Good Books

Last updated on August 4, 2003

This is a list of a few (mostly non-professional) books that I have found compelling for some reason or another. I tend not to dwell in the world of contemporary fiction. After all, how many stories about dysfunctional or abusive families do we need? The books below tend towards science fiction (the fiction genre that really treats ideas and speculation), essays and history. They are in no particular order.

Class, by Paul Fussell.
Do you think you know what it means to be "middle class?" What does it mean if you have Picasso on your wall, or leave National Geographic on your coffee table? Are you familiar with the terms "syllable multiplication," "legible clothing," "prole," or "prole drift?" If not, read Fussell's essay on class in America. Although dated to the 1980s, Fussell provides the framework that still allows you to identify everyone according to their class. Some people find Class to be the work of a cranky old man--these same people are most likely to be uncomfortable at how correctly he describes American life. Fussell also wrote the Great War in Modern Memory, one of the classic books on the effect of World War I on the 1920s generation.

Explaining Hitler, Ron Rosenbaum
Was Hitler evil? If so, why? Was Hitler evil because he was convinced of his moral rectitude? Or was he simply dysfunctional? Was there an event early in his life that caused him to be "Hitler"? Or was Hitler merely an opportunist, tapping into the centuries-long tradition of virulent anti-semitism in Germany? In one of the most engrossing books on the subject of historiography (ways of interpreting and doing history), Rosenbaum dissects nearly all of the ways in which historians have attempted to understand how Adolf Hitler turned into "Hitler," from the "one testicle theory" to the "perverted sexuality and homophobia theory," to the "was Hitler Jewish theory" to the "perpetration of evil because it is evil theory." Never has the price of iodoform gauze in 1907 Austria seemed so important.

The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
The best written account of evolutionary theory in the Darwinian sense. Dawkins is at his best describing how evolutionary change can take place by seemingly random and gradual changes in organisms. His particularly pithy contribution is his characterization of many creationist-type arguments is the "argument from personal incredulity." Also the author of The Selfish Gene. In a later work (Unweaving the Rainbow), Dawkins relates that some of his readers have asked how he can sleep at night with such a brutally mechanistic view of the universe. Trivial note: Dawkins is married to Lalla Ward. if you are a true geek you know "Who" she is.

Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
What can I say? I'm a geek. I've read it four times, and find something new each time. Tolkien has created the most complete and consistent imaginary world of anyone, before or since. Nearly all of our contemporary fantasy worlds of dragons, magic, and elves, dwarves, etc., come ultimately from Tolkien.

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Author of the Century, Tom Shippey
Do you want to know more about the background to Lord of the Rings? The Hobbit? The Silmarillion? Shippey explains in great but very clear detail, the origins of Tolkien's world in his deep knowledge of philology (the study of languages) and mythology, how Tolkien drew from and elaborated on the perpetual themes in mythology, Tolkien's true use of allegory and how Tolkien weaves together Manichean and Boethian concepts of evil throughout the book. What? Huh? Look at the book.Shippey makes a good argument for the importance of Tolkien as a significant writer who has been poo-pooed by critics of "real" literature.

The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem. Lem is an acclaimed Polish author of science fiction (Solaris is his most famous novel), but for the most part, for all his sophistication, is actually a pretty dull writer. The Cyberiad is a exception, and certainly the most fun of all his works. Lem recounts the various adventures of Trurl and Klapaucius, two constructor robots who continually try to outdo one another in their creations. Trurl creates a machine that will create anything beginning with the letter "n," for example, and so Klaupaucius asks it to make "nothing." Klapaucius builds an eight-story computer that cannot admit that 2+2 does not equal 7. And so on. Lem's most imaginative and complete alternate universe of robots and machines, with various kings, emperors, pirates, princes, and princesses. While reading it, I wonder about how literally the translator worked from the original Polish.

A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson. Bryson writes about his attempt to hike the Appalachian trail, from acquiring the necessary equipment (his eyes glaze when he discovers he needs a waterproof pack cover), to the sub-freezing March temperatures in Georgia at the start of the trail and his adventures along the way. His hapless companion Katz, a friend from high school, provides extra comic relief, as he sheds the extra weight in his pack within hours of leaving the trailhead. Bryson is one of the funniest writers around, and gives you a sense of the magnitude of hiking the Appalachian trail in its entirety from Georgia to Maine (it usually takes at least six months), as well as some of its history and current condition.

Blue Highways, William Least Heat Moon. Another travel book. Starting in Columbia, Missouri, Moon began a trek around the periphery of the United States from North Carolina to Alabama, westward to the Pacific Northwest, across the norther tier to New England and the Chesapeake Bay, and then westward to Missouri. The trip was on the smallest roads he could find, and he passes through some of the smallest towns with the most interesting names, such as Dime Box, Texas. He recounts his conversations with the locals. I am not sure if he had a tape recorder, took notes and has an extremely good memory, or simply wrote the general tenor of the conversation after it took place, because he writes them as complete dialogues. At any rate, the result is a picture of very rural America in the mid- to late 1970s. The result is a bit dated in its specifics, but still resonates with our current state of affairs, and is written well enough to make it worthwhile.

Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement. Clearly one of the best works in the history of science to appear in the last 50 years, it will be influential in decades to come. An absolutely flawless work of historical research and extraordinarily compelling in its presentation. Available from directly from the publisher Ashgate or from Amazon.com.

Do you have books to recommend? Send me a title, author and abstract.