Al's Inspiration Shelf for Books

Over the past several months, I've decided to parse out a lot of my favorite things among my collections to identify what it is I can draw inspiration from. In the past week, I finally moved all these things to their own dedicated shelves. I refer to these as my personal "inspiration shelves."

My History With Books

When it comes to books, I find I'm quite the picky reader (and if you've seen my book reviews here, that might be obvious).

In my youngest years, the earliest books I would have laid eyes on would have been a plethora of Dr. Seuss books (in particular, Wacky Wednesday, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish), A Fly Went By, The Hungy Hungry Caterpillar, and maybe some Shel Silversteen (The Giving Tree is still in a box in my closet). I don't know if I was really mindful enough to appreciate these in a deeper level, but they were fun.

First books I ever read as a kid on my own: the My Teacher is an Alien series. Pretty fun concept, but at that time I don't think I really enjoyed the stories as much as I wanted to. Reading it felt like a chore. Lots of other books I've run across seem to come off the same way for some reason or another.

I did find books I enjoyed though. In school, we studied the classics, obviously. Select works of Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet always was pretty entertaining, but studying Hamlet in-depth was a real eye-opener for me personally). John Steinbeck's The Pearl and Of Mice and Men appealed to me a lot--the latter in particular might be one of the first and most original examples of how character dynamics really blew me away. I'd take it on my own initiative to read The Grapes of Wrath--can't say I found it an easy read, but I understood it fundamentally. I remember reading and enjoying Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows, J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, and of course countless short stories. In college classes, I'd read up on gothic novels (with Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, William Beckford's Vahtek, some H.P. Lovecraft) and science fiction (more on that soon). We probably had some Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, and other such classics on the curriculum at some point or another.

In a classroom environment, reading is usually a chore. Homework and essays may have helped me examine the literature critically, but it rarely felt like an enjoyable activity. Aside from some select classics, I'd find more solidarity exploring science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries on my own. As a kid, I would have read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, some Hardy Boys, and some Encyclopedia Brown.

A couple of interesting standouts as an older kid would have been the works of Stephen Baxter (Anti-Ice was neat and The Time Ships blew me away), some Star Trek books, some Star Wars books (Kevin J. Anderson's work in particular floored me at the time). I tried some heavier sci-fi works, like Ian McDonald's Evolution's Shore and Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, but those I couldn't really comprehend or enjoy. Maybe I wasn't ready for them at the time.

By high school, I would have started digging into Stephen King more (The Shining, The Stand, Christine, short stories from Different Seasons--all would be cemented as personal favorites). I think I started reading Michael Crichton around that time too (to this day his work hasn't done me wrong yet). I started a trend of reading books that were turned into movies--L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth was a big one at the time (although the less that's said about the film adaptation, the better). I also read the novelization for Event Horizon (not realizing the book came after the movie). That trend continues to this day though--by now, I've read the novels for most of the movies I always treasured (such as A Clockwork Orange, Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Lord of the Rings, Psycho, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Silence of the Lambs, various James Bond novels, and more).

In college, I took courses on gothic novels, science fiction, and a class that studied the differences between films and novels. The latter would help me appreciate the film Apocalypse Now (thanks to its connection to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness--wasn't an easy read for me, but I absolutely loved its thematic material). The other classes gave me exposure to the classics of horror and a good selection of sci-fi works. In the sci-fi class, I read such books as Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Frederick Pohl's Gateway, William Gibson's Neuromancer, and more. This lot was an extremely fun curriculum for me, even if I couldn't fully enjoy all the books.

Around that same time, I delved into anime for the first time, so I also started reading some of the manga that derived it. For the longest time, I would have put Kentaro Miura's Berserk on the pedestal as the best story ever crafted. Not sure if I'd make that claim today, but the 1997 anime and the original manga truly did stagger my imagination and I was smitten with its characterizations and the way they drove the plot. I found mangas extremely breezy and fun to read, so I'd go on to read some Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, Gantz, Black Lagoon, Akira, Hellsing, and more. In time, I'd also turn my attention to western graphic novels--I never liked the idea of comic books, since they were serialized and reading one meant it had to bleed into other issues. But omnibuses, compendiums, and complete graphic novels appealed to me. I got Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Kick-Ass, and some others under my belt. As a kid, I would have read the Death of Superman, World Without Superman, and Return of Superman (or Reign of the Supermen) collections, and I would buy and re-read them as an adult with just as much joy. Batman: Knightfall was another big series that enthralled me as a kid--I don't even remember if I read the comics for it on its release (might have read its novelization instead), but I bought and read them some years ago as a grown-up, and was mighty impressed.

Now that I've taken writing more seriously in a way, I keep telling myself I need to read more. I have read approximately 240 books in my lifetime. I have learned from a lot of them and they've helped shape the way I imagine things. Lately, they have also helped me see what works and what doesn't in writing.

Books I enjoy tend to be shorter in length. I find it tedious to read though page-after-page of description or dense prose (as it is with Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, Frank Herbert's Dune, and nothing is more daunting than to crack open Hubert Selby's Jr.'s Requiem for a Dream and see nothing but wall-to-wall text with no paragraph breaks). I like books that have forward momentum--whether that's action or not depends, but it's always the conflict that captivates me. Without conflict, there is no story. But when there is conflict, where character motivations clash and there are stakes involved and tension and taut pacing--then I find myself relishing the text. Characterization is important too, but I might find it frustrating if a plot stalls in favor of character beats.

I find myself gravitating towards science fiction often, both classic and modern. I think I've always liked reading about space exploration, extraterrestrials, robots, dystopian governments. I'm also okay with reading horror (especially Stephen King), thrillers and mysteries, certain fantasies, and whatever else seems cool. I've come to realize that I prefer shorter books--tomes that are huge and wordy are daunting, but most of my favorites are short and breezy.

