Top Ten Books of All Time

I am an avid reader of all kinds of books. In fact, I have read many books from front to back that I knew were just truly terrible, for good examples of what bad writing is; and it got me thinking, if I had to sum up what I felt were the top ten books of modern times, what would that list look like? There are plenty of examples of bad writing out there, but what about good writing? What makes a piece of writing good? This is my top ten list of books that I feel everyone should read before checking into that big library in the sky...

10. Summer Sister; Judy Blume

(From the jacket ...)

“Summer Sisters is a riveting exploration of the choices that define our lives, of friendship and love, of the families we are born into and those we struggle to create. For every woman who has ever had a friend too dangerous to forgive and too essential to forget, Summer Sisters will glue you to every page, reading and remembering.”

From my perspective, one of the things I love most about this book is how incredibly brave Judy Blume is in her writing style. Writers are harped on for years not to allow readers insights into the inner-conversations of their characters minds, after all, it is unrealistic. How are we supposed to know what they are thinking? She does this flawlessly, without shame or reticence, adding so much to the narration that it's difficult to imagine the book without these passages.

Summer Sisters is definitely not a book for children, some scenes from the book are so sexually graphic they made me blush, and most of the book would go over the heads of kids, anyways. I've heard it called “chick lit at it's best,” more than a few times. I take offense at this, the book is just plain fun, regardless of your gender.

The book spans decades of the lives of the two young women, starting out in grade school and moving well into their tumultuous twenties together. Caitlin, the "wild one," of the fearsome two-some surprises Victoria one day by asking her to join her father's family at their beach house for the summer. Victoria, the solid, dependable type convinces her overbearing parents to let her go, resulting in a friendship that becomes more like family with each passing year.

I'm not going to give away any spoilers here, but the book is "wrapped up," rather quickly towards the end, leaving most reader's feeling like they've been on an emotional roller coaster. When I was younger, I probably would have found the ending of this book truly disappointing, but now, while I wish that there was more substance to it's finality, I've found I enjoyed the thrills leading up to the final stop, nonetheless.

9. We the Living; Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand's thoughts on her work, We the Living;

"It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. The plot is invented, the background is not... The specific events of Kira's life were not mine; her ideas, her convictions, her values, were and are."

Favorite Quote

" Don't you know that there are things, in the best of us, which no outside hand should dare to touch? Things sacred because, and only because, one can say: " This is mine" ? Don't you know that we live only for ourselves, the best of us do, those who are worthy of it ? Don't you know that there is something in us which must not be touched by any state, by any collective, by any number of millions? "

My thoughts on We the Living:

Despite how you might feel about Ayn Rand's cult of Objectivism, this book is one of the easiest of her books to follow and finish. (I've been trying to finish the Fountainhead for almost 20 years now, I keep falling asleep while reading it.) It's not my favorite book that she has written, (Anthem is actually my favorite,) but it is the one that I feel speaks to the masses most effectively and efficiently. Deep down, We the Living is a love story. The above quote that I included made me break down and sob the first time I read it. I have read and re-read We the Living more than any other book I've owned. It's my faithful companion through hard times. No matter how terrible my life seems to be at the time, it cannot compare to the lives of the main characters in this book, for some reason I find that comforting.

8. Mists of Avalon; Marion Zimmer Bradley

Bradley, speaking about her book:

“About the time I began work on the Morgan le Fay story that later became Mists, a religious search of many years culminated in my accepting ordination in one of the Gnostic Catholic churches as a priest. Since the appearance of the novel, many women have consulted me about this, feeling that the awareness of the Goddess has expanded their own religious consciousness, and ask me if it can be reconciled with Christianity. I do feel very strongly, not only that it can, but that it must... So when women today insist on speaking of Goddess rather than God, they are simply rejecting the old man with the white beard, who commanded the Hebrews to commit genocide on the Philistines and required his worshipers daily to thank God that He had not made them women... And, I suppose, a little, the purpose of the book was to express my dismay at the way in which religion lets itself become the slave of politics and the state. (Malory's problem ... that God may not be on the side of the right, but that organized religion always professes itself to be on the side of the bigger guns.) ... I think the neo-pagan movement offers a very viable alternative for people, especially for women, who have been turned off by the abuses of Judeo-Christian organized religions.”

This book is a beautiful retelling of the Arthurian Legends from the point of view of Morgan La Fay, (Morgaine,) a strong-willed, gifted woman over-burdened with the responsibility of guiding Avalon into the New World. As tensions between the old ways and Christianity grow, her job becomes more and more complex. One of the things I personally love about this book is the focus on the holy woman, unlike the old world ways of Christianity, women are revered before all else in the eyes of Avalon. A wonderful epic of a book, it will keep you up for nights to come.

7. Watership Down; Richard Adams

Richard Adams on the creation of his best-selling novel:

"I always used to tell stories off the top of my head to my two little girls whenever we had a long car journey.

"Well one day we were going to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Judi Dench in Twelfth Night. Before I said anything in particular my elder daughter, who was eight at the time, said 'Now daddy we're going on a long car journey, so we want you to while away the time by telling us a completely new story, one that we have never heard before and without any delay. Please start now!'.

"This called for spontaneity, it had to, and I just began off the top of my head: 'Once upon a time there were two rabbits, called eh, let me see, Hazel and Fiver, and I'm going to tell you about some of their adventures'.

"What followed was really the essence of Watership Down."

Is that incredible, or what? Not only was the man able to calm and entertain his children on a long car ride, (a daunting parental task for any mom or dad,) he WROTE a FREAKIN' book while doing it! Personally, I can barely manage getting my laundry done at the end of the day.

