Welcome to yet another new column we’re trying on for size here at R2AK. High Five – a collection of five things: books, movies, tv shows, QB’s, graphic novels, deodorant flavours etc. etc. that made our skirts/skorts fly up, and created memorable moments for us in that pop culture part of our brain we call 99% of the grey matter. I’m gonna start this off with the five books that, for various reasons, will always be in my heart, and for other reasons, helped me become who I am today. (Choosing only five – not as tough as you’d think. These came right to me when I stopped and thought for a second. The killer is going to be the ones I forgot and then remember as I fall asleep tonight, and curse into my pillow.)
1. The Trixie Belden series by Julie Campbell Tatham
I devoured these YA detective stories when I would spend summers with my maternal grandparents in the last few years before high school. The copies I read were the very same ones my Mama read when she was younger. They were just slightly bigger than a paperback, with sturdy heavy covers, and emitted a familiar musty “whoosh” of air when they were popped open. They were the perfect size to pack for an afternoon adventure of the acreage out there in Aldergrove, along with a bologna-with-orange-rind sandwich and a cream soda Pic-A-Pop. Or just right for laying on the shag rug of the bedroom and listening to the ‘Stand By Me’ soundtrack, while the summer rain tapped along on the windows. This series, about a blonde tomboy Trixie, her best friend Honey, her three towheaded brothers, her secret love (the orphan) Jim, and all the mysteries they stumbled into, made me want to read and read and read and never stop until all the libraries in the world were empty and my head was full. It made me want to write; to create stories other girls my age – chubby, gently scarred from divorce and curious – would want to devour too. To connect with, but also, and most importantly, to escape with. For the hours spent with those characters, I too was an amateur detective; and I had great friends that were always there where I left them, just under that folded corner of the page. (And because my Mama had thumbed these very same yellowed pages years before, I felt her with me there, even though she was an hour’s car ride away, working long days to take care of me and my brother.) There were dozens of them – nearly all were amazing – and they are now stashed in my Mama’s garage, waiting for the careful hands of my daughter one day to pick up and get lost in. (Fun Fact: As Nuv and I make our boy and girl names lists for our kid, ‘Trixie’ has been completely vetoed. Why? Nuv says it sounds like the name of a stripper or a dog. Sigh.)
2. The Only Way To Stop Smoking Permanently by Allen Carr
Dad, you’re gonna want to cover your eyes for this one. After years and years of being orally fixated, and playing with pens and pencils and straws and toothpicks as if they were cigarettes, I started actually smoking when I went to Australia in 1999. I started with menthols (the standard for fucking disgusting), moved to Djarum clove cigarettes (so delicious – a dessert smoke if you will), then was hooked on Du Maurier regulars for the rest of my smoking career. I stopped for four years because of a boyfriend that didn’t smoke, but spent the whole time wanting one. After we broke up and I fell into Nuv’s arms, I also gleefully started smoking again. I could have smoked for the rest of my life, easy. The whole damn thing was sexy to me – the buying of them, the slow unwrapping of the plastic, and the unsheathing of the foil inserts. The first drag, lit from a match – after a run, on the way to work, on a break, after work, after a run (incredible training technique there), laying in bed with Nuv late into the night, gesturing with a lit smoke – these were all the rituals that made up my day. My days. Years. Then, a few years ago I met a girl that had just started dating our friend Captain Arthritis. Sarah was from New Zealand, impossibly stylish, and I casually mentioned to her, one day in December, that I was going to stop smoking for my New Year’s Resolution. She told me about this book her entire family had used to stop smoking. I remember only chunks of this conversation because that really good horror movie, ‘Jeepers Creepers‘ was on TV, and I got so sucked in I was completely rude and did that half-listen thing that I hate about myself. Anyways, come January I bought the book and read it over the course of three weeks. It was, and is, the only self-help book I’ve ever read. To sum it up, you read it as you continue to smoke and by the end, you have changed from an ex-smoker to a non-smoker. I don’t care to know how or why it works, I just recommend it to anyone I know wanting to quit. And thank you lovely Sarah. I owe you one. (Fun Fact: Nuv can’t handle it when Sarah and I talk about this book. We tend to get a tad, how do you say, pushy and obsessive, about it.)
3. Youth In Revolt by C.D. Payne
When I was in my early twenties, I worked at the bookstore, Chapters. To be completely honest, other than the staff discount, the job sucked. They romanticize working in a “bookshop” in the movies or on TV, but if you work in a massive chainstore in the suburbs, this is an encapsulation of your entire shift: “I saw this book on Oprah. It has a blue cover and I want it for cheaper than the sticker price, just because. And then I’m going to take a huge shit in your bathrooms because I just drank a 78 litre Starbucks latte, and you’re going to have to clean it up when the toilet just gives up trying to swallow that load. Oh, and my kid just tipped over half of the children’s section then puked on it. Sorry.” One night a woman told me I could take a book off hold for her son as he’d changed his mind. I grabbed it and the cover was amazing. I bought it because I deserved a present for my life. And it was through and through amazing. The narrator, Nick Twisp, was a voice I’d never heard before, and I never wanted the book to end. The next year I went down to the Paradise City that is Powell’s Books in Portland, and stumbled upon a SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR copy. I was pretty much stoked for life. When I heard they were making it into a movie last year, I knew it wouldn’t be great. Michael Cera did a fine ass job, but I beg of you, please grab and read this book. It was the best thing I read in my twenties. (Fun Fact: I developed a mild OCD thing where I had to buy at least 2 books a shift near the end of my bookseller stint. That means I have boxes and boxes of books I have never even cracked the cover of. Good use of a minimum wage paycheque!)
