Beware of Novel Reading
"Many a noble tree has been eaten through by minute insects, and many a promising character has been inwardly rotted by certain kinds of novels and novelettes, especially those issued in weekly cheap issues. Some young friends of mine, when once bitten by this fever, have done nothing else but read trashy and sentimental stories. They will rob themselves of food and sleep to read them."
From Words of Help For Christian Girls by Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A., published by the H. M. Caldwell Co. in 1897
So, at the risk of your immortal soul, here is the stuff that I like to read. First, the ever-lovin' Top Three Books of All Time:
- Genre Fiction - Weaveworld by Clive Barker. Besides being a high quality, lushly-written piece of work, it also saved and inspired me at a time when my own dreams were in danger of getting swamped by cruel reality.
- Mainstream Fiction* - Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Dense but very very nutritious.
- Nonfiction - Tie - The Amateur Naturalist by Gerald Durrell and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. Of course I'm somewhat biased in my choice of subject matter but these are both books that anyone even slightly interested in biology should read at least once. The Blind Watchmaker has an edge in that it should also be read by anyone who doesn't give a flying fig about biology but who has to live in the U.S.A. or any other locale where Creationists lurk.
But of course an obsessive reader like myself could never limit myself to recommending only three (or technically four) books. So, here's some more:
| Genre Fiction |
Mainstream Fiction* |
Nonfiction |
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And, because I'm just so laden with negativity, the three books I most abominate:
- Genre Fiction - Anthem by Ayn Rand. Aside from the repugnant philosophical underpinnings, the stilted language, the hackwork characterization, and the plot holes big enough to be fist-fucked by King Kong, there's really nothing wrong with this book. I don't know why I hate it so much. Must just be me.
- Mainstream/Literary Fiction* - Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy. Seeing such a fine theme draped in Hardy's impenetrable language is like going to see the Mona Lisa and finding that it's been slipcovered.
- Nonfiction - UFOs and the Alien Agenda by Bob Larson. Paranoid, incoherent, lacks even the point-and-laugh entertainment value of Larson's previous efforts.
More in-depth book reviews can be found here.
Of course, not only books inspire me.... check out my favorite music and movies.
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*an arbitrary distinction, but necessary in order to divide my reading matter into three categories and thereby cram more books onto this page
**has the distinction of being the _only_ book ever to give me nightmares
***but _not_ his vampire /Sherlock Holmes series.
+La Bas is not quite so good, though it has Satanists.
++see also my very own rant of the same title.
Full disclosure: These and other book links on my site are to Amazon.com, and yeah, I get a referral fee. It's better to whore out your links than your other *assets*, am I right? Of course I'm right. Use the box to search for more books and give me more money...