Book Reviews

My wife is a fanatical reader. She reads anything from books about Khrushchev to books about the exciting lives of crossword puzzle writers. It amazes me that she can read a book and fall asleep in mid-sentence and pick up at the same place the next time she reads. I have to stop at the end of a chapter or at minimum a place where the story jumps to another character or situation.

Anyways, I would like to discuss some of the recent books I have read as well as hear your thoughts about what I might be interested in reading. And please don't tell me James Patterson or some other "A Walk in the Clouds" type book, I'm sure he is a phenomenal writer but pure love stories just don't interest me. Disclaimer: I don't always have to be open-minded... do I?

First off I would like to recommend Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This is a powerful and compelling book all the while telling a personal story. I find myself trying to emulate some of the characters and in my opinion she could be predicting a future. I say "a" future because there are infinite possibilities regarding the future so to state that she "has" predicted the future would be premature. The only drawback to this book are it's nearly 1,200 pages and the authors large vocabulary. Now I may not have a rapist's wit like my friend Jon but I consider myself a learned man and I had to ask my wife what some words actually meant.

I also recently read 1984 and Animal farm by George Orwell. Very fascinating books, also quite possibly predicting "a" future. 1984 is also one of the best books I have ever read and just in the last few days I re-read the last few chapters. I still get a chill reading it. Orwell has a knack for making me feel like it could be me experiencing some of the things that his characters experience while at the same time letting me (the reader) discover what those experiences are. I hope that made sense.

Animal Farm on the other hand was not as exciting as the aforementioned books but did only take about 3 hours to read. Orwell's message is clear but I almost felt like it was written by a 15-year-old who had no idea what his message would be only she liked to write about animals. that said, I did enjoy it and would recommend it not only for its brevity but its thought-provoking ideas.

I can't say enough about R.A. Salvatore. He is definitely the best writer I have ever read. His books are based on a character named Drizzt (apparently pronounced Drisst but I will be a non-conformist and continue to say Drizzit). These are fantasy/sci-fi books much like Tolkien but in my humble opinion written exponentially better than the Lord of the Rings series (see below). I have read the two main series, "Icewind Dale Trilogy" and "Dark Elf Trilogy" twice and I cannot wait to read them again. The best part about the books is that Drizzt gives kind of a personal memoir before each book and we see him grow as an elf, a person and an intellectual. There is a lot of meaning behind what Drizzt has to say and he is the type of character that quite possibly is the subconscious of the author. I really recommend these books.


Sticking with the fantasy genre Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have written numerous phenomenal books along these lines. I recommend starting with Chronicles (which I am reading again for the third time), a story about a group of friends trying to save their world. Again I really felt like I would be friends with some of these characters, if they would be friends with me. I can imagine my mySpace account having well over 100 friends, most of them fictitious of course. Once you have read Chronicles you will no doubt want to continue. However there are a series of books called "Death Gate Cycle" and they are just as powerful.

A quick note about Tolkien. I did like "The Hobbit" but as far as the trilogy that was made into a movie, I have a hard time reading it. I understand that Tolkien was the father of fantasy and no doubt influenced all the current fantasy writers but I find his books to be too descriptive. It takes 7 pages to describe the smell in a dark, damp room and only one sentence to describe a battle. Hence, I like the books for their storyline and content but for me they were way too wordy and descriptive.
Finally I would just like to mention some other great reads. Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut is a fantastic book as well as Slaughterhouse Five by the same author. I really enjoyed Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, and I intend to read a few more of his books. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and last but not least The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

These are my recommended readings. I can't think of any more books that I have read at the moment, maybe that's all I have read but if you're looking for a good read try one of the books I have suggested and let me know what you think.

I think I am going to read the Federalist Papers next, a friend of mind we call "The Doctor" is reading them now and I will wait for his thoughts.