— Ray Bradbury in the foreword to A Passion for Books (1999) by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan
Stef and I went to go see Russell Banks speak this morning. I almost skipped because I worship at the Church of Sleep on Saturday mornings but I woke up on my own at 8:15 and off I went. I read Continental Drift and really liked it, with much of its action set in my home state of Florida which I know fortunately and unfortunately like the back of my hand. Banks is one of those writers I have always meant to read more of but life and films and other books and the internet (without a capital i) always distract me.
In this photo from Google Images, he looks like a cross between Hemingway and Sean Connery but Banks is truly handsome and youthful for his almost 70 years. Unlike lots of writers who seem to reside in their own egos while looking down at the rest of the world, Banks talked about his work, the places that have inspired him, his youth, technology, other writers in the most relaxed, charismatic manner possible. I keep thinking about things he said, especially about how for thousands of years people have just been trying to tell stories and that technology will change how those stories are delivered but will not affect the desire to produce or enjoy these stories. I kept thinking about the internet and blogging and self publishing and Kindles and wondering if we are watching the shift into this new way of delivering stories. Will it affect how we tell stories? Banks is curious and as I warm to these possibilities, I wonder as well.
Banks told the audience about how he moved to Miami at 18 and worked in a hotel moving furniture. Do people still do this? It seems like a very Bukowski thing to do and I sort of love him for it, especially as I see this experience in his work, the real life bleeding through everything else we do. I suppose we all have experience with this. It makes me think of when I withdrew from college for a semester or two and worked at an art studio and then at a library. I learned more about people in those months than I have in any undergraduate class. Well, I can’t say that’s entirely true as I love academia but I learned about things that I wasn’t used to in the same way that traveling has always put me a bit out of my element as I take in so many new things all at once. It gives me the same worries about seeing the world before I go to grad school. I don’t know if I can do what I want to do (tell stories) if I haven’t lived more. Writing requires experience, I’ve found.
He talked about the false notion that reading gives you a lightning strike sort of epiphany about life or your own identity. Rather, he discussed that change whether personal or societal begins at the edges of anything and works its way in steadily. This is how I feel about reading. The best things I’ve read that have affected me most are the things that have crept up on me and then haunted me quietly. There is no eureka moment but rather, art in any medium will stay in your brain and bloom into a realization later, changing you in a way that is most noticeable in hindsight. Life has few epiphanies but rather subtle hints that have been working their way into your view for a long time.
It feels like spring for the first time today, even in Florida. There is a lovely breeze but it is warm and I felt bad for the Orthodox Jews walking under the hot sun as I drove in my car. I did mostly everything on my index card to do list and ate lots of guacamole. I opened the windows when I got home and it feels like goodness is on its way in, slowly but it’s coming. Everything is coming and I cannot wait for another story to happen to me.
No, friends, tomorrow is not the start of Hannukah but the first day of my 100 best books of the last decade list/extravaganza. Extravaganza might be ambitious. I really thought I didn’t read that much contemporary stuff but it turns out that I have; my original rough list had 147 books on it. It took me a while to cut down, all the while complaining to Gabe and my friends about how hard it was to choose these books and order them. I’m still ordering them, and I will probably be putting them in order right up until the last minute. So here come books, quotes, short excerpts, thoughts, condensed mini reviews/reflections if you will. If you love books, be there or be square.
It is August, 1948 and a young woman in a small New England town is preparing to leave home. She is nineteen years old and she is hopelessly, desperately in love. Tonight, she is ready, and after weeks of clandestine planning, she is going to elope. And everything is about to change.
Page from Anne Sexton’s scrapbook; continue reading here.
Aside from his Nine Stories, JD Salinger published twenty-two stories in various magazines which remain uncollected. Several attempts have been made to compile these stories together but have met stiff resistance by the author. Spanning his literary career between the years 1940-1965, these stories display changes in both the author’s style and message. While some are plainly of commercial quality, most are serious works containing an expansive gift of enlightenment and self-examination: that very-satisfying “Salinger moment”.
A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.
-Jorge Luis Borges
*
Okay so one of the things I hate most about tumblr is this fucking circlejerk about the wonder and glory that is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Like Josh said last week, it’s basically Catcher in the Rye with blowjobs. I don’t think it’s an awful book by any means, it’s a fun read and I can see how that book could mean a lot to a teenager when they read it but it is by no means the be all and end all of what you should be filling your mind with when you are, let’s say, 18. So I decided to make a list of the books I think would be awesome for teenagers to read that are not, you know, overrated MTV sponsored books. I’m not even going to mention Twilight here because that’s really just suitable for me to poop on. Yeah, I said it. Poop on. This list is obviously full of my own opinions but still, I think it’s a good start for teenagers on the road to becoming more aware and conscious and critically minded adults. Here goes.
• The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake: Breece D’J Pancake is a writer I recommend to people of every age but his stories especially were beautiful as a teenager due to the sprawling natural imagery and the perfect depictions of small moments. It is truly tragic that he died so young.
• Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger: I personally think this is a much better read than Catcher. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “The Laughing Man” are reason enough to read this collection.
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut: I think this is perhaps the most readable of Vonnegut’s novels and a good introduction into one of the most inventive writers of the 20th century.
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe: A detailed guide to one of the most turbulent decades of American history, the 60s? Yes. Plus, it’s fun.
• Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson: You probably have a copy from some high school English class just like I do, and like me, you probably hated it the first time you read it. Read it again. I promise it will be completely different.
• The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson: Whether English is your native language or not, this is a fascinating book about the way English has evolved. Please respect English and stop butchering it with your textspeak, kids.
• Ghost World by Daniel Clowes: What to say? Maybe this is a cliche on a list for teenagers but the art and the writing are spectacular. It’s a sort of realistic depiction of a teenage friendship which is rare.
• Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne: I read this book when I was 20 and I wish I had read it when I was 14. Funniest shit at any age, really. It’s fantastic.
• Blankets by Craig Thompson: Another graphic novel for the list. Beautiful art and some great commentary on religion and relationships, romantic and family ones. If you’ve had a first love, you will relate.
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: A scary vision of the future. Keep your eyes open, kids.
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Another “watch out for the utopian World State!” kind of book. Awesome.
• The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 by Charles Bukowski: Fucking great poetry that is not about emo garbage. Just saying.
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: Excellent novel about depression and the darkness of that when young.
• Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: This book is about freaks and everyone else who has ever been an outcast. Literally. Like in a circus. It’s so, so good.
• Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block: My thoughts on this here.
• The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon: I prefer The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay but this is a great way to start with Chabon. An absolutely fantastic first novel which has great journeys through the awkwardness of sexuality and young dating.
• Goodbye Columbus: And Five Short Stories by Philip Roth: So. Fucking. Good. I like the other stories in this but read it for Goodbye Columbus and then keep reading more Roth.
• The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides: I think this is a fantastic book for anyone, dude or lady. Such a great portrayal of suburbia and the weirdness of neighbors and just the intimacy that can come unexpectedly from tragedy. I want to reread this now.
I think that’s it. I could go on but I’ll shut up now as you probably didn’t read this anyhow. All of the titles are linked to Amazon in case you want to go see more about the book, etc. Enjoy.
And please stop supporting the madness that is Stephenie Meyer.
*reposted from my former blog
