Ender's Game and Speaker For the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: A

Impact on the World: F

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: C

Made Me Think: B

I don't consider myself an avid reader of science fiction, but I consider myself a big fan nonetheless. I think it is because science fiction is the ultimate playground for crazy ideas. Authors have the freedom to imagine any set of circumstances or constraints.

I'll start with Ender's Game. The story is about Andrew "Ender" Wiggins, who is the third child at a time when families were not supposed to have more than two. The International Fleet is looking for the brightest kids to send up to their orbital Battle School. Ender's older siblings showed a huge amount of potential, but where both disqualified for personality reasons. The International Fleet sanctioned the third child in hopes that Ender might be the person they had been looking for. The International Fleet is looking for a brilliant mind to lead IF starships when they finally arrive at the Bugger's home worlds. Seventy years earlier, humanity was almost wiped out by the invading Buggers and the IF has launched a counter attack, but they don't have a general.

The story follows Ender through Battle School, then on to Command School. The battle scenarios are excellent. The story of Ender though is also about his own internal tensions with who he is becoming and who he wants to be. Ender is brilliant, which makes him very dangerous, but more than anything he fears turning into his sadistic older brother. Ender wants to be good, but he is being trained to be a killer.

I don't want to risk much more, because this book has some great surprises. And I really can't even review Speaker For the Dead because I'm not sure how to do so without spoiling Ender's Game. If you enjoy sci fi, these two books are excellent. I haven't read the rest of the series, but I will.

Getting back to my initial comment about science fiction being a playground for ideas, Speaker For the Dead is the more philosophical and idea driven of the two, but it has plenty of plot to make it a very fun read.

I wanted to have a few sci fi and fantasy novels on the Cultured 100 list, but I think I'll leave Dune on for now and leave this one off. I enjoyed them both equally, but I think Dune has had a broader influence and seems more applicable to the world we live in.

Watership Down - Richard Adams

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: B

Impact on the World: F

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: F

Made Me Think: D

I first heard about this book in The Devil's Casino, which is a book about Lehman Brothers. Some of the main characters owned a bar together and had a picture of Fiver on the wall. I had never heard of Watership Down, but I looked it up and realized it was regarded as a classic by some. There are plenty of so called classics I have never read or will read, so why this one? I guess it was a bit of a whim really. It was easy to gather that this was a story about a group of rabbits that leave their home in search of a new one and have many adventures along the way. How could a book starring rabbits be considered a classic unless it was simply great storytelling. And since I'm a lover of good stories, I decided to give it a shot.

The non-spoiler summary is that Hazel and Fiver are brothers. Hazel is a natural leader and Fiver has a sixth sense about looming danger. Fiver is frantic that all the rabbits need to leave, but only a handful join them. They don't really know where they are going and stumble into several adventures along the way. And even when they find their new home, the adventures continue. I thought Richard Adams did a great job of making them intelligent like humans, but not human. Of course, there are many ways to blend rabbits and humans into characters, but I thought this version was especially good. About the time you start to think of Hazel as a person, he does something very rabbit, and vise versa.

The characters are interesting, but at its core this is an adventure story. Richard Adams points out in the introduction that this is not an allegory, it is simply a story he made up for his kids on a long trip in the car. As someone who tries to make up stories for my kids, I have great admiration for this story. It has all the trappings of a good adventure tale. I enjoyed the rabbit legends almost as much as the actual story. There are several places throughout the book where the rabbits tell stories. Basically, these are the equivalent of Greek mythology to the ancient Greeks. The stories were brilliant and funny.

The scores at the beginning are designed to help me find books for my Cultured 100 list, and as such this book scored poorly on those metrics, but that does not make it a bad book. Quite the opposite. I thought this was an wonderful story and I will read it again to my kids someday when they are older; the way my Dad used to read stories to my sister, brother and me.

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: A

Impact on the World: D

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: A

Made Me Think: A

Things Fall Apart is one of the best novels I've ever read. I should leave it at that, but I can't help myself. I often read while I'm on the bus from the train station to my office, but on the occasional day when I have to stand because the bus is crowded, I almost never try to read standing in the aisle. Things Fall Apart was the exception to that general rule. I want to be careful not to ruin the experience for you, so I'll purposefully keep this review high level.

