The tattered, beloved copy from my parents' book stash!
I can’t drive a car and I don’t really want to learn.
Lame?
Meh… naw.
It just means I’ll always be forced to live somewhere with adequate public transportation…
…meaning I’ll always have the joy of the train/bus reading commute!
My current hour round-trip MBTA ride means an hour of delightful book time each day.
And thus with joy, I bring you:
Two books you must begin reading NOW…
…because they will change the way you look at your world.
1. Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley.
This book is AMAZING. Haley traced his ancestry back all the way to Africa and tells the dramatized saga of the family’s generations from The Gambia, through American Slavery, to freedom and prosperity in Tennessee. Roots is one of the most powerful books I’ve read in my entire life because it gives human faces to the history that defined the past two centuries in America. Most notably, Roots takes us inside Slavery.
Suddenly, whole facets of the facts you learned as a child take on new life. Current events and societal elements that you see every day take on new meaning. What makes Roots even more spectacular is the fact that it’s based on meticulously researched TRUE family history.
I don’t care how many times you’ve seen the movies or recited “My name is Kunta Kinte!” If you haven’t read the book yet, you truly must! In every sense of the word, Roots is AWESOME.
2. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.
This is a very, VERY different book, though equally super-fat and super-influential. Atlas Shrugged is a work of pure, hypothetical fiction, exploring the importance of “people of ability” in the world… and how the “looters and moochers” try to steal what the talented, hard-working folks create.
Some people HATE this book, because they claim it turns people into selfish monsters, and indeed, Rand IS the mother of Libertarianism. Other people are OBSESSED with the novel, and say it has utterly altered the way they think and act for (they insist) the better.
Me? I just think Atlas Shrugged is a marvelously entertaining book with a really hot love story (love triangle, actually) and heaps of fascinating ideas and striking images. Want to know what all the fuss is about, and why Atlas Shrugged is consistently at the very top of “Best Novels of the Past 100 Years” lists? There’s no other way to find out than to dive right in!
Don’t be intimidated by the size of these famous texts, because they move quickly. Pick up one of these fabulous books today!
I’ve read Atlas Shrugged 3 times, and I plan to re-read it many more. I love every word of it; including John Galt’s 60+page speech! I don’t see Dagny Taggart as wooden. I see her as principled, independent, determined and strong willed. (By the way, her sniveling brothers name is James.)
Why do you see Rand’s philosophy as possible destructive? Personally, I think it would be wonderful to live in a world where each person was a contributing member of society. Galt’s Gulch sounds like heaven to me.
I’m also a huge fan of The Fountainhead. Have you read it?
I haven’t read Roots but, based on your recommendation, I’m adding it to my “To Read” list.
Yes, I LOVE Dagny Taggart’s character! I haven’t gotten to The Fountainhead yet, but plan to. Thanks for your comment!
I might have to read them! I’m just doing a post on three books that have changed my life! They are:
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
Born to Run by Christopher MacDougal
and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Have you read any of these?
Yes, read them!
I’ve read Three Cups of Tea and adored it, despite the controversy. My fiance gave me Born to Run because he loves it, but I couldn’t get past page 5. Never heard of The Talent Code!
Thanks for sharing your list. I LOVE must-read lists.
The Talent Code is all about you’re not born with any inate skills or talents and that everything is achievable through the right sort of training-read it’s ace. Page 5 of Born to Run? How is that possible, it’s a phenomenal book, I read it every few months!
Ok fine, I’ll pick it up again this summer!
Nobody is born with *any* innate talents? That kind of smacks in the face of decades of research on genetic variability and gene-environment interaction, no? I’ll have to check out the book to see how it’s framed.
Read it, it’s a great book. It talks about how sporting and cultural greats aren’t bred but are made by the circumstance that they grew up in. Genes can affect what we look like but not how good we are. Jordan wasn’t great because he was 6’6″. Tiger’s not great because he can bench 220pounds etc. Why do so many great footballers come from Brazil? Great book.
Why would you pick books over a car? I would choose a car any day. Mitsubishi Lancer.
Save money and massage your brain – a win/win for public transport. I have to admit that I have been playing alot of games on my iPod lately and not reading as much. Hopefully the game thing is a phase as my book queue has piled up.
I tried Atlas Shrugged years ago and didn’t finish it. I liked The Fountainhead, but was getting turned off by her philosophy by the time I was in Shrugged. I do like to read on public transportation, but live in a small town and can wallk to work in 30 minutes or bike in 5… I do something walk listening to books on an ipod–I also do this at the gym, a great way to “read” books that I would never get around to reading.
You’re OK with not driving, but if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard you say “You can just come pick me up. No, seriously, it’s only like a five minute drive,” I could probably buy a Starbucks Latte…maybe even a Venti!
I did enjoy your book selections, however! I read both of them while in the Navy, and each changed the way I viewed the world.
:p
You have amazing eyes!
Maybe that’s why I watch to much TV and too many movies. In most of the cities I have lived, public transportation is horrible. Most of my book reading has been done on plane rides. I guess we take it wherever we can get it.
If you want to delve a little more into the 19th century and slavery, check out the North and South trilogy by John Jakes. North and South is the first of a trilogy (Love and War and Heaven and Hell are the other two) that follows two families, one northern & one southern, through times before, during, and after the Civil War. ABC also made a miniseries of all three books (1985, 1986, and 1994).
Loved Roots! Definitely one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read – I’m in complete agreement with you. I haven’t heard anyone mention Roots in ages. In fact, it’s been so long, I could almost go back for “seconds” one of these days…
Can’t comment on Ayn Rand (yet). Man oh man though, is she ever polarizing! I’ve really got to check her out.
You had me until you mentioned Ayn Rand. Some of the ideas contained in ‘Atlas Shrugged’ are certainly interesting. But as a work of fiction, Rand’s prose and plot and characters are banal and contrived and wooden. I just can’t get past the fact that if she were as good a novelist as she was a philosopher then her books would be excellent.
Awww! As a big (guilty) fan of cheesy melodramatic TV shows, I must profess/confess my undying love for Dagny Taggart and her over-the-top persona (and “thin blouses”)… however “wooden” she may be sketched.
There’s something so enjoyable about how Rand describes Francisco and John Galt and that sniveling brother (whatever his name is) and their exploits! You don’t need to celebrate Rand as producing “fine literature,” but the truth is that those thousand pages fly by, and you are sucked into the soap opera of the characters… and that has to count for SOMEthing, right along with Rand’s compelling (and possibly destructive) philosophy!