THE LIST GAME
Making lists is a fun game, a great diversion among folks with a playful and creative mind. Most of them are embedded in some kind of personal fantasy. Perhaps: 10 PEOPLE FROM HISTORY YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH or 10 EVENTS FROM HISTORY YOU WISH YOU HAD WITNESSED. This type of game usually provides insight into the person’s mindset.
“Really? You wish you could have dinner with Dillinger?” “I can’t believe you would like to have witnessed the executions at Nuremberg!”
The other aspect is the number “10”. For the sake of a game, we create a perfect number. This is where we get our “Top 10” for everything from music to films to year-end events. My favorite from the past was 10 BOOKS TO TAKE ON A DESERTED ISLAND. But, as I get older, I’m no longer interested in the fantasy (as though anyone actually wishes to be on a deserted island).
I’ve got a new game, a new list. BOOKS TO TAKE WITH ME IF I WERE GOING SOMEWHERE THAT TECHNOLOGY IS NOT PREVALENT. The thought is that I am on sabbatical or a speaking tour or just a retreat and I want to read. There is no specified number of books but they have to be in my possession at this time.
Shall we?
THE HARPER ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY, EDITED BY JOHN FREDERICK NIMS. Acquired while I was briefly in California in 1990. Going through a low period in my life, this book covered a wide range of styles but also included an in-depth section on prosody. My time in Boston in the early 90s was guided in part by this book. It opened my eyes to the wide-ranging world of verse from extremely olden times to the mid-20th century. It had meaning.
THE NOVELS OF DASHIELL HAMMETT. I’ve often stated that Hammett and Chandler are my primary influences as a writer of crime fiction. Chandler has the pretty prose and often confusing plots. Hammett, on the other hand, invented hard boiled. Crime is ugly and dirty and all too human. My own voice has taken a bit to develop. But after the four-book Ark City Confidential Chronicles and now the new Wichita Chronicles, I understand where I am.
THE BLACK LIZARD BIG BOOK OF PULPS, EDITED BY OTTO PENZLER. Reading these reminds me of watching old movie serials. Short stories but those with depth and character. They reflect a time period perhaps not accurately represented in film. This book alone would get me through that imagined sabbatical. I’d probably sound like Jimmy Cagney or Edward G. Robinson by the end.
REPLAY BY KEN GRIMWOOD. I don’t read sci-fi or fantasy but this book took me by surprise. A more serious concept than “Groundhog Day”, the notion of changing timelines and the repercussions of infinitesimal changes fascinates me. It’s the big “What if…?” that every writer imagines. This in some small way triggered an interest in experimental fiction which seems to still tug at me.
EMERSON, THE VIKING PORTABLE LIBRARY. I read him years ago because when you’re from New England, you should. Time has passed. I’ve caught snippets here and there. Time to see what he does for me as I get older. I know his words and thoughts are timeless. How they play in my now 62-year old mind would be interesting.
EVERYMAN’S TALMUD BY ABRAHAM COHEN. I’ve been a spiritual Jew and a poetic one but never delved into the intellectual aspect of my religion. It is not too late for me to obtain some wisdom. More even than the Old Testament, I believe there is true wisdom right here.
ROMAN READER, THE VIKING PORTABLE LIBRARY. This has enough variety of styles and subject matters to help bridge the cap from Biblical times to today. I’ve been more intrigued by the Romans than the Greeks. Plato and Socrates, though wise and profound, never did it for me. Horace, Catullus, and Ovid for poetry and Cicero and Seneca for rhetoric. Enough to keep a mind busy.
I’ve left out so many favorites, books and authors, non-fiction and history and art. I had to assume a small suitcase or carry case and I didn’t want the exercise to turn into an elaboration extending into the infinite.
Perhaps, had I done this years ago the list would have been different. And then years before that. If I view this list tomorrow, next week, next year, the list might be different still. Who am I kidding? It will be different. Then again, I never liked raw onions as a kid. You grow, you change.
