Important Books
April 12,2021
This is an entry in my Storyworth book that asked, "What is an important book in your life?"
There is no all important book, no Bible or Pilgrim’s Progress for me. I am very well read and enjoy a number of genres. Most have given me something to think about. I will review my list of books from the last twenty-odd years and lay out what I get out of them.
Religion: I have not read the Bible, through and through. I have read selected pieces and of course, living in the United States when I did, learned much of it in school and church as a child——not to mention movies and books as I aged. Religion holds a great fascination to me as it touches on a part of our humanity that is not logical but real, nonetheless. Whether you believe or not, you cannot escape its influence, no less its power. I think we are to a degree, “hard wired” to believe and for those of us who don’t, we argued our way out of it—something we humans are also hard wired to do. . Books that have helped me with religion include Misquoting Jesus by Ehrman which explores Biblical literalism and its obvious flaws and The Desire of the Everlasting Hills by Cahill. Cahill’s prose is grounded in our modern culture and yet he is able to transmit the historical realities of the time of Jesus. THEN, he takes a stab at interpretation of the early Christian theology; his chapter on Paul was no less than revolutionary to me despite having read many critical reviews of Paul previously. Along with conversations with some Jesuit priests—met on holiday—, I would forever have a more open mind to Christianity as theology despite its history. An irreverent side of this interest lies in Lamb, by Moore, which I have read twice ( a good reflection of how much I value a book). Unrelated to the Bible, but front and center to a foundation of my beliefs is Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. This is less about theology and more about what motivates us. His logo therapy is dated but his story and his thoughts organized by its experience make it a book to read over.
History: this has always been my thing. I read avidly about the Mexican conquest, the French and Indian War, and a multitude of Greek and Roman historical tales before I was 12 years old. While I enjoy straight history, I can’t say these entertain nor move me greatly; they help me catalogue what I know and what I want to know. There are subsets of history; for example The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a historical biography and serves all the purposes of its study ie it entertains, it lays out his reality, and it forecasts a warning to us now. Perhaps the best History book I have ever read was Justinian’s Flea by Rosen. It is jam-packed with both factual history and context. The black plague settled into Europe through shipping ports. He then goes on the explain the thermodynamic reasons why shipping grain from Egypt to Rome made sense when the Po river valley, just a couple of hundred miles north of Rome was a fertile valley easily cultivated with wheat and other grains. It is a multi-disciplinary look at a very modern ancient world. Flag of my Father by Bradley is interesting but far more interesting is The Imperial Cruise where he dives into the life of Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter and her part in a trip to the Far East to show the flag; the book chronicles history—it reads a bit like propaganda—but is a wonderful counterweight for any American to read re how and why the Pacific War came to be as it did—and written by a man very loyal to the father who participated in it.
Historical Fiction is also a niche I enjoy. In my early years on Carpenter Road, I enjoyed the Calomud Series with The Skystone as the first novel; this is the Arthurian Legend as it might have happened—Roman Legionaries organizing with their Briton neighbors to fend off the Saxon hordes. It was complete with medical problems, as when someone with a throat wound needs an NG tube to get nourishment: how could that be accomplished given the technology of the time? March Violets by Kerr is the intriguing story of a German Detective trapped in the Nazi Police bureaucracy and survives WW II despite being extorted into being an officer in the SS which finds him labeled a war criminal at the end of the war. He travels to Argentina with Adolph Eichman to avoid prosecution and later has a conversation with a police detective in Batista’s Cuba who complains how hard it is to maintain one’s morality working for butchers. City of Thieves by Benioff is a lovely read, simple and compact, taking you to the Eastern Front of World War II. The story of the siege of Leningrad is up there with the fall of Tenochtitlan as an epic story that needs to be told, over and over.
