We watch movies or television shows repeatedly. Even though many say: The book was way better than the movie.
The answer is simple to me: there are just too many good books to read. Movies and television are limited. But saying that, certain books exist that I have read multiple times. So, I decided that these must constitute my favorite list. So, I’m going to try my hand at this. Some of the books are parts of series, but it is the book named that makes the list. [MINOR SPOILERS MAY BE PRESENT]
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
I have read a lot of “classical” literature, but this is the only one that makes my top ten. Not only does it make the list, it sits right at the top. Why? Because to me it is not what is on the surface that makes this book so great. It is short, but it is as deep as the sea upon which the eponymous old man plies his trade.
We are told that a good character in a good novel is one that faces hardships and is changed—either to the benefit or to the detriment. However, this does not happen to our old man. He has been a fisherman his entire life, subject to the whims of the sea, taking its bounty when and only when it is offered up to him. He is consistent. He is steady.
But the hardships he faces in the story serve to be the catalyst of change for young Manolin, a boy that used to fish with the old man until his parents made him work on a “luckier” boat. In the last part of the book Manolin leaves childhood behind and becomes an adult.
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
This is the only book that I have probably read as many times as I have the number one entry on this list. It created in me a love for fantasy and world-building that I’ve yet to relinquish. It is escapism at its finest.
The adventure, the camaraderie. It is a special book. I know detractors exist that bemoan its colorful and descriptive language, but to me, that is part of its charm. Tolkien has created a world that has endured. It must be something—an article in Forbes lists Tolkien as the top-earning celebrity no longer walking this mortal coil.
It is a story first printed in 1954. For 69 years it has enthralled readers the world over. On the surface it appears to be a simple good versus evil story, but the truth is something else. This first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy also warns about the corrupting influence of power and how even those with noble intentions can fall.
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I’m not going to be subtle about this at all. This book made me weep. We’re talking ugly tears that brought a look of panic to my wife’s face when I came down the stairs to tell her about it. I read the final chapter to her…and cried again.
This tale of a post-apocalyptic North America wherein a father and son strive to find a place of shelter tore at my heart. Something made me feel total empathy with the characters. What happened to them happened to me. When the movie starring Viggo Mortensen came out, my wife also cried. It was just that powerful.
I tried to read All the Pretty Horses back in college and couldn’t get into it. This one grabbed me up and shoved me into its pages, refusing to let go.
- Dune by Frank Herbert
The best-selling science fiction book of all time comes in my list at number four. Herbert talks about the dangers of blindly following charismatic leaders. People are fallible, and he illustrates this throughout the book. Paul Atreides is not the hero many think he is. The character himself understands that people are easily manipulated.
Many of the concepts represented in the book have helped shape my own philosophical thinking about humanity, organizations, and power. “Power attracts the corruptible…We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase that reluctance.” ~Frank Herbert.
The story first found its way into print as a serial in science fiction magazines because none of the publishers thought readers wanted science fiction of epic lengths. Chilton—the publishers of automotive repair manuals—took a risk on it and proved the publishing world wrong.
- Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Another post-apocalyptic story finds its way into my top ten. Why? I read all 956 pages of this book in one 24-hour period during my senior year in high school. A friend recommended it to me, so I had to read it.
I borrowed his copy and took it home on a Wednesday afternoon. From the moment I opened the cover and read the first paragraph, it hooked me as surely as a harpooned fish. I could have staggered my reading, but I had no intention of it. I read through the night and told my parents I would not be attending school the next day as I had more important things to do.
This book wasn’t just about a world-ending doom that descended on the population. It was about survival. It was about what makes us human and both the terrible and wonderful things humans can do to one another. It was about not accepting things for their outward appearances.
- The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Since reading this book and the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy it opens, Mr. Williams has become one of my favorite authors. I snatch up and devour everything he writes.
This book continued my love affair with the fantasy genre. He wrote about a world I wanted to escape to despite the dangers and horrors that existed there. It is a coming-of-age story. It is a quest story. Be prepared. It is a slow burn to start.
This has to be intentional because everything that happens to build this in-depth world in the first two hundred pages has to be there for the rest of the book and the two that follow to happen. There isn’t a single wasted word. The kitchen boy Simon is thrust into a world of which he has no understanding. But he turns out to be up for the task.
Also, Michael Whelan did the cover art, and I cannot recall a single book with a Whelan cover that I’ve read that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.
- A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon
I had a professor once who told me F. Scott Fitzgerald had written a perfect novel when he had penned The Great Gatsby. Did I agree with him? You won’t see it on any of my top lists. You might see it on my most overrated booklist.
He talked about structure. That is the first thing I noticed about this book by Kay Kenyon. She tells a magnificent story of science and magic, love and honor, and betrayal and forgiveness. It is an alternate history book about two continents—ordered Anglica (England) and enchanted Bharata (India).
It is a story marked by the violence of revolt and many deaths. But it is a tale about the progression of healing both physically and emotionally. It is about two separate worlds that have drawn its characters together.
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons
A science fiction tale told in the manner of The Canterbury Tales. Seven pilgrims are traveling to the planet of Hyperion to confront the Shrike. A being that exists outside of time and space, possessing untold powers. In a galaxy at war, the enigmatic being may hold the answers to save humanity or be the harbinger of its destruction.
This story is powerful. The tales each of the pilgrims relates are rife with emotion. The characters make the story. They possess a wide range of problems and foibles that propel the story forward.
Simmons told a story involving aspects of technology I had never before imagined. These characters became almost real to me. Their tales of love and loss and pain and healing and redemption all resound in the human experience.
- Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes, and Jerry Pournelle
This science fiction book is an adventure story through and through. It is about scientists and explorers sent from Earth to colonize a distant, earth-like planet. The journey takes a long time, and they have to undergo cryogenic sleep to survive the trip. When they arrive and wake up, some of them have lost much of their intellectual capabilities.
At first, their new home seems idyllic. But then they make a grievous error in judgement against the advice of one man. They soon realize their mistake and look to him to get them out of trouble. A great adventure story.
- Railsea by China Miéville
This book was incredible. A dystopian world of trains and giant moles and antlions. Essentially, it is a retelling of Moby Dick. Instead of a white whale, the captain is in pursuit of a giant mole called Mocker-Jack.
These people have been living underground for generations. There is a rumor that the railsea is endless, but a small group find evidence of a single track going off into the distance. They follow it and discover their world is not what it appears to be.
Honorable Mentions: A Canticle for Lebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. and Dark harvest by Norman Partridge.
Another dystopian, post-apocalyptic book and a horror novel. I’m beginning to see pattern in the books that I call best of all time.
