Verbal Excursions

I love to read, and I do it a great deal, so it was impossible to choose just one be-all-end-all book for 2009. In fact, narrowing it down to a top five was even excruciating… so here are my pics for the Top Five(ish) Books I read in 2009. Enjoy!

My sister bought me a copy of this for Christmas last year. Before she wrapped it, she flipped it open to scan the first few pages. When I received it, she sheepishly apologized for the fact that it “looked a little used” – every page had been turned. This book is a must read for every person who has ever longed to travel, gone through a midlife crisis, left an unhappy relationship, or set out in search of their bliss. I related to every word (and had spoken many of them myself).

Jeremy Narby draws links between traditional cultural knowledge and modern-day research to present the concept that intelligence is not unique to humans, but rather inherent in all of nature. If you are the type of person who likes to follow a book by reading the references cited in the bibliography – start here, and you will fill your library shelves for the next year. This is an in-depth anthropological study, painstakingly researched and notated – but the subject matter is fascinating, and the questions it poses incredibly thought-provoking.

This book is for anyone who has ever (or will ever) eat food. Especially if you happen to live in America. Michael Pollan is an amazing writer, who takes an objective and lively approach to research, and has a knack for making non-fiction read like an adventure novel.

If for some crazy reason you choose not to read the book above – you should check out this other book by Michael Pollan, which is equally amazing. This book looks at the development and spread of five different species of plant – and poses the theory that each species furthered it’s own propagation by evolving to fulfill a specific human desire.

Written by a convicted felon, while serving time in an Australian prison, and based loosely on own life – including an escape from a maximum security prison where he was serving time for armed robbery, and the ten years he spent hiding out in India. This is probably the most amazing example of prose I have ever read by a first-time novelist. It is eight hundred million pages long, but I never got tired of it. The deep, heartfelt poignancy of this epic helps to smooth out the rough bits. This book contained the most accurate description of a cold-turkey comedown that I have ever heard or read. It also contained a well-smitten love story, and a thousand gems of this sort – “My heart moved through deep and silent water. No-one, and nothing, could really hurt me. No-one, and nothing, could make me very happy. I was tough, which is probably the saddest thing you can say about a man.” Yep.

This is technically a children’s series, but my son highly recommended it, and so I picked it up…and kept turning pages til I devoured all three books. I’ve heard it said that this was the author’s retelling (and ultimate reversal on) Milton’s Paradise Lost. There has been some criticism of the series by certain religious groups, claiming that the book turns a critical eye towards organized religion. I can’t say that would disappoint me – but really, I found the angle taken to be more satirical or tongue-in-cheek than critical. But regardless of all that – it was a solid, swashbuckling fantasy tale, full of witches and talking animals and parallel dimensions. Who doesn’t love that?