My Favorite Authors - Part 1: Fiction

Because I travel so much, people often ask what I do while I am spending countless hours on airplanes and in airports. My answer is simple: I read. That inevitably leads to questions about what am I reading right now? what do I like to read? etc.

Initially, I thought that I would do a post about my top 10 books, but I didn’t think that would really get to the heart of why I like to read so much. Sure, I could give you my top 10, but that wouldn’t do justice to deep and profound joy I get from reading. I think to become a favorite of mine, a book must be part of a more complex body of work including the author’s other works. The reason for this should become clear below.

How does a book, a set of books, or an author get on my list of highly recommended reading? Well, it really just depends. I’ll read just about anything, from history books written in the 1930’s to trash off the rack at the airport. What I read on a week-by-week basis really just depends on my mood. However, to be a really great book it has to be something that makes me think, keeps me thinking after I’ve read it, and serves for great conversation with others.

Onto my favorites.

All-Around Favorite Author

David Foster Wallace
Unfortunately, DFW committed suicide in September of 2008. Humanity will suffer from the shortage of genius that was caused by this event. I don’t use the term genius lightly either. It is apparent from reading both his fiction and nonfiction that he was a brilliant individual and he wasn’t afraid to show it in his writing. He has a way with words that is simply amazing. As a self described word and grammar snoot (he actually reviews a dictionary in one of his non-fiction pieces) his style will alienate all but the truly dedicated as it is not always the easiest to read. By that I mean when he writes (again, both fiction and non-fiction) he frequently uses foot or end-notes. Often times these end-notes *also* have end-notes. His coup de grace, Infinite Jest is nearly 1100 pages, 100 of that are end-notes. To say he is long-winded would be putting it lightly. What one might say in two or three lines, he will use two or three pages. However, his characters and their surroundings, with their moods, emotions, and raisons d’être are so colorful that the reader feels like they truly know the characters. It is for this reason that Infinite Jest is my favorite book. Sure it is long, and in fact I didn’t even really know what was going on until about 150 pages in, but the payoff is huge. I finished the book in January of this year and I *still* think about it and have revelations about the characters.

Another reason I like DFW? I feel smarter after having read him. His vocabulary really challenges the reader and his grammar is unparalleled. I am a better writer because of his influence and I can give some credit to having read his work.

So, where to start? I wouldn’t jump right into Infinite Jest. Start with A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and read all of the articles/stories. If you can stand the style and enjoy the writing, you are ready to move on to Infinite Jest. Oblivion is another great collection of short stories, and Consider the Lobster is more great non-fiction. If you are still not convinced, consider reading him as an investment for your brain.

Candy for the Brain

If you are looking for something a bit lower-brow and on the whole more humorous I would recommend reading Christopher Moore. His San Francisco based Vampire books are perfect for those with a juvenile sense of humor and A Dirty Job is, I think, his best work. It is funny, tragic, sweet, and an all around imaginative story. His Pine Cove based stories are just OK, but his “stand-alone” books Lamb and Fool are also great.

If you are looking for something a little bit less juvenile then I would recommend the Hitchhikers Guide series to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Ignore the dumb movie; it didn’t do the book any justice. There are five books in all (it was supposed to be a trilogy I suppose, but that didn’t work out all that well) and they take a sadder and more depressing slant towards the end of the series. It is brilliant writing though and absolutely laugh-out-loud funny.

Political and/or Change your Outlook on Life

Atlas Shrugged was the first book that truly changed the way I looked at the world. It also ruined me for all of Ayn Rand’s other works as none of them compare in story, style, or delivery of the message as that work. It was, up until I read Infinite Jest, my favorite book of all time. If you’d like to understand what a capitalist utopia or socialist hell looks like, read this book. The great thing about this book is that although it is probably the strongest piece of pro-capitalist fiction out there, the story is compelling enough that it doesn’t bash you over the head with the message (except in the 50-page John Galt speech.) Basically, it is a great read with a powerful message.

So What if Your Kids Read it?

Yes, I’ve read the Harry Potter series and yes I thought it was excellent. Ok, book one is pretty lame and written for a much younger audience. But it gets better with book two and by book three the subject matter becomes a lot more mature. By books four and five the audience is decidedly NOT young children and books six and seven should have PG-13 ratings on them. The reason I like the series so much? It is fun. It is an adventure/coming of age story wrapped up in a fantasy/mystery. But, what really capped it for me was book seven. I had been faithfully reading the books for years as they came out (well, starting with book 4) and with each new release the mystery grew deeper and I became more and more attached to the characters. Ok, I’ll admit, I shed a tear at the end of book 6, but I also stated to anyone who would listen to me that JK Rowling had put an impossible task in front of herself to wrap everything up in one final novel. Well, she did it and she did it in a way that tied all of the other books together in a sentimental, sad, serious, and powerful ending that after I finished (and shed a few more tears) I immediately proceeded to re-read book seven again. It was that good.

Best Fantasy

I am really not going to be the best of judge for this category because I haven’t read enough in the genre to compare. However, what I recommend is a story that is so detailed, so imaginative, and is such a powerful story that I don’t see many authors being able to recreate something on that scale. Of course, I am referring to JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Like Harry Potter, the movies are great and do the books some justice. However, to really see the genius that is JRR Tolkien, you must read the books. He creates a world that is so rich and where the characters are so deep that the reader is transported there for the adventure. I remember first reading this series in grade-school and staying up late into the night because I could not put the books down.

Best Science Fiction

I haven’t read enough of Isaac Asimov to crown him the champion as others have, although I did enjoy the couple books of his I have read. My preference here would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series. Like all of the other books/series I’ve recommended, this is a long one. The trilogy clocks in at almost 2000 pages. And yes, at times it does feel that long. There are parts that are too dry for my taste, but overall the richness of the story, the development of the characters, and most importantly the detailed description of Kim’s Mars made me feel like I had actually been to Mars, spent time there, and watched it become terraformed. His attention to detail when describing the Red Planet is what makes the books so enjoyable and at the same time tough to read. If you can get through some of the slow parts though, again the payoff is big as it allows the readers’ imagination run wild at the thought of colonizing another planet.

All Around Great Stories

For an all around good story and great read I’d recommend looking back to the Classics section of your local bookstore. Sure, some of these were the same books you had to read and do book reports and essays on in high school and college. But, reading this outside of the academic setting and without the pressures of a deliverable should give you a fresh perspective on these works. I am a big fan of John Steinbeck and my favorites of his being The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The Winter of Our Discontent.

Jane Austin is another one of my favorite authors but don’t let the recent crop of chick-flicks based on her novels dissuade you from picking up Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Both of those are excellently written books with great character development and are fun reads.

Some other stand-out books I’ve really enjoyed: To Kill a Mocking Bird, A Tale of Two Cities, 1984, The Great Gatsby, To the Lighthouse, Heart of Darkness, and Atonement (although that isn’t really a classic, it is still an excellent book.)

Highly Recommended Books that I Couldn’t Get Into

For whatever reason, I really couldn’t get into these books. That isn’t to say that these aren’t great, but I didn’t like them.
Catch-22, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Old Man and the Sea, and War and Peace (I couldn’t get into War and Peace, but I didn’t really try hard enough. I’ll be giving it another shot at some point.)

So, that’s it for my fiction recommendations. I’m sure I’ll think of some others and I’d love to hear what y’all think are great books and authors. In the second part of this post I’ll write about non-fiction authors I really enjoy.