Top Ten Titles

A patron recently requested that I post my personal top 10 favorite books. Given my tendency toward fantasy and science fiction, I have had to amend it to the top ten books/series because so many of my favorite works are not confined to a single volume.

While I certainly appreciate a wide variety of literature my primary criterion for this list was that they be books or series that I feel compelled to read over and over.

10. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

This is by far the most addictive series I have ever encountered. I’m already going into withdrawal while waiting for the last installment. The tone and style of the books has grown as the characters (and readers) age. The characters are colorful to say the least and the world in which they live is detailed and consistent yet highly entertaining and often hilarious. The degree to which the books in the series are interwoven is astounding. The Harry Potter podcasts to which I subscribe frequently examine the minutiae of the existing books looking for clues to the events in the upcoming finale.

For what it’s worth, my favorite title in the series so far is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I also highly recommend the audio versions of the Harry Potter books, brilliantly narrated by Jim Dale.

9. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is set in a future America in which all services and organizations such as the police, jails, the mafia, and major religions have been legalized, privatized, and franchised.

Let me mention a couple of disclaimers. The fact that it was written during the 1980s is given away frequently by touches such as extremely high denomination bills with names like “Gippers” and “Meeses” and some Biblical passages are referred to out of context or changed to fit the story. Despite these flaws it is a fascinating read, with subject matter and characters that are wide-ranging, wild, and often hilarious.

Hiro Protagonist (how could you not love that name?) is a delivery person for Costa Nostra Pizza, software designer, concert promoter, and the greatest swordfighter in the world. His hacker friends have begun to succumb to a new disease called Snow Crash which leaves the sufferer comatose and which is commonly spread by use of a new drug. Hackers, however, may also become infected through viewing the output of a certain piece of software.

In his search for the source, function, and cure for Snow Crash, Hiro encounters a wise-cracking skateboard courier, an amazing virtual librarian, a gigantic Aleut who carries glass knives and whose brain contains a dead man’s switch connected to a nuclear warhead, and the world’s only Freon addict. The search also requires Hiro to delve into subjects ranging from Sumerian mythology to Pentacostal glossalalia (speaking in tongues) to his own father’s experiences in Japan during World War II. Eventually, situations are resolved with a little help from a cybernetic dog, the capo de capo of the mafia, and Hiro’s ex-girlfriend who now has a whip antenna wired directly to her brain.

8. Svaha by Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is best known for writing urban fantasies based on Celtic folklore, but Svaha is a major departure from this. In fact, it’s a major departure from a great deal of science fiction/fantasy in general. Native Americans have taken their case to the world court and been awarded huge tracts of their ancestral lands. They immediately withdraw within their own borders to follow traditional ways and develop their own unique technologies. Meanwhile, most cities outside the enclaves have been taken over by Japanese corporations and largely controlled by the Yakuza. The two societies almost never interact.

That is, until a “claver” flyer crashes. The pilot is killed and the flyer mostly self-destructs, but a single chip is recovered intact. Not wanting their technology to fall into the hands of others, the clavers send Gahzee to recover it. He is aided in his quest by a city girl named Lisa, a coyote that Gahzee names Nanabozho and which he treats almost as a minor deity, and a technology master called the Ragman who operates out of both the ghetto and his own corporation.

The word "svaha" means the pause between seeing lightning and hearing the thunder. Likewise, this book and most of its characters exist within gaps, and in the end an entirely new societal niche is created.

7. Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne

You all know Pooh so there's not much need for explanation. Milne had a great way with words. The language is not condescending and much of the humor is subtle compared to many modern children's books.

6. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Of course this is a great children's book, but like most great works for children it also speaks to adults on another level. You may remember the crocodile with a clock in its stomach that follows Captain Hook hoping to finish the job he started when he ate Hook's hand. Adult eyes may see it as unavoidable mortality stalking the primary adult character. Hook knows he won't live forever and tries to capture/control/possess/destroy Peter who is the essence of willful youth, as evidenced by his refusal to grow up.

5. Tie: William Shakespeare's collected plays and The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

These may not seem related other than the fact that both authors were English, but I am in awe of both because of the deft use of language they exhibit. Both were masters of making the English language jump through hoops no one had imagined before. If I had to break the tie I would probably go with Adams simply because he didn't write sonnets.

4. Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Everybody knows the Chronicles of Narnia (as well they should), but I would also recommend his "space trilogy." Each book in the trilogy is longer and weirder than the one before and even though they are less allegorical than the Narnia books they still present a clear and consistent metaphysical view.

In the series, space is referred to as Deep Heaven and every planet has being called an oyarsa who oversees it and its inhabitants. Most of the oyerasu follow the purpose of "The Old One" who created them, but "The Bent One" (the oyarsa of Earth) rebelled, cutting Earth off from the rest of the solar system and causing it to be called Thulcandra or "The Silent Planet."

3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

It all started with Ender’s Game. Not Orson Scott Card’s career or literary fame, although the statement could be true in that sense as well. Instead, I refer to the beginning of my own obsession with Card’s novels. Another library employee recommended it to me and I have read it probably at least once a year ever since.

Earth has been invaded twice by aliens and both invasions were repelled...barely. To prevent a third invasion, a fleet from Earth has been sent to the alien homeworlds. The fleet has been in transit for decades, but who will lead it when they reach their destination?

It must be a child. A child brilliant enough to become the military strategist the fleet needs yet innocent enough to believe what he is told about the situation. Andrew “Ender” Wiggin may be that child. He is empathetic to the point of loving his enemies, but that understanding also tells him that in some cases the only way to remove the threat of an enemy is to defeat that enemy so thoroughly that he will never again even be tempted to attack. And knowing his enemy as well as himself tells him how the enemy can be defeated.

Ender is taken to the International Fleet’s orbiting Battle School at the age of six for training along with other brilliant children. If I am ever privileged to meet Scott Card I must ask him how one writes characters who are smarter than their author because these children are smarter than anybody except each other. Ender's Game was used in classes at one military academy because of the various styles of leadership and group dynamics it depicts.

If you like Ender's Game, I would suggest following it with Ender's Shadow which describes the same events from the perspective of another character (Bean). The other Shadow books (Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant) are extremely good as well, but I found the Ender sequels (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind) disappointing. They're as metaphysical as Lewis's space trilogy, but they lack...well, the games, the sheer joy of maneuvering inherent in the other books.

2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is easily one of the greatest works in western literature. The sheer scope and level of detail are overwhelming, completely aside from the often-imitated but rarely-rivaled plot. Besides, being a language person I have to appreciate a world created at least partially so that Tolkien's invented languages would have a place to live.

I almost have to prepare myself before reading it. The further I get into the story the more I start to feel the weight of Frodo's fatigue and Sam's sense of duty. It's such a long journey that sometimes I'm almost physically tired after reading some parts, but I'm so enthralled by the characters and story and mythology of it all that I can't put it down.

1. The Bible

Regardless of one's religious beliefs or lack thereof, the Bible is at the very least a singularly exceptional work containing poetry, history, sociology, philosophy, religion, politics, and relationships.

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This was a long post for such a short question, with probably much more detail than anyone would want. Oh well, I've been so verbose most people probably haven't bothered to wade this far into what I've written anyway. For those who have, I don't know whether to say "Thank you" or "Didn't you have anything better to do?"

If it wasn't long enough, there's an unabridged version posted on my personal blog* or available upon request via email.

*Being a personal blog, I'm reluctant to publish the URL to those who don't already know it, therefore the email option.