Death Looms...So...Read Books

Greetings, dear Reader. Welcome to my latest personal project: Reading through the 100 books you should read before you die.

The other night I was watching The Equalizer, staring Denzel Washington, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I swear, I could watch that man dispense justice upon the wicked every day of the week. Anyway, his character mentions that his wife was reading the 100 Books You Should Read Before You Die, but didn't make it before she passed.

 Now, I've heard of these lists before and perused a few of them, but for some reason it clicked this time. Perhaps it is because I've hit 37 and that whole midlife crisis thing is looming (leave it to me to not want motorcycles or muscle cars but a new shelf full of 100 books),but it sounded like something I should do. In fact it sounds like something 13 year old me would have expected me to have done by now. I'm not sure how long this will take, but I figured I'd go through the list and post my thoughts about each necessary novel. 

In the interest of full disclosure I am using THIS list. There are, of course a billion lists out there, but this one seemed to be the most agreed upon. Besides, it's the freaking BBC. Who's going to argue with them on this stuff? Sure, it includes Harry Potter, but it doesn't include Twilight which I have seen on some lists. I won't be going through all 100. As a Creative Writing major I've read 25 of these in their entirety which I will list, with some commentary, here.

 Lord of The Rings: By heaven, what a series. Granted he goes ON about butter and beer at one place, but for fantasy nerds this is where life begins.

 Harry Potter: If only I could write something as wonderful as that I might die happy.

THE BIBLE: I could probably write quite a few pages about this book, it's impact on society, and myself. The most interesting thing I could say is that many who claim to live by it, and many who claim to despise the religion it is the basis of, have no idea what is in it's pages. It is truly life altering and I encourage you to read it...but start in the New Testament. One of the rare cases where the sequel is better than the original. :)

His Dark Materials: I cannot explain how profoundly wonderful the first book is and then the writer mucks it up by making it a manifesto. It taught me that once your message is your motivation then you won't write well.

Great Expectations: Great Expectations is to me as Pride and Prejudice is to Lit. girls. It genuinely blows my mind every time.

The Hobbit: My first novel I ever read the whole way through. I loved it and then cherished it more because it was forbidden by my parents. I read it to my 7 year old daughter last year and she cried when Thorin dies. Love that child.

Catcher in the Rye: Anyone who praises the main character for sticking it to the man and being rebellious and counts him as a hero...didn't actually read to the end of the book. Seriously, the last three pages must have been added so that teachers could take one look at the book report and tell if they read the book the whole way through or not.

The Great Gatsby: Should alternately be titled "In Which No One Learns Anything and Somebody Dies". I have great difficulty with that book and won't read it again.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: I had seen the BBC TV version before I'd read the book and love both quite dearly. It was my introduction to comedic novels which set the bar quite high for any that followed. 

Alice in Wonderland: Simply a fabulous classic. Very different from any version ever produced. My favorite poem = The Jabberwocky. I once found a copy in an antique shop that had a whole section that had all of the logic games Lewis Caroll created. I went back the next day to find it and it was gone. One of my biggest regrets, that.  If anyone finds that book I'll seriously pay you double whatever you paid for it.  That's how much I want it.

Chronicles of Narnia: Huge to my childhood. It was more acceptable than LOTR and The Hobbit in my house because C. S. Lewis was verifiably a Christian so the "weird stuff" had a point. I launched in and absorbed it. Best moment ever: The De-Dragonification of Eustace.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Strange to have this as a separate entry on the list, but I'll go with it. Aslan is still to this day my mental picture of God/Jesus. "Tame? Of course he's not tame. But he's good." 

Winnie the Pooh: I own a copy of the collected works of A. A. Milne and read them to my daughter last year as well. There is so much good in those stories, it's amazing. They are pretty much incandescent.

The Da Vinci Code: Wish I hadn't. 10/10 for making treasure hunting cool again. 4/10 for style.

Anne of Green Gables: It's where my obsession with redheads began.

Lord of the Flies: It's #1 on my list of greatest novels I've read. It has so many messages and none of them are forced. If you want to hear me ramble, get me started on this one.

Life of Pi: I was enjoying it so much, and then the "moral" of the story hit and I nearly threw it against the wall. There was something more deep that could have been gleaned there, but it seems like the author got to the end and ran out of profound things to say.

Dune: There is something primal in that book that altered the way I see the world. I haven't been able to pinpoint it, but it's foundational to my way of thinking.

On the Road: Although I much prefer Kerouac's Dharma Bums, it's a good one. I've always felt that Dharma was a far more accurate portrayal of everything I love about Jack.

Dracula: Such a good book. I've always loved the days when vampires were threatening and a horror rather than the glittery crush objects we have now.

A Christmas Carol: I just read this over Christmas aloud to my daughter. I'm a big fan.

Charlotte's Web: My daughter has yet to finish the book or movie. I always encourage her to finish things, but I cried, nay wept, when I finished it as a kid. I'm OK with her not finishing this one. :)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Holmes was my very first hero as a kid. Superman? Pah. Batman? No. Holmes can break you with his intellect. So much cooler than either of those cartoon characters. And he did it without a computer. He WAS the freaking computer, for crying out loud.

Heart of Darkness: One of the greatest treatises on the base level inhumanity of man, how given no rules or parameters for life even the most "cultured and upright" will become a savage and exploit others. Lord of the Flies is pretty much the children's version of this tale.

Hamlet: Again, this one is so tied up in my mental DNA that I cannot imagine a world where I haven't read it.

So, that's the lot and the list of what I have read on this list. Some in the 100 I have read partially so I'll have to push through on those. Moby Dick was rough once he started going on and on about freaking rope. I'm very much looking forward to beginning this journey and hope to write at the very least weekly about what I have read.

Like many, I'm very familiar with how words can change you. It's likely I might be a very different person by the end of it.

 Pax,

 Will