The “Classics” and Truly Good Books

This is an extension of the post about Fuck-It Lists, so, like the other one, this contains more than my usual use of the word “fuck.”

I just posted something about FILs, and this was originally going to be at the end of that post, but I realized it was quite long and could be its own post. So here you go. My opinions on “the classics.”

The last point from my FIL, the one about reading “the classics,” really summarizes the idea of a FIL, I think. It’s something you think you must do or other people think you should do to be  ”good” or “smart” or “whole” person. Continuing with the theme of the books, I read a lot. And I write a lot. I mean a lot a lot. I have over 200 books that I have read and love on my bookshelf and over the years I’ve checked out hundreds, if not thousands (I don’t want to mentally calculate the possibility right now, Russell Brand is on TV) more from the library.

As for writing, I literally deformed the middle finger on my right hand. Because I held a pencil so much as a kid and teen, writing, my finger is fucked up. Not kidding. It’s twisted and there’s a thing that looks like a callous but it’s bone. It’s not unsightly or noticeably deformed, but it’s deformed. I’ll post a pictture one time. And now back from my tangent.

Suffice it to say, I’ve read a number of literary styles, experienced a number of authors, gotten to know a load about history and humanity and all sorts of other things. But some of the classics bore the shit out of me. Brave New World, Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath… fuck all that shit. That’s not to say they’re not good books. There’s gotta be a reason people are still reading them. I hope. I, however, have tried, and cannot get through them because they’re boring to me. Maybe one day I’ll return to them and they’ll be awesome, but for now, fuck it. Sometimes you just want to read some V. C. Andrews.

On a related note, if you would like to read some truly awesome books, I recommend…

• The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. Excellent, really interactive, supplementary forum to that book here. The book is amazing, as much a piece of stunning prose as conceptual art. Always my top choice for a book recommendation.
• Anything by Chuck Palahniuk, especially Fight Club, which I love. These books really live up to critical acclaim. Even if you’ve seen the movie, Fight Club is worth the read. The fact that the ending is slightly different adds to the experience, but isn’t the only reason. Being a totally different media from the movie means the foreshadowing and methods of storytelling are richly different.
• The Dexter books, which include Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, and (the, upcoming at the time of this post,) Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay. The Dexter TV series is based on these books, and with good reason. By the way, if you can, watch the series too. I have a highly inappropriate crush on Dexter.
• Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara. This is a shorter novel. It’s simply amazing though. Despite the fact that some of the scenes made me a bit sick to my stomach, I couldn’t put the book down, and read it front to back. The fact that the story translates so well from Japanese to English really speaks to its strength and the ability of the author.