My Inspiring Bookcase
I recently set up a little bookcase in the living room and packed it with the greatest hits of my reading life. Plucked from my basement library, these 75 novels aren’t necessarily the best I've read, but they hold the stories, the writing or the ideas that jolted or inspired me the most as a reader and a writer.
The top shelf starts with Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men.” Based on outrageous Louisiana governor Huey Long, this novel dazzled me with its politics and poetry. After finishing it on a night train hurtling through Thailand, I immediately started scribbling down the idea for the first novel I ever tried to write.
Nearby, on this same shelf, are the two Northwest novels that rocked me as a teenager -- Tom Robbins’ “Another Roadside Attraction” and Ken Kesey’s “Sometimes a Great Notion” Farther down is Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” which slapped me with its first page and soon had me forcing it on college friends. Drop down a row and there's my favorite provocative novel of 2012, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain.
Gathering all these books together in one compact bookcase felt like a reunion. Hey, “Ironweed”! I hadn’t even seen the cover of William Kennedy's novel in decades but his story about some irresistible bums sticks with me like it’s my own. And there's Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice.” That movie was so powerful that people forget the book was even stronger.
I have kept in touch with many of these books through the years, such as “The Great Gatsby”, which I cracked again the other night just to re-read its final six pages. I’ve reopened Pete Dexter’s “Paper Boy” several times to study the tense realism of his dialogue. And I’m looking forward to re-reading the daring opening to Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto."
They’re all here together now. And browsing back in time on the bottom shelf, I see “Being There,” Jerzy Kosinski’s brilliant satire, which felt so illicit to this 14-year-old. And back further, there’s “Conan”. Yes, I loved that pulp fiction series, and I'd still argue Robert E. Howard was a gifted vivid writer. And before him, there was Wilson Rawls and his story of an Ozarks boy and his two hunting dogs. “Where the Red Fern Grows” was the last book ever read aloud to me. I considered leaving it out of this bookcase, but it belongs too.
The top shelf starts with Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men.” Based on outrageous Louisiana governor Huey Long, this novel dazzled me with its politics and poetry. After finishing it on a night train hurtling through Thailand, I immediately started scribbling down the idea for the first novel I ever tried to write.
Nearby, on this same shelf, are the two Northwest novels that rocked me as a teenager -- Tom Robbins’ “Another Roadside Attraction” and Ken Kesey’s “Sometimes a Great Notion” Farther down is Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” which slapped me with its first page and soon had me forcing it on college friends. Drop down a row and there's my favorite provocative novel of 2012, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain.
Gathering all these books together in one compact bookcase felt like a reunion. Hey, “Ironweed”! I hadn’t even seen the cover of William Kennedy's novel in decades but his story about some irresistible bums sticks with me like it’s my own. And there's Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice.” That movie was so powerful that people forget the book was even stronger.
I have kept in touch with many of these books through the years, such as “The Great Gatsby”, which I cracked again the other night just to re-read its final six pages. I’ve reopened Pete Dexter’s “Paper Boy” several times to study the tense realism of his dialogue. And I’m looking forward to re-reading the daring opening to Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto."
They’re all here together now. And browsing back in time on the bottom shelf, I see “Being There,” Jerzy Kosinski’s brilliant satire, which felt so illicit to this 14-year-old. And back further, there’s “Conan”. Yes, I loved that pulp fiction series, and I'd still argue Robert E. Howard was a gifted vivid writer. And before him, there was Wilson Rawls and his story of an Ozarks boy and his two hunting dogs. “Where the Red Fern Grows” was the last book ever read aloud to me. I considered leaving it out of this bookcase, but it belongs too.
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Rhonda
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Oct 25, 2012 04:12PM
Isn't it wonderful how books can be old friends and give you that kind of comfort. I'm a few years older than you but we have many mutual friends. Nice article.
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Thanks, Rhonda. And then there's the thrill or disappointment of rereading those books and seeing if they still feel like good old friends.
This is a great idea, Jim. However, I'm sad to say that as much as I love being in the e-book age considering I live in central Japan and getting my hands on paper books is not nearly as easy as getting e books, such an idea might be a lot harder to pull off in future years. Anyway, I just started "Truth Like the Sun" because a friend (a former bookstore owner in Tacoma, WA that I worked for) recommended it and because I'm fascinated in the 1962 World's Fair and even though I'm only 3 chapters in, I'm very excited to read it. Thanks for your effort putting it out there!
I'm a BookCrosser so typically pass my books on to friends, but if I had a shelf like yours, The Highest Tide would be on it. A friend handed it to me as I made my way up the coast, ready to manage the lodge on top of Olympic N.P.'s Hurricane Ridge for a summer. I cracked your book open at our travel trailer on Lake Crescent and didn't get too far in before closing it, shaking my head, and saying: "Man. Some people just know how to WRITE!" I'm currently in a book club at my local library here in Lawton, Oklahoma and I've convinced them to put it in the queue for the upcoming year. :)
