My Literary Evolution

Mike, I like the idea of a post detailing not favorites but rather those books that have been instrumental in changing perspectives and steering my reading in one direction or another. These certainly wouldn't be favorites of mine but they are those that hold a particular spot in my mental bookshelf.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. There are only two books here that make my "favorites" list and this is one. No serious list of jaw-dropping and life-influencing reading can exclude this master of words. No one will ever come close, no one will ever compare. There is only one Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five made reading interesting, it made it fun, and, most importantly, it simply made me want to read. And so it goes.

Nemesis by Isaac Asimov. Mike, you got me to read (against my will) Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn at a time when I thought you should just let sleeping dogs lie - meaning, Star Wars was a silent, guilty pleasure of mine since childhood that I was careful to disguise as a passing fad and I was very weary of its being expanded upon. But you forced me and I was open once again to science-fiction, but that wasn't the novel that really set me on my course. "Heir" was the novel that had me try truly authentic, classic science-fiction (the kind with more science than fiction). I set my sights on the granddaddy of them all: Isaac Asimov. Nemesis combined all of the science-geek stuff I've piled into my head over the years (Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, Ray Kurzweil, etc) with a glimpse into a plausible and science-based near-future. It was all I could ask for...and that is why Nemesis deserves the place of kick-starting my adoration and awe of really great science-fiction. (But, boy oh boy was Sagan's Contact a close second!)

It's been said that there has been just one book that has jump-started a generation of would-be non-readers into a generation of literary junkies. This novel would be Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. This is a real masterpiece in every sense. It has the Gatsby Love Triangle in Jack, Marla and Tyler that speaks to any Third Wheel in history; it has the angst representative of an entire generation of men who are undergoing an often under-appreciated and understudied societal transition never before seen in the history of our species; it has a "Sixth Sense" twist at the end masterfully eluded to from the very first line of the novel; and, most importantly to me, it has a narrative style that taught me to simply write how I would talk - it's much more personal that way. This novel was the first novel I read that I truly enjoyed because it "spoke" to me. Before Fight Club, novels (to me) were simply stories, not messages. Fight Club was a message to a generation.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.R. Salinger. Anyone wondering what they are doing with their lives at a time when they actually don't know what direction they're going should read this novel. I was a senior in college about to embark upon the hardest year of my life. I was taking upper-class literature courses with several novels in each course simultaneously (Chaucer, Women Writers of Britain, American Literature II, British Literature II, etc...not to mention my Creative Writing minor courses where I was editing, critiquing and writing constantly). Oh, and I was now engaged. I hadn't quite grown up yet, so to speak, and I picked this book up as a personal challenge three days before this school year was to begin. It was a rainy, dark August Saturday and I took this book out onto the covered porch and I didn't stop reading until I was finished. I'd never done that before and I have never done that since, but I read a full novel in one sitting. And it wasn't even that great - until the end. The end drops you from the top floor of a skyscraper. And it gave me purpose.

I have never been terrified reading a book. That is, until I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It is simply written, but the images are incredible and horrible all at the same time. I have never seen such clear color when reading a book without the author specifically telling me, but the story just lent itself to very drab grays and browns. I have never felt hot or cold while reading a book but I felt exactly what the characters felt in that post-apocalyptic landscape of ash and winter. My heartpumped faster until the father would save the son and my gut turned when they discovered the cannibals and my whole body hurt on the beach at the end. The Road was the first novel that made me feel anything physical and it holds a very special place on the top shelf because that is what literature is about: making the reader feel...something, anything.

Robert Charles Wilson's Spin is the second book on this list that I rank as one of my favorites. First of all, this author is unreal. He can tell some of the most amazing stories effortlessly, although he is very wordy, almost to the Stephen King/Anne Rice point of frustration on a Lewis Black level. He has reminded me that though all original plots can fit on a half sheet of college-ruled paper (R.I.P. Professor Landini), there is still originality in this very unoriginal world in how you tell each plot. Wilson is a master and Spin is his magnum opus.You will be hard-pressed to find a better science-fiction novel (unless you pick up Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312, but that's for another list, I suppose).

And, lastly, I have read Harry Potter and Hunger Games and so many other YA fiction novels, but one in particular spun my wheel in a different direction. This novel showed me that dialogue, even the simplest (almost ape-like in its simplicity, actually), had between guys can be interesting. This author writes with a nostalgia and an understanding I have never seen in YA fiction. In YA fiction, it seems like you have either Dora or Dawson's Creek, all clearly written by adults completely disconnected from their readership, but John Green finds connection in his memories and his since-then wisdom of being an old man (like myself) in his thirties. You simply will not find a more connected-to-his-audience author than Green, and I was first turned on to him by reading Paper Towns. There is still that teenager in all of us who wants another chance at mystery and another chance at adventure. Maybe when he's finished writing YA fiction, Green can write some retirement fiction.

I began and ended my list with Indianapolis-based authors, too. I just noticed that. Can't be a coincidence!