Reading is a fundamental, even necessary part of a meaningful and rich life. All of us will always be reading (you're reading this for example), but most of what we read won't change our lives in any real way (again, this for example). However, books have the power to change lives. Undoubtedly, you can name books that have changed your life already -- just think about it for a moment.
At the very least we all have reading to do that is part of Oakmont’s School-Wide Reading Program. The hope is that the books on the various lists can be books that can be significant for you, changing the way you see or understand something, and making an impact in your life that will last beyond your efforts in completing the response questions. But even though there is a lot of choice involved in the reading program, you are also required to read two books; this is an assigned activity. What will you read on your own this summer?
“So many books, so little time” is a cliché, but it is also absolutely true. At the end of the line, there will be books left unread which would have enriched our lives if only…. How do we find and choose the books we should read, the good stuff? One way is through book reviews and recommendations. Here is an unsystematic list of some of my recommendations:
- The Sot-weed Factor, by John Barth – Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, this modern classic is a hilarious tribute to all the most insidious human vices, with a hero who is "one of the most diverting...to roam the world since Candide" (Time).
- The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro – A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book.
- Demian, by Hermann Hesse – “The electrifying influence exercised on a whole generation just after the First World War by Demian...is unforgettable. With uncanny accuracy this poetic work struck the nerve of the times and called forth grateful rapture from a whole youthful generation who believed that an interpreter of their innermost life had risen from their own midst." – Thomas Mann
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig – One of the most important and influential novels written in the past half-century, this is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear – of growth, discovery, and acceptance – that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.
- The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss – Even in moments of startling peculiarity, [Krauss] touches the most common elements of the heart. For Leo, obsessed with his death but struggling to be noticed, and for Alma, ready to grow up but arrested by her mother's grief, the persistence of love drives them to an astonishing connection. In the final pages, the fractured stories of The History of Love fall together like a desperate embrace. – The Washington Post - Ron Charles
- Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies – A marvelously enigmatic novel, elegantly written and driven by irresistible narrative force.
- Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov – Awe and exhilaration – along with heartbreak and mordant wit – abound in Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hyper civilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love – love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers – This is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.
- The Enchantress of Florence, by Salman Rushdie – Trying to describe a Salman Rushdie novel is like trying to describe music to someone who has never heard it – you can fumble with a plot summary but you won't be able to convey the wonder of his dazzling prose or the imaginative complexity of his vision. At its heart, The Enchantress of Florence is about the power of story – whether it is the imagined life of a Mughal queen, or the devastating secret held by a silver-tongued Florentine. Make no mistake, it is Rushdie who is the true "enchanter" of this story, conjuring readers into his gilded fairy tale from the very first sentence: "In the day's last light the glowing lake below the palace-city looked like a sea of molten gold." At once bawdy, gorgeous, gory, and hilarious, The Enchantress of Florence is a study in contradiction, highlighted in its barbarian philosopher-king who detests his bloodthirsty heritage even while he carries it out. Full of rich sentences running nearly the length of a page, Rushdie's 10th novel blends fact and fable into a challenging but satisfying read. – Daphne Durham for Amazon.com
"Recommendations for reading" needs to be conversation, a dialogue. What are your suggestions?
