TEN FAVORITE BOOKS

INTRODUCTION

I love to read, so here are a few favorite books, with brief reviews.  I hope you enjoy this post.

THE BIBLE

The Bible, since my background is Christian, bears mentioning, although not as a part of this list.  I include The Bible here, so the religious and non-religious, understand it plays a role in my life.  The Bible is a rich source of history, philosophy, morality, guidance, and wisdom.  Since we do not all share the same religious background, I will not expound further on its meaning to me.  The rest of this post addresses 10 favorite books I have read.   Some of these books bring me back to my religious roots, thus the need to mention the Bible and my Christian background..  I list the books in no particular order.

EINSTEIN:  THE LIFE AND TIMES

Einstein:  The Life and Times by Ronald W. Clark.  In my humble opinion, this is the best Einstein biography you can read.  Reported discoveries of documents in recent years, may mean there are better modern biographies of Einstein, but I once collected Einstein biographies and found this one the best and most humanizing Einstein biography.  I bought the paperback version around 1972.  I refer back to it to this day.  I highly recommend this biography to those who wish to know Einstein the man and scientist.

INSIDE THE THIRD REICH

Inside the Third Reich:  Memoirs by Albert Speer.  I hated required book reading in school, but this book should be required reading for every high school student.  This memoir tells how a non-political college graduate, and regular person, became so tied into an allegiance to Hitler,  then Nazi Germany, he turned against his own moral values, without realizing it, until too late.  I have addressed this book in an earlier blogpost.  It is hard to explain the importance of this book.  Forget the size of this book--huge--read it!

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer  This is an excellent historical book on Hitler and the history of Nazi Germany by a reporter and human being, who knew pre-Nazi, and for a time Nazi Germany, in person.  You can find many excellent pro and con reviews of this book on the internet.  Although a large work by the standards of most readers, it is a valuable read.  I find these 3 books offer insight from different perspectives on a significant era in German and World History.  This time in world history is almost impossible to fully describe.  At times, all 3 books send me back to my Bible. 

FLATLAND

Flatland by E.A. Abbott.   Turning to a subject on the lighter side, Flatland appears a children's book, but written before Relativity Theory, it's proven itself to be a good children's book and a good primer on basic features of Relativity Theory.  It is a small book, about 100 pages; easy to read; may make you laugh; but is quite educational..  You need an elementary school education to read this book.   If you are a geometry student, either proficient or troubled by geometry, this book offers insight into geometry as a subject.  You will see the 3 dimensions of this world and how they work.  Not only do internet reviews exist, but the actual story is online!.  Click here.  Read this book!   You will be glad you did.   Sorry, I do not mean to sound bossy.  Please think of it like a celebration after a great sports play. 

(Further note:  This book is excellent for teaching social tolerance, due to being written as a satirical work.  I have rarely, if ever, seen a book that has such varied educational and social classroom applications.)

ARCHY AND MEHITABEL

archy and mehitabel by don marquis.  A hilarious fictional book of short stories, connecting the two subjects and the author.  HINT:  There is a reason why the title and author are in lower case letters  You need to read the book to know why.  My copy is a paperback by Anchor Books.  The characters were introduced by the author in his newspaper column in 1916.  If you think something this old can't possibly be funny, then checkout this book at your local public library, read it, then leave me a comment.  I was introduced to this author in a college literature class.  I read the book's most memorable story.  Years later, by chance, I ordered the book through a mailorder book catalog.  It is just under 200 paperback pages, including artist drawings by the author. 

(This book's humor includes a disrespected reincarnated bard / writer, Cleopatra, and a manual typewriter.  Some of you may need to look up that last term.  Not saying how old I am.) 

