vehemently defends the Christian view on a variety of topics and dismantles a number of secular views and ideologies in his usual compassionate and thoughtful manner . There are number of lesser-known works in this collection, but well worth the read, even if you are not a Christian. I particularly found "The History of X," "Man, or Rabbit," and "The Laws of Nature" really interesting. (P.S., I apologize for the elephant of a cover image here, I just couldn't find one I liked.

4. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

This is a fun and interesting look at conversations between a demon and demon-in-training, who are, no-less, related to one another as an uncle (Screwtape) and his nephew (Wyrmwood). This is a lighter look at the science of the demonic (I mean demonic in that idea of doing evil things against a moral law we inherently seem to have inside of us) influence in the lives of men and how and why demons temp us so. This book, usually viewed as his most-endearing by fans, was said (by Lewis himself) to be his least-favorite to write. It is probably in my top 3 all-time favorite Lewis books, which is saying a lot because I've read 44 or so of his 50 books, A MUST READ for any C.S. Lewis fan.

3. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Although this is an absolute slug-fest of about 860 (yep, that's not a type-o) or so pages of tiny, tiny print, this book has a ton of story and action in it. I read this book in about a week, and that was during a relatively busy Christmas break. Yes, you will have to really slug through some wordy, wordy reading, but the high adventure and creative and classic challenges and misfortunes that the main character (Edmond Dantes) faces and overcomes is wonderful. I would definitely wait until you are at least in your mid to late-twenties, and maybe over a time period when you have a LOT of time on your hands like summer break or that long vacation you're taking to read this, but do it then and not as your night reading, or you will never finish it. If I haven't scared you away by the prodigious nature of this book, there is everything in it: fighting, death, betrayal, creepy prisons, daring escapes, treasure maps, buried treasure, pirates, schemes, riddles, mystery, romance, EVERYTHING! One of the best adventure books ever written.

2. The Bible

Even though many of you know I'm a Christian, I'm also a story-teller, and the Bible is definitely a great book library of narrative. There is a plethora of great historic record of people doing amazing things, and it addresses the great anthropological question of is there something rather than nothing. Although I have not read the entire Bible, there are literally thousands of stories that can (and do) encourage and inspire, and I could talk ad nauseum about the wonderful characters I've read about and the things I've learned.

1. John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi

I hope none of you think I'm being prideful or sacrilegious by placing a Jacobean play in front of the Bible as my favorite book, but I just feel that Webster's 17th-century, absolute marvel really spoke to me at a time when I needed it the most. Like the Count of Monte Cristo, this play is JAM-PACKED with everything: murder, corruption, the battle of good and evil, Protestantism vs. Catholicism, werewolves, severed-hands, wax dummies, wild animals, fighting, stabbings, strangulations, poisonings, (including a poisonous Bible), strong female characters, strong male characters-- I could go on and on and on. In the midst of all this is my favorite anti-hero/tragic hero (arguably) in Bosola, who is an absolute enigma of a character. Like its Elizabethan predecessors and Jacobean contemporaries, this play is set in 5 acts, but embedded in each act is least one scene in each where Webster's enjoyment of the macabre rears its head and makes this play bizarre, unnerving, and engaging at the same time. Sandwiched in-between the terror are the surprisingly aloof and somewhat funny tragic characters including the Duchess herself, and her villainous and crazed brothers, the Duke Ferdinand and the Cardinal. Oh, and don't let me forget Webster's ingenious use of biological imagery to convey characterization in the play, but if you want more information on that, check out my article on The Duchess of Malfi in the scholarship page of my web-site.

Well, that does it for my top eight. I hope there weren't any accidental spoilers, but just enough to get you interested in reading these marvels themselves. Leave a comment or response about these masterpieces, or ones that you like yourself.

Cheers,

Scott