Biology: I have found that there are many books that blend a science with history and these are also great for adding to the catalog of knowledge I so enjoy having. The first and perhaps most memorable is Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jarod Diamond. The books is brilliant and organized and to my knowledge, ground breaking in its scope. I was into the second book by Diamond before I made a connection to my past. One of the most impressive teachers at UCLA my first two (academic) years in medical school was Jarod Diamond. Dr. Diamond was so loved by my class, that we voted him best teacher. More impressive, as he started a lecture, three students serially came in late to lecture each staggered by two minutes from the last; each left a small gift on the table at the base of the chalkboard. It was his style to pause, make eyes and move on with a wry smile on his face. I don’t remember what the first two objects were, but the third was carried in my Rick Harnsberger and it was a tray heaped high with horse shit. Dr. Diamond loved it. Nonetheless, our pop quiz remained: if you are an athlete training for an aerobic sport and the the next Olympics are in Mexico City, what techniques might you employ to improve your endurance? A second series in the genre is 1491 and 1493 by Man; these re orient us all to the vast change the inclusion of the Americas into the world’s older cultures caused. He paints a biological picture of the world before and after the Columbus contact and it is also full of blessings and warnings, and adds to the catalogue sometimes helpful in Trivial Pursuits.
Social: Achilles in Vietnam and Odyseus in America by Shay is a wonderful series by an MD providing pyschological care at the Philadelphia VA. He is “stuck” with the Viet Nam vets with PTSD in the 1980’s and comes to love them. He blends his knowledge of the classics and uses those stories as metaphors for what happens to modern warriors. He makes a great case. He even includes the story of Louis Fuller whose grave Kernie and I visited on our way to seeing Lee’s grave in Arlington.
Kernie’s passion is mysteries. My default “pulp” fiction is Science Fiction. I have many favorites but the sentinel, most impressive work was easily Dune by Frank Herbert. Kernie’s influence did affect me re the Bernie series by Kerr and the Royal Thai detective series by Burdett.
Modern Fiction: Darby has had significant influence in this quarter. I find myself ambivalent by the recommendations generated by computer algorithms, the NYT, and women’s book clubs. I have occasionally read books when Kernie was in such a club and attended one of their meetings. I was appalled! The table was full of intelligent college educated women who basically gave the book of the month a grade and moved on to their social lives and those of their children. For a guy who is on the spectrum, this approach to a book club was positively unnerving and anti-intellectual. I learned (in school) from discussing books and hearing other people’s take on the messages and images discovered. A pass / fail approach to book clubbing further alienated me from considering their selections. That bias now being clear, Darby introduced me to some books that I consider fine and full of what modern fiction should be: The Art of Fielding (Harbach), is perhaps my favorite. Blind Your Ponies (Gordon), and In the Fall They Come Back (Bausch) are contemporaneous with this and may well have been suggested by Darby as well. Amber and I share an interest in Irving with A Prayer For Owen Meany being the sentimental favorite of many wonderful novels. On my own, two other books stand out in this category: East of the Mountains by Guterson and Five Quarters of an Orange by Harris. I am not a hunter, but the world of East of the Mountains mixed with the internal dialogue of a nice man facing the end of his life found me totally there. Here is to it not being prophetic!
Weird Category: When commuting as administrator, I would borrow audiobooks from the Lacey library. I searched visually by title and not author. A mix of classics and history usually came of this. I have never read Moby Dick but feeling guilty for that fact, I checked it out and have listened to Moby Dick unabridged. It is not the greatest novel in American History. Neither is The Great Gatsby for that matter. Weirdest title as administrator? If Disney Ran Your Hospital by Lee. Hands down weirdest-but-made-an-impression on me is Why your A Student Works for a C Student and your B Student Works for the Government by Kivosaki. His thesis: his father was a PhD in education and never made much money and was at the mercy of a bureaucracy—his best friend’s father was an entrepreneur who schooled the author when he was in Jr. High with Monopoly games and challenges to make and grow money. He believes we don’t teach children how the real world works with respect to managing money and making money work for you. His solution? Work hard and find a niche that you can leverage to have other people pay for your debt. He bought real estate and paid his mortgages with rents, continuously saving and repeating the cycle. With time the value of real estate increased and he owned lots. He has a business philosophy that is not for everyone (published way before the Trump presidency, he has some surprising things to say about the Trump children) but everyone should hear his take on the lack of education and skill that, I would agree is all too common in the average citizen.
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