I don't remember a year ever being mentioned, but the story takes place in an African village during the time when the British were first moving into the area. The central character is Okonkwo, who is a prominent man in both his own village and the surrounding villages. In his youth he had beaten the long-standing wrestling champion at the tournament and his bravery and toughness were unquestioned. Okonkwo has to confront the British on many levels and the world is changing all around him. As the title suggests, this book is about Okonkwo as things fall apart.

I really don't want to delve into the story line much more, just because I really hope you read it for yourself. But I will say that this novel really shines on two fronts; Okonkwo's character and the glimpses into tribal Africa.

Regarding Okonkwo, I found myself admiring his strength and despising his weakness. I hoped for him and was repulsed by him. Even now as I write this, I struggle to pin him down, but rather than assuming that it is because he is a poorly crafted character, I assume it is because he is a real and complex person. After reading some novels, it is the intriguing premise, places or plot twists that run through your mind. After reading Things Fall Apart, it was Okonkwo himself that lingers. Was I misunderstanding him? What was really driving him? Was he flawed or principled? How would I handle things falling apart?

The second part of the story that I loved was the glimpse into their life, just because it is so different than my own experience. The social structure, the routines of the seasons, the dynamics between men and women, and maybe most interesting, the myths and stories that they told each other. It is hard to imagine a way of life and thought more different that my own and I enjoyed getting this glimpse.

This is an incredibly well written novel and it definitely belongs on my Cultured 100 List.

Don Quixote, by Miquel De Cervantes Saavedra

Summary Scores:

Enjoyable to Read: C

Impact on the World: A

Increased My Understanding of the World/People: C

Made Me Think: B

In fairness, I read an abridged version of Chales Jarvis' translation from Spanish. Could this work have lost a great deal in translation? Possibly. Like most people, I grew up with an awareness of Don Quixote - the crazy guy that attacked windmills. That was basically all I knew so I decided it was time to give the book a fair shake. My anticipation was high. After all, I had read that some guy named Lord Macaulay thought is was the best novel in the world beyond comparison. Sadly, Don Quixote does not deliver.

The story in a nutshell is that Don Quixote reads so many novels about chivalry and "knights errant" that he effectively goes insane and thinks he is a knight. He needs a squire so he recruits his neighbor, Sancho Panza. Since all knights errant require some beauty to be madly in love with, he picks a peasant girl from a neighboring village and assigns her the name Dulcinea del Toboso. The novel spring into action very quickly, with the windmill scene being one of the first adventures. This story is basically retold over and over with different circumstances for the first half of the book. The story is, Don Quixote sees something or someone and perceives it as something different (example - the windmills are giants that must be attacked). Sancho Panza tries repeatedly to convince Don Quixote that he is in error to no avail. Don Quixote is repeatedly hurt badly, although he accidentally "wins" a couple of times. Despite his attempts to stay out of trouble Sancho usually ends up in bad shape too. Don Quixote's promise of an island to rule once he attains honor is enough to keep Sancho in tow.

That is basically it for book one. My guess is that there is a lot of word play that simply doesn't translate well into English. The stories are funny but then just get repetitious and I don't understand the point.

The second book was published 10 years later and you can tell that Cervantes is trying to get much more philosophical. Most of the second half revolves around a duke and duchess that Don Quixote and Sancho Panza happen upon. By now, someone has published a book about Don Quixote's exploits and the Duke and Duchess are eager to host them. For their amusement, they stage all sorts of adventures for Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, who seem completely unaware that they are being toyed with. The Duchess even grants Sancho Panza an island to govern as a reward, although is happens to be just a city under their control that they call an island for this particular game.

I don't mean to completely write off this book; it has some merits. Don Quixote's persistent determination to be honorable and chivalrous, in the face of repeated humiliation and obstacles, is remarkable. The banter between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza is hilarious at times. The delight people take in mocking Don Quixote behind his back is tragically familiar. The whole premise is amusing.

