Enjoy reading? Books to consider

There’s something beautiful about reading. Unlike television or the movies, which paints the characters, the scene, even the atmosphere for the viewer, reading lets your mind fly free. You get to decide what the character looks like, you paint the scene, and you construct the atmosphere.

When watching television, the director gives it to you how he sees it. It’s his picture, not yours. With a book, the author is the architect, but you do all the building and painting with your mind.

A lot of people I know read non-fiction, histories and biographies, stuff like that. I prefer fiction.

Lately, I’ve been in the suspense mode but my taste in fiction is much broader than that. So what I want to offer up today is a list to books that everyone should consider reading, not just because they are great books, but because they are classics that both entertain and educate. A lot of books, like the suspense novels I’ve been reading lately, do a great job of entertaining but rarely do they educate the reader about life. In short, they have no lasting value. That is the difference between a classic and a John Grisham, Deane Koonz, Sidney Sheldon or Stephen King offering, which is entertaining but full of empty calories when it comes to teaching us about life and the world.

So here are a few books that not only entertain us for a few hours but also can leave a lasting impression on what we think and feel for years to come. Although I’m not a big fan, I’ll start with Ernest Hemingway’s best, “The Old Man and the Sea.” This novel is about more than an old man trying to bring in the greatest fish he has ever hooked. It’s about courage, and if publishers gave out Oscars, this one would win. Then again, since Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature, primarily because of this book, this novel did take home the prize.

Another novel and author that won the Nobel Prize is “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse. This story, which takes place during the time of Guatama Buddha, tells a wonderful religious tale of self-discovery.

Picking one book by John Steinbeck, my favorite author, is next to impossible but I picked the fable, “The Pearl,” because it is written in a simple style, how it is beautiful in that simplicity, and how it tells a wonderful story from which we can all benefit.

Two depressing books, and I really mean dark books, are “1984” by George Orwell, and “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. “1984” relates the futuristic tale (It was written in 1948 and Orwell flipped the years.) of Winston Smith, who has the misfortune of living in the country Oceania, governed by Big Brother, the ultra form of communism. Big Brother, you see, doesn’t just control what you can and can’t do, he controls what you think.

“The Jungle” is the tale of Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. It’s a two-pronged story about the immigrants who rushed to America in the early 1900s only to find that the streets were not paved with gold, and the meat-packing industry, in which many of those immigrants worked. A word to the wise: Read at your own risk. You may not eat a hot dog, a sausage or a hamburger for a few months after you digest his book.

Followers of Ayn Rand may point to “The Fountainhead” or “Atlas Shrugged” as her best works, and no question these are great novels, but the Rand book I recommend as an entry point to her unique work is “Anthem.” It is much shorter than the other two, which are mammoth, and it captures her concept of “individualism” just as well.

One of the more entertaining personalities-turned-author is Truman Capote. Known primarily for his non-fiction fiction work “In Cold Blood” masterpiece, I recommend “Music for Chameleons” instead. A collection of short stories, interviews and a novella, this penetrating work showcases Capote at his best.

An author who is great, maybe one of the greatest, is William Faulkner. Problem is, a lot of folks find him a bit difficult to read at times. As an introduction to the great man, I suggest his last book and Nobel Prize winner, “The Reivers.” It is funny, it’s touching, and it’s a great story. Then you can read “The Sound and the Fury” with your literature teacher (Those of you finished with school, just log on to Confusingasheckbutreallygood litrature.com.).

I saved three of the best for last. Voted the best English-language novel of the 19th century, Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” is simply extraordinary. The same goes for the book voted as the 20th century’s best English-language novel, “Ulysses.” And, as good as these two are, I prefer “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain’s coming-of-age tale of a boy and his best friend, an escaped slave, and their adventures down the Mississippi River (Only the original, however, the one that uses the word, “slave.”)

Of course, books affect us in personal ways, and my list may not be yours. But I guarantee these books are too good NOT to entertain you AND they can’t help but transform you in some way.

One last thing: My favorite book is “The Magus” by John Fowles. Read it. You won’t be sorry.