My Facebook friend, Wendy Wilson, recently posted the ten
books that most influenced her. I have been contemplating this and wanted to
share. These are not the best books I have ever read, but the ones that
influenced me the most.
1. The Bible. Whether or not you believe (I do, but
challenge a lot of it), it is a seminal concept for America’s laws and mores –
for better or worse.
2. Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land.” It was,
in it’s own way, a bible for the 1960s counter-culture. Do you grok it? I’ve
read everything Heinlein has ever published and he is a helluva storyteller. By
the way, I read it only after my first lover insisted it was the greatest book
ever. Thank you Karen.
3, The Hardy Boys stories. One day, when I was in eighth
grade, I got suspended for the day for a minor infraction. I had to spend the
day in the library and found, ironically, “The Tower Treasure,” the first in
the series. I must have read at least 20 or so of these detective stories, often two per day on weekends. Last
spring, I ran into an old friend from those days and his main memory of me was
that I loved to read. That day started it.
4. “The Cruel Sea.” Written by Nicholas Monsaratte, the book
is a tale of the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. The focus
was far more on the men who served on escort ships rather than the war itself.
It was the first time my father gave me an adult book to read. As a senior, I
wrote a book review on it and the teacher read it to the rest of her classes.
It was the first time anyone had done so and it was the first small step
towards becoming a professional writer.
5. “The Fireside Book of Baseball.” A huge book filled with
articles and cartoons about baseball, much of it was focused from the turn of
the 20th century through the early 1950s. It was a compendium of
short stories, newspaper reports, and excerpts from books. Given to me by my
father, it inspired a lifelong love of the game. I lost it when I was in the
Army, but was delighted to again find a copy when my ex’s parents passed. I
don’t have many hardcover books as Amazon’s Kindle made reading easier as I
travelled throughout the country in recent years. But I hold this one to be
very precious.
6. The Harry Potter books. I began reading them when I was a
teacher to find out what my students were so crazy about. I wound up buying the
last one at midnight of its first day of sale. About once a year, I re-read
each book and then binge watch the movies.
7. “The World of Jimmy Breslin.” At that time, Jimmy was a
writer for the New York Herald Tribune and this book is a series of his columns
from that era, along with some stories about Breslin. This includes the famous
column about the JFK murder where he interviews the man who is digging the
grave. While most students would get the Times delivered to their homeroom, I
always brought the Trib in. Going back to early childhood, my parents would
read the color comics to me every Sunday. Breslin was a writer who inspired me
to top him – I never did. I even saw him on the Subway when he was writing for
The Daily News. It was so like him to live the life of the blue-collar folks
who so loved his work.
8. “Executive Orders.” I began devouring Tom Clancy’ s
novels about protagonist Jack Ryan with “The Hunt for Red October.” In
“Executive Orders,” Ryan is waiting outside and about to make an acceptance
speech as he replaces a disgraced vice president when a 747 airliner smashes
into the Capitol Building killing virtually every government leader – The
President, Congress, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, the Cabinet and heads
of many agencies such as the FBI. Ryan has to rebuild the entire government and
it makes for a fascinating look at our government.
9. “Ender’s Game.” I discovered this book at the end of the
summer as the library sold off its collection of summer reading paperbacks. I
bought a bunch mainly for incarcerated students I was teaching at that time.
But I’ve read this book over and over. It’s about a bunch of genius kids who
are sent into space to fight a war against aliens. The ‘battle school’ they
attend is designed to teach strategy. But these children, who have superior
intelligence, are isolated and it helped me understand my own dealings with the
school system. I had an IQ of 134 according to my high school transcript, but
graduated #380 in a class of 400. I just couldn’t be bothered to do the busy
work because I already knew it, having read the entire textbooks by October. It
helped change my opinion of my high school self.
10. “The Age of the Tail.” Author H. Allen Smith was a
well-known humorist. His most famous book, “Rhubarb” is the story of a cat that
inherits a major league baseball team. But I loved his look at the social
ramifications of the changes in life when in 1957 all mankind begins being born
with a tail. Hilarious changes in etiquette, clothing and more are satirized.
For example, one woman, born just before the change, doesn’t want to be
associated with ‘older’ people. For her wedding, she wears an artificial tail
as her bridesmaid moves it during appropriate times of the ceremony. Yet
another gift from my father, it taught me satire.
Honorable Mention: Hector Hugh Monroe, whose pen name was
Saki, was a British writer of short stories during the late 1800s and early
1900s. His life was shortened when he died at the age of 46 during the First
World War. My favorite story is “Tobemory,” a satire on Victorian manners. At a
country house party, a man announces to the others that he has taught the
house’s cat how to speak. Tobemory has viewed many indiscretions of the guests.
But being a ‘gentlecat’ he speaks no evil other to imply what he knows.
Meanwhile the terrified humans attempt to kill him – unsuccessfully – in
several ways. They are saved when another cat kills him. Of course, another
gift from my father.
