My Favorite Books-An Infamous Top Ten List

   
       One of my favorite things to do is read. Which is strange because I had such a hard time learning to read. There is a very sad story that goes with that and it entails a Fourth grade boy crying to his mom over a stack of phonetic flash cards that his younger sister, by three full grades, had just completed. He just could not remember the sounds that "A" made. Flashforward 20+ years and I really like to read and still remember all the phonics flash cards and actually enjoy reading. I know what this makes me. My students let me know all the time. On a 1-10 scale of nerdiness I am an 11. I carry that rating around sort of like a restaurant puts up their Zagat rating in its front window. I teach science for a living and coach one of the nerdiest sports there is. The closest I get to be cool is when I have to break the news to my Physical Science students that there isn't such a thing a coldness. It is all about either absorbing heat, releasing heat, or having an absence of heat.

     Anyway, this post will be a post that goes on for ten days. We will be counting up from 10 to number 1. I will give a brief explanation for why I like the book or why it makes it into my Top Ten list when there are millions of books. Also, for you keeping track or worried about changes, this list is subject to change. So, here we go to the list. (If you would feel better doing a little drumroll, then that would be fine as long as the drumroll doesn't get too loud or earn any odd glances from the people that you are around. We are already talking about my favorite books. We don't need anything else "helping" us out.)

Number 10:

   I know what you are thinking. I love this because of the movie, but that couldn't be any farther from the truth. Now, to be honest, I did like the movie, but as the sayings goes: "The book is way better than the movie" or "The movie/books is so much different than movie/book". These both are true, but the movie is good, but to be honest ( a lot of honesty in this post!) the book ruined the great imagery in this book. I wish that I would have read the book and then watched the movie instead of the opposite. Here are the reasons why this book makes it into the bottom spot of my Top Ten list:

1. The writing is good writing. It took Charles Fraizer a multitude of years to write this book. He wrote it before he was famous. You can tell or at least it appears that he took great care with each paragraph. It is the retelling of an older story, The Odyssey, but it is here in America.

2. You can visualize what he is talking about. You see in you mind this story taking place in the locations in which he is describing. You can see the mountain. You can feel the coldness or warmth. You can feel the dirt.

3.  He leaves just enough out for you to have room to imagine. This is the part that a lot of writers leave out. It is the most important part of a book in some cases. If a writer tells you everything, then there is nothing for you to do while you read. They have already told you the motives, feelings, colors, etc. Having a story that you can add to is one of the joys of reading. Much of this book is about hiking in the cold in the mountains of North Carolina. He does not fully tell me everything about the hike. He doesn't have to. I get to add my experiences of hiking in the cold in the mountains of N. Carolina. I know how the ground feels. I know how my lungs feel and how my face burns on summits. I get to become Inman walking. I have walked. I have journeyed to find a way home in a way. I have longed.

4. The emotions seem real. In a lot books, the emotions seem so fake. You think about how you would feel or act in a certain situation that is taking place in a book and a lot times, the characters act nothing like the people I know, see, interact with would act or even how I would act. They seem plastic. The characters in this book seem human. You can feel the joy, shyness, sadness, longing, pain, futility, etc.

5. The colors and characters seem vivid. As mentioned in the previous reasons, this book feels real.

6. The dialogue seems relevant and not contrived. This is one of my biggest beefs with most books. The dialogue is painful. I know writing dialogue is hard. As a writer, it feels very fake no matter if it is or isn't something you would actaully say. I know that the dialogue in the few things that I have written seems a little contrived, but the dialogue in this book does not. You can actually picture these characters saying these things and you can imagine them feeling these ways.

    I know I said I'd be brief, but don't always believe what you hear or read. Imagine if I said I would be very detailed. You can now say a small prayer for my wonderful wife. I have been told that when I was much, much younger that I used to tell my mom about movies by starting with the part about the lion growling. Sorry, mom and now Mel.

Be looking for Number 9 tomorrow,

   David