Recently, some of my friends on Facebook posted their 10
most influential or inspirational books. I’ve found myself thinking about what
books I would put on my list. I didn’t want to try to cram this into a Facebook
post, so I decided to take a few minutes and reflect on the books that have really
made an impression on me. These aren’t necessarily the *best* books I’ve ever
read, or the most important ones—as much as I would like to tell you that A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or
For Whom the Bell Tolls made me a
writer, well, sorry, it’s not so. These are the books that fired up my
imagination and made me want to write adventure stories.
10. Strange Stories,
Amazing Facts: The only nonfiction book on my list, this was actually a
Reader’s Digest collection that introduced me to hundreds of legendary
monsters, strange events, and unforgettable people—basically, an assortment of
Forteana. I think my parents got it as a throw-in for subscribing to the
Reader’s Digest condensed books. This is the book where I discovered things
like Spring-Heeled Jack, the Mary Celeste, Tunguska, and a hundred other
fascinating things. Back before the Internet and Ancient Aliens, this was where I learned about Weird Cool Things.
9. The Road to
Science Fiction #2: A great collection of old sci-fi short stories and
excerpts from early SF novels that introduced me to writers such as Olaf
Stapledon, Jack Williamson, and A.E. van Vogt. My favorite in the collection
was A.E. van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer,” although A. Merritt’s “The People of the
Pit” is one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. I later tipped my cap to
Merritt in my Last Mythal series when
I sent my characters into the abyss of Lorosfyr.
8. Beau Geste:
One of these things is not like the other, I know, I know. Beau Geste is just a great adventure story, and the narrative is masterfully
presented through the framing device of Major Beaujolais’ story of the events
at Fort Zinderneuf. I just learned that there were sequels—I guess I need to go
find ‘em!
7. Twenty Thousand
Leagues under the Sea: When I was only 6 or 7, I had a copy of 20,000 Leagues that I read over and over
again. The story was hard for me at that age and I didn’t understand it all,
but through sheer repetition I managed to soak up most of it.
6. A Wizard of
Earthsea: Before Harry Potter, there was another story about a talented boy
who went off to a wondrous school of wizardry and learned amazing things. I
feel that Earthsea is one of the finest bits of fantasy worldbuilding ever
done, second only to Middle Earth.
5. The Doom that Came
to Sarnath and Other Tales: This was the first collection of HP Lovecraft
stories I read. I came by it in high school, and went on to read just about
every Lovecraft story I could track down. For Christmas my daughter gave me a
complete collection of Lovecraft’s stories, so I can stop playing the crazy
game of buying anthologies for that *one* story I don’t have anywhere else.
4. The Hunt for Red
October: Tom Clancy’s first, and his best. I’ve always enjoyed a good
thriller, and Red October is a great example of the genre—plus, the naval theme
always had a special appeal to me. I really liked Red Storm Rising, too, one of
the best WW3 books around, and still a damn fine read.
3. Starship Troopers:
The best Robert Heinlein story in my opinion. First off, it’s a great action
story. Second, this is the book that gave us our notions of powered armor and
space marines. But more importantly, the thoughtful exploration of the rights
and costs of citizenship and military service affected me deeply. I know people
who seem to think that Heinlein was a fascist because of this book, which
amazes me—that’s the same guy who wrote Stranger
in a Strange Land, after all. What they don’t realize is that Heinlein was
asking a very important question, one that we would all do well to consider
from time to time: What do we have to do to earn our right to participate in
our democracy? Throughout human history, the vast majority of people have *not*
enjoyed the ability to have a say in how they are governed. Maybe we should
appreciate it more.
2. Galactic Patrol:
When I was 11 or 12, I found a copy of Galactic
Patrol on the shelves of my local library. It didn’t take me long to tear
through the adventures of Kimbal Kinnison, Lensman and commander of the
Galactic Patrol cruiser Dauntless. I went and read through the rest of the
series as fast as I could find them. No one has ever outdone E.E. “Doc” Smith
in sheer scale: A war lasting billions of years, fleets of millions of ships, a
cosmic confrontation against a galaxy-spanning anti-civilization. I don’t know
if Doc Smith invented the idea of “the so-and-sos are working for the other
guys who are a secret front for the Big Bad,” but boy did he do it better than
anybody.
1. The Lord of the
Rings: I suspect this is at the top of a lot of lists like this. I know
Middle Earth better than some towns I’ve lived in. I could go on and on about
what I love about LoTR, but I don’t think I need to convince anybody why it’s
great. Not only is it a personal favorite, it’s been the foundation of my
career for the last twenty-three years—modern fantasy and RPGs wouldn’t exist
without Tolkien’s work. It’s hard to imagine what I would have done with my
life if Bilbo hadn’t found the One Ring in the goblin tunnels. Strange to think
that an imaginary place should exert such a real influence not only on myself,
but on so many other people too!
I’m already thinking about great books I left off the
list—Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, Tarzan of the Apes, and so on, and
so on—but I guess I’ll leave it at that. If you haven’t read one or two of
these, maybe my list will inspire you to try it out!
Wanted to say a while back, that #10 on your list was a favorite of mine as well, mine was from the 80's, silver lettering and blue binding. Still have it too. If you get a chance, check out "Good Omens", religious british comedy book about satanic nuns misplacing the antichrist...and then an angle/demon duo trying to prevent the end of days.
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