Judging Books by Their Content

As I was walking through the aisles of the local library a single thought repeated in my head: “There are so many books in the world that nobody knows about.  Even if I tried to contribute, it would be worthless.”  It’s kind of a depressing thought, believing that one of the ways you want to influence the world is pretty much a closed door to someone with zero writing experience or ability.  Sure, I can become an inspiring teacher, a loving mother, maybe even a foster mother someday, but what about the contributions I want to make that I’m not even close to qualified for?

I want to write a book.  I want this book to make people laugh, cry, and re-evaluate how they look at their lives.  I want people to be moved by my choices of words, to feel the poetry and the beat as that quiet voice inside their head reads my thoughts to them.  I want to create something that people struggle to put down because my voice draws them in and captivates them for hours; holding them prisoner in the best way possible.  I love those books. 

My favorite books all have elements that I would love to steal.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Technically this is a play, but it reads so beautifully.  Cyrano is the person so many people believe themselves to be: honorable, full of love and compassion, brave, hilarious, intelligent, and charming, as well as the person so many people think the world sees them as: physically imperfect and therefore unlovable.  My book needs to have a character that everyone resonates with because of how incredible they are, not because my character is an empty shell anyone could insert themself into.

                An inspiring line: “A man does not fight merely to win!  No, no, better to know one fights in vain! . . . I know them now, my ancient enemies – Falsehood! . . . Prejudice!  Compromise!  Cowardice!  What’s that?  No!  Surrender?  No!  Never – never!  Ah, you too, Vanity!  I knew you would overthrow me in the end – No!  I fight on!  I fight on!  I fight on!”

Black Swan Green

Sure, it’s a book about a teenage boy with a stammering problem, but that doesn’t mean this book didn’t help me change my perspective on life Senior year of high school.  For the majority of the story, you see this young man allow his entire life to be dictated by the people around him.  He wants to please the local gang, the pretty girl, his parents, his older sister, his unbearably cool cousin, and he really doesn’t think all that much about making his life his own.  The paradigm-shifting scene in this book is strange (he’s in a house of mirrors at a carnival), but it made me sit back and really think about how I was living my life.

                An inspiring line: “How about an Outside-You, suggested Upside-Down Me, who is your Inside-You too?  A One-You?  If people like your One-You, great.  If they don’t, tough.  Trying to win approval for your Outside-You is a drag, Jason.  That’s what makes you weak.  It’s boring.”

High Fidelity

This book is brilliant.  I love it.  Honestly, I only picked it up because John Cusack acts in the film version, but the book is great.  My one hang-up is how he gets his woman back, but I can forgive that.  What I would steal from this book is its rawness.  Rob’s life really sucks at times.  And a lot of the time it’s because he can be a total prick, but who isn’t from time to time?  Instead of making things sickly-sweet happy at the end (what I like to call a “Harry Potter Ending” now), there’s uncertainty.  You know the happy feeling is only temporary, and you know that eventually he’s going to get to the boring comfortable part of his relationship again, but you have hope for him doing better this time around.  It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

                An inspiring line: “Just because it’s a relationship, and it’s based on soppy stuff, it doesn’t mean you can’t make intellectual decisions about it.  Sometimes you have to, otherwise you’ll never get anywhere . . . I’ve been letting the weather and my stomach muscles and a great chord change in a Pretenders single make up my mind for me, and I want to do it for myself.”

Seabiscuit

Well of course I’m going to put a horse book on here.  Sheesh.  What I love about Seabiscuit is how you get pulled into the story.  Anyone who has ever rode a horse full-speed is taken back to that adrenaline rush, the feeling that you’re defying death, just by reading the words describing this amazing horse running.  You can be pulled entirely into the moment.  You can feel the muscles under you, hear the crowd, hear the horse’s breath, feel the fear and the joy and the pain.  It’s exhilarating.

                An inspiring line: “In the midst of all the whirling noise of that supreme moment, Pollard felt peaceful.  Seabiscuit reached and pushed and Pollard folded and undfolded over his shoulders and they breathed together.  A thought pressed into Pollard’s mind: We are alone.”  (Stop it you perverts; they’re running a race.)

The Princess Bride

Another no-brainer for the list of characteristics I want my story to have.  This book is one of the most hilarious pieces of (non)fiction I’ve ever encountered.  You still feel deeply, but the hard times don’t feel as hard when there’s humor involved.  There are many other worthy qualities this book holds, but the one I’m taking away for this list is humor.

                An inspiring line: “’I’m just scared to pieces,’ Fezzik said.  ‘Be sure it ceases,’ Inigo said right back.  ‘Oh, that’s a wonderful rhyme – ‘ ‘Some other time,’ Inigo said, making another, feeling quite bright about the whole thing . . . But deep, deep inside, Inigo’s stomach was knotting.”

Next

Really, any Michael Chrichton book will do for this characteristic, but Next happens to be the one that I most recently read, so there you go.  All Chrichton’s books use current events, hard facts, and some really exciting storytelling to make you think about what’s really going on in the world around you.  Instead of coming up with his own rules in a fantasy world (sparkly vampires, anyone?), Chrichton slightly modifies actual events to show his readers how crazy/awesome the real world we live in is.  I really wish he was still alive so I could read his thoughts on the current state of science and technology.  His skill in making stories believable but thrilling is something I’d really like to steal one day.

                An inspiring line: “Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other. Its practitioners aren’t saints, they’re human beings, and they do what human beings do – lie, cheat, steal from one another, sue, hide data, fake data, overstate their own importance and denigrate opposing views unfairly. That’s human nature. It isn’t going to change.”

You know, I think this list actually says a lot about what I value in life as well.  I value strong character in a person (Cyrano), life-changing moments and eye-opening experiences (Black Swan Green), people that don’t pretend life is perfect and wonderful (High Fidelity), moments that make my blood quicken (Seabiscuit), laughing through hard times (The Princess Bride), and exciting new things happening in the world around us (Next).  I also value a really good book.  Maybe one day I’ll make one J