Culture Blues

Back to School Reading List

If there is anything good about the mundane, hopelessly expansive and utterly summer vacation-less existence of an adult, it is surely that the annual tradition of advertisers taunting children and delighting parents with “Back to school” pronouncements has been rendered impotent. No longer must we fear a return to hallways, classrooms and exams. We needn’t become depressed at the thought of having our freedom stripped away from us only to be shoved into a box that teaches through repetition, memorization and regurgitation. No, our jobs now take care of that year round.

School wasn’t all awful though. Occasionally we were forced to read something that actually stuck with us, that expanded our minds, and maybe, just maybe made us a better person. Now, as America’s public school system crumbles due to mismanagement and indifference, the Culture Blues staff would like to extend a hand to children in need, in the form of a reading list that might make those hallways a little less dreary, those classrooms a little less suffocating and those exams a little less linear. And for any unlucky adults out there who did not have their imaginations illuminated by the great works on this list, just consider it continuing education.

Hamlet - Expectations can be a tricky thing. After having read, and thoroughly despised, Romeo and Juliet (my first exposure to the bard), I dreaded having to endure Hamlet during the last few weeks of my summer vacation. I can still remember the awful feeling I had in the pit of my stomach as I cracked the book’s spine for the first time... thirteen year-olds can be so overly dramatic. I have never been so simultaneously surprised and impressed by any work of media or art as I was that summer. Hamlet is a multi-faceted, brilliantly sparkling gem of madness, betrayal, revenge, melancholy and the separation of the conscience from the soul. Over four hundred years have passed since Shakespeare wrote this legendary play, and the themes, motifs, and symbolism have been dissected and analyzed to a degree that goes far beyond obsessive, yet the mystique and appeal of the work still remains. Why wouldn’t it? This work has something for everyone; ghosts, sword fights, some of the greatest soliloquies that have ever been written, poisonings, suicides, bizarre sexual undercurrents. Shit, Hamlet himself invented emo. I guess the best thing about expectations is when they are shattered. (Giovanny)

The Stars My Destination - I first read The Stars My Destination in one of the middle years of college. The class was about perceptions of the human body and the body’s link to identity… or something. Mostly I remember the crazy stuff we read and watched. This underrated science fiction gem by Alfred Bester (the first Hugo Award winner) was the greatest discovery for me. The basic plot resembles The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favorite stories of all time. But instead of mopey Edmund Dantes, we get lively Gully Foyle, a near Neanderthal who educates (and cybernetically upgrades) himself in order to “kill filthy” those who left him for dead. Shockingly ahead of its time (it was written over 50 years ago), Stars My Destination moves at a breathtaking pace and lays the groundwork for much of the cyberpunk movement that was still decades away. It’s one of the most exciting and compulsively readable adventure stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of picking up. The fact that I discovered it in a classroom is a testament to the much derided liberal arts education. (Jeremiah)

Lord of the Flies - I don’t remember exactly when I read William Golding’s classic Lord of the Flies but I estimate it was around the 7^th grade. It was one of the first books I can ever remember enjoying, certainly the first piece of required reading that comes to mind. At the time I think I enjoyed it because I loved yelling “sucks to your ass-mar!” in almost all social situations. Also, I’ve been known to sacrifice wild boars to appease made up monsters just so I can sleep at night. But in retrospect, the book had a deeper impact on me. It was one of the first times I really came to grips with the idea that in pretty much any scenario, no matter how obvious the common goal for a group of people, human beings will eventually refuse to work together and out themselves as pieces of shit. There are several interesting sequences in this book that I could blab on about forever, but in the end we get a very profound reminder about how much authority is actually a construct of the mind. I will now pass the conch to one of my fellow Culture Blues contributors. (Ben)

