“Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are” is true enough,
but I’d know you better if you told me what you reread.
- François Mauriac
Even though I often proclaim myself to be an open book– I quite closed about the books I regularly have open.
If you come over to my house without warning, I’m probably not going to race to do the dishes. I may or may not pick up the coats and dinosaur toys I’ve strewn around the floor. I definitely won’t straighten paintings, hide the litter box, or vacuum. No, all my preparation time would be spent running around the house, picking up the books left every which way: hiding them, or stacking them on the shelf as if they might never have been read.
Book culture is so strange. If you don’t like a book, it’s rarely enough to say it’s not in your personal taste, or that you’ve just never gotten into a genre. For some reason, when someone doesn’t like a book, they need to assassinate the characters and tear up the plot. If they’re feeling kindly, they’ll simply destroy the human who assembled the book instead.
I’m not hiding my books from you. I’m protecting them.
So here I am, trusting you with some of my favorite books for grown-ups. I re-read them several times a year. Judge them kindly because the characters are my friends, the voices echo in my mind, and a tiny piece of the authors themselves live inside of me.
This book is undiluted magic.
Like most of Roald Dahl’s books, it’s about the corruptible nature of humankind, the circus-like quest for happiness by way of greed, perverse imagination, and the dull flatness of reaching our dreams. Also like most of his books, it’s about real magic in every day worlds, the beauty of sacrifice, the virtues in even flawed characters, and the humorous lack of coincidence. I love the story– it enchants me every time– but I love the writing. Every time he breaks the third wall, I am charmed to the tips of my toes.
Why You Might Hate It:
- It’s a short story. You might, like many others, have short story animosity.
- The magic in this one is not one of a storybook candyland– it’s more raw. It’s all about gurus, burned feet, and the possibility of the human mind.
- It’s not written in the style for which Roald Dahl is commonly known.
- There’s other short stories in the standard compilation, and they stretch boundaries even farther.
- He occasionally breaks the third wall.
The Fall by Albert Camus
This book is written in the language of my heart. It is how I speak, on the inside.
“When I used to live in France, were I to meet an intelligent man I immediately sought his company. If that be foolish … Ah, I see you smile at that use of the subjunctive. I confess my weakness for that mood and for fine speech in general. A weakness that I criticize in myself, believe me. I am well aware that an addiction to silk underwear does not necessarily imply that one’s feet are dirty. Nonetheless, style, like sheer silk, too often hides eczema. My consolation is to tell myself that, after all, those who murder the language are not pure either. Why yes, let’s have another gin.” – Albert Camus, The Fall
Why You Might Hate It:
- You probably like breathing after sentences, and paragraphs that eventually end.
- You probably won’t feel like you understand it. Or worse, you might understand it perfectly.
- You might have been traumatized in high school with other works by Camus. This could bring back bad memories.
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
This book is witty absurdity at its finest.
Most people have seen the movie, and I love that I love the movie as much as the book. They are the same story, told in the best way for their respective mediums– so they are different, but the same. The book takes a hundred circuitous paths to get to each punchline. The rambling, absurd journey is well-worth every word.
Why You Might Hate It:
- It’s a bit dense, in terms of writing style. If you like it when someone “gets to the point”– you won’t like this.
- There’s a lot of non-vital information. You really don’t have to memorize every person mentioned because most never come up again.
- It’s full of hyperbole and he often speaks directly to the reader. Though this is a common complaint, I’m sure it won’t bother you, o best beloved reader. You are obviously a star-woven, fantastical, amazing reader.
Third Wish by Robert Fulghum
This book is the creative opus of an extraordinary man. Have you ever seen one of those looming machines that take a thousand little tangled stands of string, and weave them together into a tapestry? That’s this book. I don’t know if you’d like the finished tapestry… I don’t know if I do. But I know that there are concepts and images in here that have imprinted themselves on mind for always. I could write a whole post on concepts from this book that haunt me in the best way possible.
Why You Might Hate It:
- It’s long. Like, take-it-with-you-on-every-boat-trip-in-case-you-end-up-on-a-deserted-island long.
- There isn’t really what you would call “a plot”.
- The ending really enraged some people.
- There’s a musical soundtrack that comes with it. You’re not required to play it, but just the existence bothers some people.
- There are drawings in it.
Kushiel’s Legacy by Jacqueline Carey
I can’t even explain how blissfully absorbing this world is. It parallels Earth-as-we-know-it enough for me to take a firm stand, but it’s fantastical enough to be distinctly elsewhere. I think I know the lay of Phèdre’s land better than my own. I journeyed from this book into her next series about a wondrous woman named Namaah, and was equally in love.
“We speak of stories ending, when in truth it is we who end. The stories go on and on.”
― Jacqueline Carey
Why You Might Hate It:
- Sex. So much sex. I mean, 50-shades-is-for-rookies type of sex.
- Triggers of other sorts. Violence. Abandonment. Abuse.
- The series is long. It’s broken up into perfectly normal bite-sized pieces, though. Each book stands alone.
- The names can be cumbersome. The main character is Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
It may not be fair to say that I “re-read” this book, since in truth, I don’t know if I’ve ever read it in order. I flip to the chapters that appeal to me regularly, on the days I need them, in the order my heart hears them.
I found the book in a gazebo, on a very sad day. There was one of those “take a book, leave a book” type shelves there. I left The Phantom Tollbooth, and I took home Siddhartha.
Why You Might Hate It:
- I’ve heard it called woo-woo and hippie-dippie.
- The mysticism is nonspecific. It’s often explained as a garbled, mistranslated, simplified version of Buddhism. My advice? Don’t read fiction to learn about religion doctrine.
- I’ve heard it called boring. There are no action scenes.
_______________________________
“Words do not express thoughts very well. they always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Are you familiar with any of these books? What do you re-read?