A NOTE TO READERS

*Some books I mention may be available only in the United States.  Some have different publishers and titles in other languages.  My apologies, if you are unable to obtain one of these book(s) due to lack of international publication, due to being out-of-print, or unavailable from a library.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS (TRILOGY)

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.   Yes, the book trilogy, not the DVDs, which I have not seen.  I consider this trilogy one of the greatest literary fiction works I have ever read.  I may believe in Ents, talking trees, if memory serves me right.  This book has faded from memory, because I read it in the late 1970's or early 1980's.  However, it remains one of the best books I have ever read.  Since I am sure you can find much about this trilogy on the internet, including online groups dedicated to it, I only add, READ THIS TRILOGY!

A TREASUREY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

A Treasury of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle with editor Adrian Conan Doyle.  I should first point out, this is a Doubleday published collection of Holmes stories as selected by Adrian Conan Doyle, son of the author, with his own introduction to the book.  He is not listed as editor, but I think this might be a useful term to describe him.  There are many fine Holmes collections out there to be read, maybe a better collection than this one, but it is the one I own.  I ordered the book when I was 11 or 12, which is a fine age to introduce boys, perhaps girls too, to this author and famous fictional character.  Holmes is both educational and enjoyable fiction.  No doubt Holmes is a rare fictional character, an enlightened person should get to know.  His name is part of English-speaking culture.  It is rare for a fictional character to have a place in history, yet Holmes is such a person, I mean, character.

MARK TWAIN'S MOST BELOVED BOOKS

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  These two books are by the most famous author born in the United States of America.  There is a lot to be found on the internet on these classic books and their author.  I very much enjoyed both books.  The form of American speech used in these books is lost to many modern ears.  Even Americans complain they can not read and fully understand the language of these books today, which is a pity.  The books are fun to read or worthy of indepth study.  I wish all readers could have the benefit I had, of "hearing" the books read to me, as a child, before the classroom forced upon me, the dissection of these books, as literary works.  I recall, Twain was not fond of dissection either, but did enjoy a good laugh.

THOUGHTS ON AUTHORING

A scholar has rewritten Huck Finn in modern English, eliminating what many regard as racist language used in the text.  Given the growing language barrier mentioned, for modern readers, to understand the books, the rewrite is not entirely a bad idea.  Ideally, it would be nice to have the original text on the opposite page, so the original text never gets lost, nor the understanding of the powerful influence the books had for readers over time.  Since I write, I am opposed to changing the author's original language usage, for a multitude of reasons; the most important being, if you change a work a bit too much, it ceases to be the author's work.  It is an interesting topic for debate!

EDGAR ALLAN POE'S WORKS

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe or The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe.  The first seems to have no editor I can find; the second book has an editor, Stephen Peithman. Both are published by Avenel Books.  Edgar Allan Poe is considered the first great American author.  (Not to offend Cooper and others.)  He is said to have invented the American Detective story and perhaps the American Mystery story, as well.  My historical knowledge of Poe has faded with time, but not my love for his delving into the human mind.  For those from other lands, who may not have heard of Poe; Poe was a writer of short story fiction and poetry.  The Raven, a long poem, is his best known work and a challenge without a dictionary.  Poe loved words!   He did not always use them correctly!  The poem is easily understood as a tale of sadness and mourning.  Poe and much about him is on the internet, including The Raven and some of his short stories too.  Enough said for today.  He is a major inspiration to me, because he explored the human mind.

MEDITATIONS

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.  I add this book because it is a book of philosophy written as a private diary by a Roman Caesar, who persecuted Christians at times, either by a desire to or as political policy, during his rule; yet Marcus Aurelius seemed quite close to Christian beliefs in much of his own thinking.   Was he aware of this?  We will never know.  His meditations, ponderings, or thoughts are worth reading and thinking about.  I am not sure what the real man was like, but I find his words interesting.  I thought one good work of Philosophy belonged here and this one is relatively short, unlike Plato, Confuscius, and others.

CLOSING THANKS

Thank you for reading.  Had I time to go through my entire collection, I might have deleted some and replaced them with others.  Almost all of them delve into deeper thought; they educate.  However, I do like a good laugh, so included works, which make me laugh.  Thinking does not have to be dull and dry.  I hope I have given you something new to read, although most of these works are well known.  That does it for now.