JOURNAL ENTRY #20

July 1, 2008

Three days ago, in an interview, I was asked about my favorite books. The list, which was not to include SF, would change from day to day, but here are the ones I chose, in no particular order.

1. The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky

I was 23, in the Far East, when I settled down with this one. The most memorable passage: When Ivan explains to Alyosha the reasons for his atheism. He tells of a mother of two children who refuses the advances of a Russian count. The count throws one of the kids to the dogs while the mother watches. Then he looks at the remaining child and asks her again. "What," says Ivan, "could that woman ever receive in eternity that would compensate for the agony of that moment?"

2. The Sherlock Holmes Canon

I discovered Holmes during the summer of 1955, when I was at LaSalle College. Once I'd read A Study in Scarlet, there was no escape.

3. Poems of A.E. Housman

He has only two themes: early death, and unrequited love. I know the official standings among poets, but I've never encountered anyone who can deliver a punch the way Housman does.

4. Any collection of Mark Twain's essays

His funniest and most compelling work is his conversations with the reader. Or, perhaps, Fred Lorch's The Trouble Begins at Eight, an account of his tours with generous excerpts from the lectures.

5. David Copperfield, Dickens

Another one from my college years. I was a freshman. LaSalle was publishing my first short story in its literary magazine, Four Quarters, and I thought I was on my way to becoming the next Robert Heinlein. Then I read Copperfield. At one point, the beloved Barkis lies dying in his bed, and the reader is conscious of the murmur of the nearby sea. And Barkis, informed that the end is near, delivers his tag line:


"Barkis is willin'!"
And, it being low water, he went out with the tide.

I reacted by recognizing that I would never get near that level, and gave up all ambition to write. Not another word for 25 years. Until I figured out you didn't have to be as good as Dickens.

6. Any James Thurber collection

Driest wit this side of the Pecos.

7. War and Peace, Tolstoy

War, what is it good for? Occasionally, you get a novel that's impossible to put down. Tolstoy gives us the central drama of the French invasion of Russia, and adds unforgettable details. Like the method by which Napoleon hands out medals.

8. War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk

Should include the companion volume, The Winds of War. A brilliant portrait of the second war.

9. A Mencken Chrestomathy, H. L. Mencken

Had my folks known what he had to say, they'd never have granted my request and got this book as a Christmas present. I was never the same.

10. Any collection of Irwin Shaw's short stories

Recommended especially for anyone who wants to learn how to write short fiction. Of course, genius helps, too.

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A few others that I've a special fondness for:

• The Lives and Times of Archy and Mehitabel, Don Marquis
• The Star Thrower, Loren Eiseley (And pretty much anything else by Loren Eiseley)
• Short fiction by Ring Lardner
• The Return of Hyman Kaplan, Leo Rosten
• Berlin Diary, William Shirer

And my favorite science fiction anthology: Adventures in Time and Space, edited by Healy & McComas

This evening, I expect to start Kaufman & Hart's George Washington Slept Here.

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A week or so ago, a college instructor told me that none of his students read anything except what's assigned or what's in some way connected with the class. When I think of the impact that the books mentioned above, and of course several zillion others, have had on me across a lifetime, of how they've influenced the way I see the world, how much pure pleasure they've provided, and how many laughs, I can feel nothing but sympathy for people who never show up at the station.

There's a sequence in the forthcoming novel version of Time Travelers Never Die in which the protagonists visit the Library of Alexandria, at the height of its glory. Of course, they used scrolls, printed by hand. A book, in the second century B.C. was an expensive item. For people in the 20th century, it's something we simply take for granted. Thank God for paper. What kind of world would we live in did it not exist?

Jack

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