Oh Ramblings, it has been too long. I won't make excuses or try to sugarcoat the situation. I simply have not given myself the time to sit and write that I need to periodically give myself. Better late than never though, right?
Seeing as it is the season of "The Top 10, 20, 100, or whatever number is arbitrarily chosen List", I will throw out a "Top" list of my own. I may have done this before, but I don't care. As the kids used to say, "Sorry; not sorry." My blog, my vacation, my list. (Yeah, I have written that before too, I think. Oh well.)
Today's offering is "The Top List of Books Every Person Like Me Should Read, During Christmas Break If You Are Looking For Something Worthwhile to Do or Need An Escape from the Family for a Little While and Realize that Books Are One of the Only Ways to Actually Enter Another World and Live there For a Little While." Notice the list is not a list of books EVERYONE should read, just everyone like me. Some of these books will not appeal to everyone, and while those people are obviously somehow flawed, they may not want to read them. I can accept that. The list is not in the order of preference, or the order in which they should be read. I am on vacation, and I am taking it easy.
And now, the list.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
The post-apocalyptic novel was suggested by Greg Froese and was a part of our first semester Honors English study. The novel follows a man and his son as they travel the road following an unidentified catastrophe that has decimated the human population and the landscape. They must deal with starvation, blood-cults, earthquakes, loss of humanity, and a struggle to hold on to hope. I have fallen into post-apocalyptic literature before, and the genre is a favorite of mine. This selection is quite possibly the best of this type of literature. Why? The novel made me think. It made me think about language, it made me think about morality, it made me think about spirituality, it made me think about human nature, and it made me think about the world around me. I had the pleasure of discussion the novel with an intelligent group of young people, which made the repeated reading of the novel even more rewarding. The novel is written by an author recognized as one of the top writers of our time. His style is different than anything I have read, to be sure. That may bother some readers, but it is worth the effort that might be required at the beginning. McCarthy uses flashbacks in a a way that forces the reader to focus and think. He is a master of language and imagery. As one student, Shalee Mog, stated in class, it is beautifully written. Some of the sentences are crafted in such a way that "beautiful" may be the only correct choice to describe them. Several of the author's novels have been adapted for the big screen, and The Road is among them. They did a solid job with it, and I enjoyed it after reading the novel. However, do not give in to the temptation to just watch the movie. The big screen cannot convey the beauty Shalee mentioned, and while I liked the film, another student, Sidney Schrock I believe, called it an abomination because of the excerpts that were left out. I think she may have been a little melodramatic on that point, but those omissions do take away from the overall tale. So pick up the book, dang it!
When Pride Still Mattered by David Maraniss
This biography of Vince Lombardi was given to me for Christmas around 15 years ago. It is more than just a celebration of the Packers head coach as a king of football royalty. Instead, it allows the reader to step inside the world of the man who started out coaching basketball at a tiny Catholic school and rose to an unparalleled level of respect as a football coach. Beyond that, the book gives glimpses of a man who was insecure and often felt he was fighting an uphill battle because he was Italian, a father and husband who was not always the epitome of what men should strive to be, and an intelligent leader who was actually considered as a possible vice-presidential candidate by BOTH political parties. I first heard of the biography in a piece by George Will, and I am truly glad to have read the work by Maraniss.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I am on shaky ground with my colleagues at times for my choices in movies, music, and styles of dress, so I am not going to risk leaving this one off the list. Scout grows up in the South during the Depression. It is an amazing novel, and to argue otherwise would be foolish. It is an extraordinary glimpse into our past as Americans and our own childhoods; unfortunately, many of the issues raised are not outdated, and in the current climate of intolerance, knee-jerk hatred, and un-Atticuslike behavior, reading and rereading this work is more important than ever.
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
This in not the most well-known novel by Grisham, but it is worth the read. When a washed-up former number one pick is released after suffering a concussion playing in the big-time, he takes the only gig his agent can find: playing in Italy on a professional team that sits just above club level. He has to adjust his way of thinking, eating, playing, and leading, all while adjusting to the fact that most people in his new hometown have never heard of him. Much of the novel revolves around food, so maybe that is why I liked it so much. The story is not overly deep, but not everything has to move you spiritually and mentally. Sometimes it is just fun reading about a guy playing football on a team where two of his linemen own a local restaurant, and an art student who makes the quarterback chase her, something he is not used to having to do. I do not remember how long ago I read this book, but I do remember enjoying it. They talk about cheese a lot, if I remember right.
I could go on: The Junction Boys, A Time to Kill, World War Z, I Am Legend, Leadership Lessons from Bill Snyder, Flowers for Algernon, Skeleton Crew, Frankenstein, The Blue and the Grey, Huckleberry Finn, 1984, Great Expectation, and many others could easily take a place on the list, depending on what day it is, what the weather is like, and how I am feeling at the time. I need to keep building my personal list, and I owe it to people like Greg Froese for recommending something different to read that challenged me from the first page. Not everything has to be a deeply moving experience, but it is amazing when something is, and when it makes you fall back in love with reading.
The more I write on this blog entry, the more I feel as if I have written it before. I have a bad habit of starting blog posts, but not finishing them, and then those half-written pieces become filed away in my sometimes disheveled mind, where they resurface and confuse me. Oh well, it is what it was, or so I have been told. Now, turn off the computer for a few minutes and pick up a book, any book, and see where it leads you. You might just enjoy yourself.
Merry Christmas.
