No Shame 7: Books

BOOKS

Being in the middle of a book makes you forget that you are going to die.
Actually, I guess that's the purpose of most things in life, but I still find novels to be my favorite distraction.
I enjoy non-fiction as well, but it's so prevalent. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's easy, at least not easy to do well, but it's certainly easy to find. In the way that we usually choose to believe, the world is non-fiction, and while we all obviously enjoy a clever way of reporting on reality, it has its limits, self-imposed or not.
Fiction, on the other hand, is more fun. It's fantasy, it's romance, it's escapism in the best possible form, one that leaves the larger part of imagination to the escapee.
I can trace genuine epiphanies in my life to the books that caused them more easily than people or events. That doesn't seem entirely fair to the overwhelmingly informative and substantial people I've encountered, but part of being blocked off emotionally is that you have more of your "A-HA!" moments by yourself. By meeting said people and experiencing said events, the seeds were planted for later understanding. Along come the right words strung together in the right way and BOOM! Growth.
Oh, I guess that's what learning is. Or maturation. Or life. All the same.

Kurt Vonnegut is pretty much responsible for my lingering faith in humanity.
I'd like to set aside an entire day to do nothing but slowly revisit "Siddhartha".
Few things get me through heartbreak like Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" (though Rob Sheffield's "Love is a Mix Tape" is an endearing cousin).
I have yet to finish "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" but I respect pretty much everything that Dave Eggers is trying to do.
I quite often carry a copy of Richard Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America" around with me, as it can sometimes reflect a life which I can almost see inhabiting.
The same can be said for Denis Johnson's "Jesus' Son" in darker times.
I was a different person during and after "Zorba the Greek" (a person I would not mind rediscovering).
However, I have to say that the one author, or perhaps even book, that made me want to write, is Tom Robbins' "Still Life with Woodpecker".
It was culturally diverse, inventive, enthralling, romantic, hilarious, profane, erotic, enlightening, exciting and more than anything eye-opening. It was the template for a kind of writing I didn't realize was possible, certainly not within myself (though I'm not making a comparison). It wasn't as genuinely insightful or easily intelligent as Vonnegut, nor was it as laugh out loud funny as Christopher Moore. It was an odd middle, one that embraced equal parts outlaw mentality and magic.
It is far from the greatest book ever written, and I often wonder how it holds up. In a way it doesn't really matter, because it had the impact that it did on me, regardless of what my understanding of its content and context would be today. I had seen and heard a voice that awakened me to a style I still embrace. It's writing with pizazz, with gusto, with disregard to certain rules, grammatical or otherwise, as long as where it takes you is exciting or new or just devilishly adventurous.
It might also give you a greater appreciation of redheads, make you look differently at a pack of Camel cigarettes, or just allow you to sink into the rapture of literary masturbation.
The 1-2-3 of "Still Life with Woodpecker", "Cat's Cradle" and "Lamb" is probably the most important influence on what I attempt to do to this day. Film, television and music get more time, talk and reference, but books have driven me towards what I find to be my singular passion in life outside of people (and we'll get to the monumental importance of that passion later).
Being a more avid reader makes you a better writer.

Also, chicks dig a guy who's well-read.
But not in a show-offy kind of way, so there goes that.