 

What's On The Inspiration Shelf?

Most books I've read and enjoyed, I would have sold or donated over the years. I rarely held onto books, until I realized I ought to keep the ones that truly moved me. I wound up rebuying some used. A couple I have only on the Kindle. For all intents and purposes, I plan to list all the books here that are and aren't on the shelf physically. I'll update this post as new works are discovered.

On top of fiction, manga, and graphic novels, I've also got travel books, art books, and non-fiction. Whatever I felt I could open up on a whim and find something valuable--either something to reflect on, something informative, or something funny. I found I picked up a lot of books on folklore and myth, usually from my travels. I've also ran across interesting-looking speculative books. I may want to start finding books that study some of my favorite characters (so far I only have one).

You might think this selection is weird, but hopefully you'll find something that catches you eye and might inspire you too.

Fiction

• All You Need Is Kill (Hiroshi Sakurazaka)
• Animal Farm (George Orwell)
• The Best of H.P. Lovecraft
• Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
• Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clark)
• Christine (Stephen King) 
• A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
• Different Seasons (Stephen King)
• The Dig (Alan Dean Foster) 
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
• Dr. No (Ian Fleming)
• The Dream in the Witch House (H.P. Lovecraft)
• Dune (Frank Herbert)
• Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
• Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
• Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuck)
• Gateway (Frederick Pohl)
• The Harry Potter collection (J.K. Rowling)
• The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkein)
• The Illiad (Homer) 
• The Inferno (Dante Alighieri)
• The Jedi Academy Trilogy (Kevin J. Anderson, first book autographed)
• Nineteen-Eighty-Four (George Orwell) 
• The Odyssey (Homer)
• The Purgatorio (Dante Alighieri)
• A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick)
• The Shining (Stephen King)
• The Short Novels of John Steinbeck (Tortilla Flat, The Moon Is Down, The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, The Pearl)
• The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)
• The Time Machine (H.G. Wells) 
• The Time Ships (Stephen Baxter)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne) 
• War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells)
• A Wrinkle In Time (Madeleine L'Engle)

Manga

• Akira volumes 1 - 6 (Katsuhiro Otomo)
• Berserk volumes 1 - 37 (Kentaro Miura)
• Full Metal Alchemist volumes 1 - 14 (Hiromu Arakawa)
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind collection (Hayao Miyazaki)

Graphic Novels

• Batman: Knightfall omnibuses
• Death of Superman / World Without a Superman / Return of Superman omnibuses
• Eagle Annual: The Best of the 1950s Comic
• The End of the World (Don Hertzfeldt, autographed)

Non-Fiction

• Book of Secrets 
• The Case of the Killer Robot (Richard G. Epstein)
• Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly Bears (Matthew P. Mayo)
• Don't Swallow Your Gum and Other Medical Myths Debunked (Dr. Aaron Carroll and Dr. Rachel Vreeman)
• The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena (J. Gordon Melton)
• Exploring the Unexplained: The World's Greatest Marvels, Mysteries, and Myths
• The Future of the Mind (Michio Kaku)
• Geek Wisdom: Embracing the Sacred Teachings of Pop Culture
• Gothic Whitby (Colin Waters)
• How To Build a Time Machine (Paul Davies)
• How To Defeat Your Own Clone and Other Tips for Surviving the Biotech Revolution (Kyle Kurpinski and Terry D. Johnson)
• How To Survive the Zombie Apocalypse (Max Brooks) 
• I Used To Know That (Caroline Taggart)
• The Myths and Legends of Ireland: Tales of a Magical and Mysterious Past (Ronald Pearsall) 
• Outlaw Women: America's Most Notorious Daughters, Wives, and Mothers (Robert Barr Smith)
• Scottish Myths and Legends (Judy Hamilton) 
• Scottish Myths and Legends (a different one)
• Scottish Witches and Wizards (Lily Seafield) 
• Wanted Posters of the Old West and Stories Behind the Crimes (Barbara Fifer and Martin Kidston)
• The Wonderful Future That Never Was

Art

• Art Deco
• Art of the Surrealists (Edmund Swinglehurst)
• The Life and Works of Escher (Miranda Fellows)
• Michelangelo and Raphael in the Vatican

Travel

• Bath tour guide
• Beautiful Bayern
• England: The Mini-Book of Aerial Views (Adrian Warren and Dae Sasitorn)
• 59 Illustrated National Parks
• Germany photo book
  
• Mainz Kastel tour book
• Mazes and Follies (Adrian Fisher)
• Mesa Verde: The Story Behind the Scenery
• Moab Rock Art tour guide
• Mysterious Northumberland (Rupert Matthews)
• Pompeii 2,000 Years Ago and Today
• Rock Art of the Southwest (Liz and Peter Welsh)
• Scotland: Myths and Legends (Beryl Beare)
• Utah travel guide
• Versailles tour guide

Character

• 20 Years of Tomb Raider (Meagan Marie)

Humor

• The Complete Far Side (Gary Larson)
• The Onion Book of Known Knowledge: A Definitive Encyclopaedia Of Existing Information

Books on Kindle That Would Be on the Shelf

• DNA Wars (formerly Masque, F. Paul Wilson and Matthew J. Costello)
  

Books Not Currently Owned That Would Be on the Shelf

• A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)
• Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell)
• The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Stephen King)
• The Great Train Robbery (Michael Crichton)
• The Green Mile (Stephen King)
• The Hunger Games Trilogy (Suzanne Collins) 
• The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
• Misery (Stephen King)
• Sphere (Michael Crichton)
• The Stand (Stephen King) 
• Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein)
• Timeline (Michael Crichton)
• Ubik (Philip K. Dick)
• Vathek (William Beckford)