Finally, I can't decide if I think this is the books finest point or is lowest, but Sancho Panza is a riddle. He seems to gradually go insane. He demonstrates shocking wisdom and insight during his tenure as ruler of his "island", while seeming to be oblivious to the fact that it is not an island. He seems keenly aware and occasionally embarrassed by Don Quixote's insanity, yet he clings to the promise of an island kingdom anyway. So the best thing about this book is trying to figure him out. The worst part is that I'm not convinced Cervantes really knew where he was going with this character either.

After struggling to even finish this abridged version, I found myself wondering if the claim that Don Quixote is the greatest novel of all time was a literary joke. As in, Don Quixote is the greatest novel of all time, just as Dulcinea del Toboso is the most beautiful woman in the world, his horse Rozinante is the greatest horse to ever bear a knight errant, and Don Quixote himself is the greatest knight to ever live.

This book will not be on my Cultured 100 list!

The List

I'm trying to build a list of books that I think my daughters should read. It isn't supposed to be the 100 best books ever written, but more of a list of 100 books that will give my girls a well rounded appreciation for the world they live in. As such, I have a few categories that I want to fill, but I also want to make sure I have a significant "Miscellaneous" section.

I made a non-comprehensive list of things about humanity that I want the list to touch on (that's right, a list for my list). They include creativity, intelligence, emotion, spirituality/morality, curiosity/exploration, and brutality/war. Additionally, I want the authors and subject matter to cover the globe. These books will be a combination of well written stories and ideas that have had a profound impact on how the world thinks, speaks, acts, and is structured.

It is also worth noting that I will try to avoid long tedious works as much as possible. So for example, I'm reading the Wealth of Nations right now. It is a book that has clearly had a profound impact on the world, but it is long and tedious. I want my daughters to enjoy reading this list as much as possible.

I haven't read most of these yet, but it is a first crack at what I think might be on the final list with quite a bit of space for additions. I would love your comments or suggestions as I gradually piece this together. As I read these and other books, I will post my reviews on this blog.

The Cultured 100

North American Literature (target of 20 books)

• Huckelberry Finn - Twain
• A Hemmingway Novel - maybe. I need a good suggestion on what his best ones are.
• The Red Badge of Courage - Crain
• The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
• The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
• Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
• The Call of the Wild - London
• Catch 22 - Heller
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee
• Ulysses - Joyce

European Literature (15)

• Pride and Prejeduce - Austin
• Great Expectations - Dickens
• Heart of Darkness - Conrad
• The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
• Kim or Captains Courageous - Kipling
• The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Solzhenitzyn
• The Trial or Metamorphosis- Kafka
• Hamlet - Shakespeare

Asian Literature (10)

• Dream of the Red Chamber - Cao Xueqin
• The Tale of the Genji - Shikibu
• 
  

South American Literature (5)

• One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez
• The Devil to Pay in the Backlands - Rosa

Middle East Literature (5)

• One Thousand and One Nights - ??
• Cities of Salt - Munif
• Palace Walk - Mahfouz
• The Rose Garden (Gulistan) - Saadi

African Literature (5)

• Cry, The Beloved Country - Paton
• Things Fall Apart - Achebe
• Epic of Sundiata - ??

Science Fiction (2-5)

• Dune - Herbert
• The Lord of the Rings - Tolkein

Classics (5)

• Illiad - Homer
• Odyssey - Homer
• Aenid - Virgil
• Republic - Plato

Exploration (2-5)

• Kon Tiki - Heyerdahl
• Endurance - Worsley
• Through the Dark Continent - Stanley

Spirituality/Morality (6)

• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• The Bible - Judaism/Christiantity/Islam
• The Analects of Confusius
• Bhagavad Gita - Hinduism
• Dhammapada - Buddism
• Quran - Islam

Political/Social/Philosophical (5)

• The Art of War - Sun Tzu
• The Prince - Machiavelli
• Nietzsche?
• The Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and Federalist Papers
• The Communist Manifesto - Marx/Engel

Miscellaneous

• Origin of the Species - Darwin
• Sherlock Holmes - Doyle
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Brown
• Silent Spring - Carlson