Reading List: The Top Ten

If there is one thing I like to do after a morning ride during the hot summer months, it is stretch out and unwind on the shaded patio, a pint at arms length and a book in my hand. I may only make it through a few pages before falling asleep, but that is what makes it so good.

Anyway, I have read a goodly number of books over the years, some have been required, others for the heck of it. Some I looked forward to were abysmal failures, others were surprisingly good. Anyway, again, I thought i would look at my top ten reads of all time. None of them are on any despicable, undemocratic and quite frankly dangerous list of banned books (none that I know of) so you won't need to worry about any fascist knocking on your door because of what you want to read. I guess you know where I stand on book banning, but that's a story for another time.

Unlike a lot of top ten or top 100 lists that make you get through nine, or ninety-nine others before getting to number one, I'll start with, what the photo clearly shows, the... 

#1 - Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: I am sure there were others, but Tom Sawyer is the first book that I can recall reading from cover to cover. It was my mom's childhood copy of the book (not the one shown, that one eventually fell apart from use) which I read during a trip to Mammoth Lakes one summer (just the first of multiple readings by the way). It may not be Twain's most critically acclaimed book, but for me at that time, and ever since, it has had everything a good novel should - humor, drama, suspense, romance (the young uncluttered variety at least), and adventure galore.

#2 - The Dangerous River by R. M. Patterson: Every few years (well ten or so really) I pull this one off the shelf and re-read it all over. The Dangerous River is as close as you will get to a biography on my top ten list and, while it does cover a significant period of time in the life of Mr. Patterson, it is far from what I, and I think most people would regard as a true biography. I may have "discovered" this book while working in a bookstore during my college days at Santa Barbara. This book is as true to the nature of discovery and adventure as any you will ever come across. If it doesn't encourage you to get out and explore the wild places of the world that we temporarily inhabit (perhaps not the Nahanni River region, but there is nothing wrong with exploring the places you've never been closer to home), nothing will - and I'll just count you among the "city folk" (not that there is anything wrong with that) and let it be at that.

Things begin to get a little murky after those top two and, honestly, the order could change from year to year, or week to week, but i'll try.

#3 - The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher: This one continues a theme carried over from the books number one and two (and as you might guess, is a common theme throughout the list) - adventure. Colin Fletcher is generally attributed to be the first person to hike the Grand Canyon from end to end. If you are the type of person for whom adventure and thoughts of adventure occupy a larger portion of your life, the journey of Fletcher is the stuff of dreams, and he tells it in the book in a totally competent and relatable way.

#4 - Give Your Heart to the Hawks by Winfred Blevins: As a mountain man from a different era, I've read many books on the fur trade era of North American history, both non-fiction and fiction. This one was the first and immediately set the standard for all that have come later including novels by A. B. Guthrie Jr., Allan W. Eckert, and particularly, Terry C. Johnston. While those others are entirely works of fiction, Blevins' book tells the stories of a few of the men who travelled across the continent long before any person of European descent wrested it away from the indigenous people, seeing sights and experiencing life in a way that was quickly transformed and is unlikely to be seen again. Beside the point, but interesting, my copy (which I bought used) is signed by Blevins to someone named LaVerne.

#5 - Sons of the Shaking Earth by Eric R. Wolf: This book, by now, is a classic of anthropological literature, indeed I first read it as an anthropology student at UCSB (class of Prof. Juan Vicente Palerm). It absolutely broadened my scope of interest beyond the narrow confines of North America and Europe, one of several similarly transformative books I read at that time. 

#6 - The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan: The grandparents of people from my generation lived through the Great Depression era and, when we think about it, we may recognize certain traits or characteristics that we associate with them that they likely picked up as a result of economic hardships. The Dust Bowl was an equally devastating event that generation was forced to live through and, even if your ancestors were not directly affected, the Dust Bowl altered the lives of millions of people, and their descendants. For those of us who only read about it in high school history class, Egan skillfully brings the calamity to life.

#7 - The Desert Smells Like Rain by Gary Paul Nabhan: More than a few times have I quoted from this book that I picked up while working at the Southwest Museum. In it the author explores and country and cultural traditions of the O'odham (Papago) people of Sonora and southern Arizona. That environment can be a harsh one to try to live in, yet the pages of The Desert Smells Like Rain are filled with examples of the people finding sustenance and beauty in those surroundings.

#8 - We Pointed Them North by E. C. Abbott: I have always been the guy rooting for the Apache, or the Cheyenne, or the Siksika rather than the calvary or the cowboys, but this book (read, again, as a student at UCSB) proved to be far more fascinating than I would have imagined. Written as a series of recollections by the author, who drove herds of cattle across the plains, We Pointed Them North, gives a truthful, unadulterated view of the lifestyle of a cowpuncher of the 1870s and 1880s.

#9 - It is really getting tough now, but I am going to give #9 to the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats: Another one of those books that I frequently quote from here at the blog. I think, even more than a work of fiction, poetry is something that you either get, or you don't. For me, it opens up the use of our imaginations far more than any printed work of fiction ever could because any interpretations made by the reader can be many-fold depending on individual experience and perspective. The fact that Yeats is, arguably [?] the greatest Irish poet of any generation has nothing to do with it - Ha.

#10 - Agincourt by Juliet Barker: The difference between #10 and any number that follow is a matter of slight degree, but I feel like I have to give it to this one. Agincourt is a fascinating, clearly comprehensively researched look at a single battle from English / French history. As I read it I felt completely drawn into the events as they played out - I couldn't put it down, it was that interesting; this from someone who long felt that English history (except as it related to Irish or American history) to be of little interest.

A few finishing notes: You will have noted that there is not a single cycling-related book on this list. While I have read many (and some good ones) none of them have had quite the impact to make the top ten. That said, Tim Krabbe's The Rider would certainly be in the top 20 list, and the two books by Joe Parkin - Come and Gone, and A Dog in a Hat - would not be far behind. No books by either of my favorite authors - John Steinbeck and Roddy Doyle made the top ten list. I think, in some way, it is too difficult for me to separate the works of these two authors, one from another. In Doyle's case, is A Star Called Henry more compelling than The Dead Republic, or The Woman Who Walked into Doors, or The Commitments? The same goes for Steinbeck - Tortilla Flat, The Grapes of Wrath, Travels with Charley? What about Cannery Row? All so good, how could I pick one from another? 

George Bird Grinnell, James Willard Schultz, Walter McClintock. All three of these men lived among the Blackfoot people of Montana and Canada as ethnographers, photographers and explorers. I have read all their books any one of which could be a top twenty selection. I might be partial to Grinnell since I indexed his daily diaries and field journals while working at the museum, but each man well documented their experiences of adventure and discovery, and cultural connection. 

A final five worthy of consideration - Paddy's Lament by Thomas Gallagher, The Moccasin Telegraph and Other Tales by W. P. Kinsella, Community of Strangers by A. F. Robertson, Hanta Yo by Ruth Beebe Hill and Trails of the Angeles by John W. Robertson. Paddy's Lament was, in part, the inspiration for my pursuit of a Masters' degree (never finished). The Moccasin Telegraph, a collection of highly humanizing short stories. Community of Strangers is another from an anthropologist at UCSB which opened my eyes to a world beyond ethnography, one where anthropology could be used to solve problems. Hanta Yo is a top ten contender and, except for the fact I no longer have my copy, I would read it again. It is a heck of a story. Trails of the Angeles (as well as Sierra South and Sierra North) one of the bibles of trail guidebooks - how many times have I opened it to look for a yet to do hike? Maybe more importantly, how many more times will I?

So there you go, hit the books, but don't forget to ride.