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is one of only two books I’ve ever read in a single sitting. The other book was Ethan Frome, by the way, and both single sittings were ordeals necessitated by 11^th grade procrastination. I loved Gatsby. It felt more adult than the other books we were reading in high school; here was a story about drinking, carousing, and eventually bloodshed. Also, and I didn’t know this then but now recognize it as fact, Gatsby has the most beautiful last line in all of literature. Gatsby can be worldview shaping stuff for young men. What teenager doesn’t see a bit of himself in idealistic Nick, the outsider amongst the rich, pampered phonies? And what teenager doesn’t idolize Gatsby, the mysterious rich man with the broken heart and shady connections? He’s like literature’s Bruce Wayne! I’m a grown-up now, and I’m still planning on turning myself into a Gatsby. I’ve already picked out the sweet alligator raft I’ll be floating on during my murder. (Jeff)

A Wrinkle in Time - If you ever needed evidence that children’s books are written by people on drugs, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle could be Exhibit A. After reading AWIT for Mr. McFadden, I distinctly remember thinking to myself, “whoa - this is some heavy stuff!” AWIT is about three children who are chaperoned by angels to a far away planet on a rescue mission. But the reason that this book has stuck with me for so long is actually because of one specific moment that I totally nerded out on. One of the angels, Mrs. Whatsit (you heard me), explained to the kids that they must use a “tesseract” in order to reach the planet Uriel. She went on to talk about how the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line, but in fact the folding of that line (think Star Wars/hyperspace). Holding a piece of string in her two hands with an ant on one end, Mrs. Whatsit demonstrated this phenomenon by bringing her two hands together, thus creating a “wrinkle” in the string. The ant is able to travel the entire length of the four-inch string in one step! That shit is deep, son! That’s how we do 5th grade in Rochester, ya heard! (Jason)

The Gospel of John - I had read bits and pieces of the Gospel of John in church, but it wasn't until I studied Religion in college that I studied it, reading it so obsessively that I had dreams I was fishing with dudes in white robes. This is the "spiritual" Gospel, the one unlike the other three, the one written the longest after Jesus' death and the one most likely to be completely fabricated. And it’s the most fun to read. It got me hooked on the story of the historical Jesus and what the first Christians did with his legacy, what they made him become. Because the stories are sooooo probably fictional, they read more like puzzles about Christianity, Jesus the enigma and people in general. I still get chills when I read the stories, and wonder how they can be so strange yet important - they've stuck around for thousands of years. I don't even think Justin Beiber will be around that long. (Lauren)

Hatchet - Hatchet, man! Because that shit could happen to you! The last time I devoured Hatchet like some poison berries from a mysterious bush I was probably in the 4^th grade, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t remember all the details of Gary Paulsen’s young adult classic. I do remember Brian Robeson being a certified boy scout badass. I remember it as probably the most violent, harrowing book I’d read at the time (assuming I read it after The Whipping Boy but before Say Cheese and Die). And I remember being pretty sure I could crash a Cessna in Canada and survive in the wilderness with just my wits and a hatchet. One detail of Hatchet I definitely blocked out is probably best summarized by this line from its Wikipedia page: “Finally, after reaching his father, he is no closer to being able to tell him about the mother's affair than at the novel's beginning.” WHAT? So in between fighting off bears this poor kid was reconciling the mercurial nature of love between adults? What an adventure! (Jeff)

On the Road - I am not the kind of person who enjoys reading a book more than once. There have been some notable exceptions to this proclamation, but outside of a few fantasy and graphic novels (I prefer to consider them comics), I can probably list a handful of books that I have read multiple times. I have read Jack Kerouac’s On The Road four times (my personal record) and I’ve truly enjoyed the journey with each trip. On The Road was everything that a sixteen year-old boy could ever want; a passionate, romanticized (for the most part) ode to freedom, recklessness, and the appreciation of beauty in all things. To this day I still want it all, the good and the bad. I want to drink out of a communal jug of fiery liquor in the back of a pickup with a bunch of guys on the hunt for adventure and experience, speeding away under the stars to nowhere in particular. I want to over-intellectualize the tiniest nuances of everything I pass in a hysterical blur of stream of consciousness. This novel changed my life (as cliche as that sounds) and has left me with a love of sinners and anti-heroes to this day. (Giovanny)

Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger's revered novel was the first book that made me think books were cool, and it was because of the voice. I turned the last page thinking, wow, I guess books aren't that torturous after all. It broke the rules of all the books I had read before. I loved it because I didn't have to read a bunch of flowery descriptions that I didn't care about. I loved that Holden called everyone goddamn princes. I loved that Holden didn't give a shit about the exact same things that I didn't give a shit about! And although I'd sometimes lose sight of how old I thought he was, he always seemed older and cooler than I ever thought I'd be. I loved that he was a badass, yet insanely sensitive. He was the first character I wondered about after the book was over. This is all nice, and is very telling about how unread I was as a twelve year-old, but most importantly, almost everyone I know can somehow relate to Holden in some way. So in that sense, Catcher in the Rye is kind of like the Bible. It's an extreme, fictional story of lessons and emotions that are universally human. Now's the part where you go, "Nonsense, Lauren. You are way cooler than Holden Caufield." Waiting. (Lauren)

Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes was widely considered to be a pretty messed up dude, even for a philosopher. And that’s saying a lot, because philosophers are pretty messed up in general. Leviathan is the first book that I had to read for Philosophy 310: Intro to Social and Political Philosophy (how a 300 level class can be considered an “introduction” I’ll never know) and set the bar pretty high for a class that explored the essence of government. As an engineering major, I spent most of my time in college learning bullshit equations, so learning about bullshit philosophical theory was a nice change of pace. Leviathan starts by painting a dark reality, one where man is at war with every man. Constant fear breeds mistrust and, of course, lots of death (he used the words “nasty, brutish, and short” to describe man’s existence in this scenario… LOL, “short”). Hobbes philosophized that we must build sovereigns to create law and govern in order to avoid this sort of primal death tournament. So next time you want to complain about Obama being a Socialist, bear in mind that you could be spending every night defending your family against your club wielding neighbor. (Jason)

To Kill a Mockingbird - I'm kind of afraid to read To Kill a Mockingbird now; I'm not sure that it will hold up to my adult cynicism. I first read it in 6th grade, but now it calls to mind those cheap nostalgia efforts, movies like Now & Then and My Girl. Long summer days, childhood friendships, the neighborhood creep we’re all scared of. Harper Lee probably created many of the elements that have now become cheesy clichés, but that doesn’t wash away the bad taste. Still, this book had a lasting effect on me. At an early age, it made a strong case for the truth of one of my mother's preferred refrains: life isn't fair. Even a man as improbably virtuous and viceless as Atticus Finch can't make it fair. The inherent flaw in our justice system, the people, was exposed to me, and I came to understand that we are fearful, mean creatures and that doing the right thing is rarely as powerful a force as fitting in, maintaining the status quo, and sleeping sound at night. Come to think of it, maybe this book is responsible for some of my adult cynicism. (Jeremiah)

Of Mice and Men - I read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men in high school, and like most pieces of revered literature it does not have a happy ending. By this age I was starting to become annoyed with happy endings, but just the same, I really wanted this one to work out. What I did not want to happen (spoiler alert) was for big dumb old Lennie to get shot in the back of the head. I mean c’mon, who hasn’t accidentally killed another man’s wife? Steinbeck hits us over the head with themes of isolation and loneliness here (the nearest town is Solestad, which means solitude in Spanish) as almost every character in the novel is suffering from it in one way or another. Just the same, these are good characters, maybe even great. But through all the pain and anguish they feel, there is hope on the horizon! They are going to buy a farm! And tell them about the goddamn rabbits, George! (I owe Jeff royalties for my utilization of the exclamation point) Even the hopeful parts of the story are heartbreaking, as it seems obvious from the get go that these men are doomed. Just the same, this is a book I’d highly recommend revisiting. Of Mice and Men is a bit of a downer, but a hell of a page turner. (Ben)

Tagged as: a wrinkle in time, back to school, catcher in the rye, hamlet, hatchet, leviathan, lord of the flies, of mice and men, on the road, reading lists, school doesn't always suck, sucks to your ass-mar, the gospel of john, the great gatsby, the stars my destination, to kill a mockingbird