I've read this book many... many times. It's one of my favorites, obviously... for some deeply personal reasons. I have the original copy that was given to me in high school, which my daughter knows not to touch under penalty of... well, probably not death, but many terrrrrible things could befall her, ;) it's weathered, a little worn around the edges from re-reading, and some passages have been underlined, but it's probably one of the most well-cared for books I own. Mostly because I want to read it at least another few dozen more times. <grin> It transcends time and age, though the cartoon it was turned into later is definitely not for kids. (I saw it as a child, being pretty hardened to violence already and it scared the bejeezus out of me.) I'm not going to actually tell you about the book, and I suggest people who've been living under a rock and never heard of it NOT to read the synopsis. There's a tendancy to dismiss it as just another children's book, (albeit of somewhat epic proportions,) which does it absolutely no justice at all.

6. The COMPLETE Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Douglas Adams

“Anything that happens, happens.

Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.

Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though.”

--- Douglas Adams

This anthology contains all five of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, but I'm not going to write a plug for each book. Amazon.com has been selling a beautiful leather-bound anthology with all five of the books, which is how I recommend reading them. Sure, you can go out and buy all five paperbacks, but it'll probably cost you as much, if not more, and ... it won't look as cool sitting on your night stand at the end of the day. Either way, read all five books from front to back in chronological order, as that is the way they are meant to be read.

Douglas Adams was a man of extraordinary talent, humor and a certain kind of genius visited rarely upon mankind. Honestly, I recommend reading anything he's written, but this series of books has a special place on my list for being the first that opened my ears, eyes and gray matter to science fiction, life, the universe and everything. Before I read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I was more of a fantasy and horror fan. It's not that I didn't like science fiction, it's just that we hadn't been properly introduced yet. There isn't any better introduction I can think of to science fiction than the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

5. Another Roadside Attraction; Tom Robbins

"If you were Jesus with missing years to kill where would you go?"

--- Tom Robbins

It is the characters in Tom Robbin's book Another Roadside Attraction that make it endearing, memorable and a whole lot of fun. I've never read a book by Tom Robbins that I didn't like, but in my opinion, this book (his first,) is one of his best works. Amanda, the heroine of the Another Roadside Attraction, is your typical earth-mother-goddess, mushroom munching, peyote popping, naturalist / mystic. Another Roadside Attraction takes you on her trip, and that is exactly what it is, a trip, without the nasty day-after come down. I'm always amazed by the ability Tom Robbins has to tie the inconsequential into a cohesive pattern of amazing magnitude. There has been some criticism of this book due to it's bent against organized religion, lust for open sexuality and improbable amounts of drug use, (it's definitely one to keep away from the kids,) but I read this my senior year during the winter and I don't think I have ever laughed so much before or since.

4. Lord of the Rings Trilogy; J.R.R. Tolkien

Possibly one of the most well-written series of books in our time the Lord of the Rings trilogy is an epic of immense proportions. Like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the stories from this book pried my mind open, making me receptive to ideas I had never imagined possible. Adapted hundreds of times over, it's a dark look at high adventure when read through the eyes of the young, a stark reminder of the evils of mechanization and industrialization when read by adults. I began reading pieces of the trilogy in elementary school, being that some parts of the book have been adapted into shorter stories for younger children, but it was required reading during high school. (By the way, students, don't rely on the movies to try and pass a test on these books, despite the length of the movies they don't cover everything in the books.) I'd already read most of it anyways, but after re-reading them I realized there was a lot of stuff I'd missed the first time around and ideas that had gained new meaning as I matured.

3. The Elric Saga; Michael Moorcock

Quote from:

The Chronicle of the Black Sword Michael Moorcock, Elric of Melniboné

"On the island kingdom of Melniboné all the old rituals are still observed, though the nation's power has waned for five hundred years, and now her way of life is maintained only by her trade with the Young Kingdoms and the fact that the city of Imrryr has become the meeting place of merchants. Are those rituals no longer useful; can the rituals be denied and doom avoided? One who would rule in Emperor Elric's steed prefers to think not. He says that Elric will bring destruction to Melniboné by his refusal to honor all the rituals (Elric honors many). And now opens the tragedy which will close many years from now and precipitate the destruction of this world."

An excellent series of stories and books, The Elric Saga turns the conventional fantasy hero on it's head in several ways: Elric of Melnibone is not attractive, riddled with character flaws, isn't infallible, and doesn't always do what is right. The series of stories and books belong to the fantasy genre, of course, but I feel like Elric of Melnibone is a character that transcends genre, grabbing in readers from wherever they may stumble in upon Michael Moorcock's work. I've read some of his other series, the man is an incredible literary talent, but nothing he does is quite as all-encompassing and spell binding as his Elric series.

2. The Dragonlance Series; War of the Lance; Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Jamie Chambers

In this D & D series of books it's the characters that make them so memorable.  I started reading Dragonlance during junior high school, (like all good geeks,) and fell immediately in love.  I cried when certain characters passed on, got angry when they did not do what I thought was right, was overjoyed to find them once again in unexpected places when I had thought they were long gone.  This is an excellent series of books to start the young fantasy reader out with. 

1.  The Stand; Stephen King

"The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance ... logic can be happily tossed out the window."  --- STEPHEN KING; The Stand

This book doesn't really fall easily into any one genre.  I honestly think it is one of Stephen King's best books, (though I loved the Shining and It, too,) mostly because it's just a really fun read.  I love books, (or series,) that are this length or longer because character development is a lot deeper and you've some space to flex your story-telling muscles a bit.  This book has some of the best dialogue written, ever.  I wasn't gung-ho crazy about the ending, but it didn't stop me from re-reading it more than once!

So, tell me, what are some of your favorite books?