Ferndale Library Picks: Jeff
Milo’s Favorite Books Of All Time
Jeff Milo – Circulation Specialist
Can’t go wrong with the Classics…
Every now and then patrons come up to my desk looking for something new to read, only to be underwhelmed by the current crop of contemporary authors. The newest (or hottest) book out this week or next week might not be your cup of tea…
If you’re stumped on what to read next, why not take a survey of all the great/classic books from the past that you missed, skipped or criminally ignored.
It’s one thing if I recommend to you my favorite book from 2014, or 2013 for that matter. It’s quite another thing if I dare to tell you my favorite books of ALL TIME.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
This book defies numerous literary conventions and conveys the perfect response to the unfathomable horrors of war by trading in slapstick, absurdist fantasy and surrealism. Our main character, a soldier, becomes “unstuck” in time and flashes in and out of moments throughout his life, each as bizarre, inane, incredible, distressing and hilarious as the next…
Find it: http://bit.ly/1Lkvj2C
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
“If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.”
Bradbury wrote a hundred books and here I am picking his most well-known, the one every 9th grader reads. That doesn’t (and will never) diminish its cultural value nor diminish the impact of its message.
Bradbury is the most effervescent of writers with the most devastatingly colorful command of the language. No, it’s something more than that. You can tell how much fun he’s having with these words, or how passionate he is, how upset he is, how inspired he is…
Find it: http://bit.ly/1MGEK7U
Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
“We can’t stop here! This is Bat country!”
The ultimate trip. A drug-addled eulogy for the American Dream. Impassioned weirdos and high-powered mutants out to document the depravities of Las Vegas and extend it as an overarching analogy for the downward direction of our country (and civilization) during the darkest days of the Vietnam War. The end of the Love Generation, the beginning of New (Gonzo) Journalism.
Find it: http://bit.ly/18z80jJ
East Of Eden by John Steinbeck
“All great and precious things are lonely.”
One of the most provocative books I’d read, particularly regarding faith and family, loyalty and self-respect, compassion and perseverance. How much more valuable can a book be, when it’s got me chiseling away at all of the most essential elements of my nature? Recommended for those who enjoy epics, decade-spanning, family-intertwining, torrid melodramas…
Find it: http://bit.ly/1xsYzZs
Frankenstein / Moby Dick by Mary Shelley & Herman Melville respectively…
Okay, so I’m going for a tie at # 5, only out of sensitivity for all you fickle complainers out there who rail against Mr. Melville’s work. Yes, it’s 100 or so pages too long, due entirely to the extensive ramblings on the admittedly un-interesting intricacies of whaling. But that ending? The Shakespearean spectacle, the ruminations on revenge and indictment of Man for his foolish attempts to control or battle against the wilds of nature. Ahh!!
But if you don’t feel you’re up for Moby Dick, please try Frankenstein; it’s so much more than a grumbling monster waving his hands around while an excited mad scientist type howls histrionically about how “…it’s alive, it’s alive…” Frankenstein, much like Moby Dick, plays out like a Shakespearean play – with The Monster having pages and pages of eloquent, thought-provoking dialogue. Instead of a horror film, it presents a compelling argument from both sides, the creator and the creation, an evocative back and forth that asks the reader to decide who is more justified in their actions… Who deserves empathy? Who deserves to be cast-out?
Find Moby Dick: http://bit.ly/18zbdju
Find Frankenstein: http://bit.ly/1EkWMYW
In closing, if there’s any book published within the last 5 years that I would implore everyone to read, it would be Michael Crummey’s Galore! Find it: http://bit.ly/1CnlP0R
Stay tuned via http://ferndalepubliclibrary.org –as the staff prepares a list of each of their own favorite books of all time, the top 100 FADL Must Read List!