Big Red's Top 10 written works

Warning: You’ll have to forgive me if this gets sort of long. I am story fanatic. I think Snake’s deepest passion has always been music and while music is important to me, my world has always revolved around stories. I love talking about them and/or writing about them. I get lost in my own head when I am thinking about them. If I am so blessed and ever become a good enough writer, I may have a few of my own before, as Roland from the Dark Tower series would put it, I find the "clearing at the end the path."
10. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Huxley was probably one of the first writers to confront the issue of what happens when comfort overrules sense and value in a society. The story hints that as much as man tries to limit and control the human experience that there will always be that John Savage in the mix. The unknown. The uncontrollable.
Unfortunately, that Savage, that spirit of life may also be trampled by the hideousness of the norm.
This is a must read. It’ll make you think and wonder just how far away the world is from what Huxley dreamed up quite a long time ago.
9. A Chorus of Stones – Susan Griffin
I am not really sure how to explain what this book is about other than that it involves the repercussions of WWII on the American family and that writing style is so haunted that the words seem to echo off the page.
I became enamored with the way this book was configured and written. For a time, everything I wrote was a cheap attempt at mimicking Griffin’s style. It’s an excellent example of what creative non-fiction is all about.
8. Dune series – Frank Herbert
What the Lord of the Rings is for fantasy fiction, Dune is for Science Fiction. It’s the epic start. Yet like many of Tolkien’s followers have sort of not done much but copy his lead, most of the Science Fiction world has completely lost the ideas and strengths that drove Dune.
I had a real hard getting into this story the first time or two I tried to sit down and read it. The reason being is that this really isn’t a story about good versus bad. But it’s contemporary discussion on religion, politics and the meaning of life set on an isolated and barren world.
I’ve only read the original first three or four books. I am not sure how all the offshoots that litter the shelves today written mainly by Herbert’s son stand up. There are a lot of wild ideas and interesting thoughts in the original and enough plot to keep you interested.
7. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
I am not sure I have been quite so emotionally and intelligently repulsed than I have by some of the characters in this book. This is Rand’s masterpiece on her philosophy on life. The first 2/3’s of the story revolves around trying to discover exactly "Who is John Galt?"
The last third is about whether or not the protagonists will join his plan to flee from a world being devoured by parasites of genius and ingenuity.
I think what hits home with me is that I have been in workplaces where the people in the most control of the environment weren’t the hardworking and intelligent, but the lazy and manipulative. Rand took this a step further with her vision of world ran by people trying to do anything to stay on top with out having really earned it.
6. The Lord of the Rings – J.R. Tolkien
Books in series – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
Okay what is great about this series isn’t the story or the originality that Tolkien conjured up (although both of those are unmatched). What is great is that he is able to create an entire landscape for a world, a complex plot, and full cast of characters without making it an enormously long series.
Yes, the books are relatively long, but not compared to others in the genre. He didn’t spend a lot of time looking back in the text. He continually moved the plot forward. Pick up some books today and they spend 100 pages telling you happened in the book before it. By the end of the series, you have 1,500 page books, with half of it that should have been cut.
Tolkien cuts to the point and if you don’t keep up, reread, don’t write again.
5. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The first time I read this novella, I had no freaking clue what was going on. So much so, that after going to class and talking about it for a while, I had to go back home and read it again. I didn’t even catch the change of narrator early in the story.
The second time I got more. The third time even more. The fourth I started to really get it. I think I had to read this in no less than three classes throughout my academic career and I did so a couple times for each. It’s not even that there is that much going on in the 100 or so pages. It’s a real mind bender and you learn how good men can turn to evil and how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This is the novel that inspired the Oliver Stone film "Apocalypse Now." They are very similar except in location and there isn’t any music from "The Doors" in the book.
4. Plainsong – Kent Haruf
If I were to compare this book to a song or musician, I think I’d pick Neil Young. It flows. It’s sad in parts. It’s a dark commentary on the American Midwest. It’s quiet and thoughtful.
The plot revolves around a few characters in a small town in Colorado. The pregnant teen girl, the elderly brother farmers, the schoolteacher, and a few others all leave their mark on the pages. I don’t know if there is a climax per se, but it’s a retelling of life through these people’s eyes. It can be chilling as to how real these characters can feel.
The follow up called Eventide was still strongly written, but seemed a little like a movie sequel that was only made because the first film was successful.
3. Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs – Chuck Klosterman
Other titles in series – Fargo Rock City, Killing Yourself to Live, IV – A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas
One of the quotes at the beginning of the book is "I remember saying things, but I have no idea what was said. It was generally a friendly conversation." Klosterman credits AP reporter Jack Sullivan for saying this while trying to remember a 3 a.m. conversation the two had. Klosterman follows by saying this quote inadvertently describes the past ten years of his life. I think we all feel that sometimes.
Chuck Klosterman is a product of modern culture maybe like no other. He’s consumed millions of hours of TV, music, books and movies, and through all that has found ways for all of that to matter. I think all of his books are a must read of the pop culture lover, but Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs is probably the best part to start.
It’s a series of essays on a wide variety of topics. I mean he makes you even think about the importance of "Saved By the Bell."
I got all these books at Christmas and read them all by the end of spring and I hope he keeps coming out with more.
2. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
Yeah, I was an English major. That part of me knows this actually should be at the top of this list. Most scholars put Hamlet in the top three of most important works of literature in the history of the world. Usually the Bible is number one, with Milton’s "Paradise Lost" and Homer’s "The Odyssey" also up there.
I admit I like knowing I’ve read something truly great. But if you didn’t notice those other works aren’t on my list and yes I’ve read them. (Although, I’ve never read the entire Bible from front to back. I always get lost in the lists of names in the Old Testament).
This may sound funny to some since next to no one seems to understand Shakespeare anymore, but his works hold up a lot better than most. Hamlet is a teenager going through all that crap and his father’s murder and the possibility of ruling a kingdom and his mother’s apparent incestuous leanings and so on and so forth.
I’ve read Hamlet no less than three times and there’s always something new to flesh out and think about. The nice part about Shakespeare is that we have no author’s forward or afterward to say exactly what everything means. He leaves up it to the reader or play watcher to draw their own conclusions.
1. The Dark Tower series – Stephen King
Books in series – The Gunslinger, The Drawing of Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, Wolves of Calla, Song of Susannah, The Dark Tower
Stephen King fired on all cylinders during his 24-year journey in creating the world of Roland, a character loosely based from the Robert Browning poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came."
He starts the series in motion with one of the best and simple opening lines to date – "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." From there nothing is simple for the character or the reader. King creates a bizarre, complex world where fictional characters jump from one reality to the next. Archetypes are bent in and mangled. And the entire seven books are driven by one question. What will Roland find at the top of Dark Tower? Then within a few lines as you climb the stairs, it becomes absolutely clear to the reader and Roland exactly what awaits behind that last door and that there is no turning back. It’s all together disturbing and wonderful.
This is King’s greatest contribution to literature. I think it’s ignored by academics mostly because King’s made his name by making a lot of money. It’s the most ambitious and focused fictional piece of work of this generation. It’s every hero, villain and spec of pop culture from the last 75 years wrapped into a story. I hope the alleged films do this justice, because it would be a shame if it were tarnished