4. Sin City – The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller
This has to be included because it was the very first graphic novel I ever read, not necessarily the best, but the first. The first time I realized a “comic” could be stylish, violent, sexy and tell an amazing crime noir story. Nuv introduced me to this colourful world – just another way that dude made my life better. (Fun Fact: Mickey Rourke’s portrayal of Marv in the movie adaptation was so bang on, as was the entire movie itself. It remains one of my favourite comic book-to-movie adaptations. For shame ‘The Spirit!’)
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Up until last week, when some kind soul left this and the second book of the trilogy in our lobby, I hadn’t read a book of fiction in years. I’d pledged to myself that I wouldn’t read another one until (ahem) I’d written one. Um, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever come up with. This book made me not want to go online or watch TV or go to the theatre. I just wanted to sit with my feet up on a sunny ledge on our deck and read and read and read. The story and the characters and the mystery and the brutality and the crazy back story about the talented, and now deceased, author just made it all so delicious. I’m just starting the third book, and I fear for when I’m done. These will be hard to top. Oh, wait. I’m going to have a newborn in three months, aka books and the leisure time required to read them, will become momentarily extinct. Shit. (Fun Fact: I had to buy the third book in hardcover, but the first two are paperback. Does this bother anybody else IMMENSELY like it does me? Just the shelf aesthetics alone makes me moan..)
So, now you tell me in the Comments. What books changed you?
If Scientologists are pushy and Manson’s followers are obsessive, then you and Sarah are indeed that when it comes to Allen Carr’s book. I guess I’ll find out how the kool-aid is for myself shortly…
I TOTALLY agree with you, Brooke, about shelf aesthetics and the hardback/paperback combo! I own the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong in a combination of hardcover, trade paperback and mass market, which drives me nuts! However, I don’t have enough money to replace them all just yet!
As to my 5, we’ll see what pops out right now (like you, it’ll probably change tomorrow):
1) There’s a Rainbow in My Closet by Patti Stren – no longer in print children’s book that I read as a young child. Has stuck with me for over 30 years!
2) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – the books in the series aren’t keeping the same quality, but I still care about the characters and want more! Makes me think that true love is real and not cheesy!
3) Self by Yann Martel – any book that has words in it I have to look up is a winner with me! However, this modern day “Orlando” was so amazingly written (I highly recommend anything by Martel) and took the main character from being a boy to a young woman to a man in a way that was convincing and real, unlike any other book I have read. I was transported into the character’s world so completely.
4) Shoot! by George Bowering – a Canadian Wild West story about a real group of brothers (and one friend) who’s father provided the name for Cache Creek. I read the ending aloud (to my cats, of course) and found myself crying! I had no idea I was so connected to the characters! Bowering was able to mix fact and fiction in a way that brought Canada’s Western history into powerful, poignant images for me. I never cared much about Canada’s history before, but I do now!
5) My Beautiful Laundrette (can’t remember the author right now, but he’s British) – a contemporary screenplay (the movie starred Daniel Day Lewis) that helped me understand the various ideals of the Romantic poets. I did not understand the idea of transcendence and duality until reading this screenplay. Totally opened my eyes!
Of course, I could go on for hours and have a ton more, but these are the ones that came to me first!
The Seeds of Time- is a book of short sci-fi stories written in the 1930’s about the future aka 20 years ago.
Wizards First Rule- It seemed ok to read this book even though its fantasy because a random pretty librarian looking girl i met in the store recommended I read it. it was my first fantasy book. I should have have asked for her number….
The Collector- The first time text evoked a strong emotional reaction in me.
The Stand- Epic. Spent that month in my room growing a beard. Good think it was grade 10.
No One Here Gets Our Alive- A book about a guy that I dont care about with a super power that I wanted. He could have any of his friends read any bit of a book out of the towering piles in his room and he could tell you what book and what page or something like that. I wanted to do that. A super power I wanted until I calculated chessa reads 7.3 times faster then me. After that I just wanted to be capable of reading faster.
I can’t promise you the top 5 books that ruled my life right now but i can agree with liking to keep a book series in the same format. I nearly had a stroke when i realized when the fourth book in the Avery Cates series goes directly to mass market versus trade paperback like the previous three. Also, i thank you yet again for lending me “Youth in Revolt” years ago giving me the leg up on all who had to purchase the movies tie in cover,
xoxox
jackie
What I really LOVE about this article are the similarities AND the differences! Because of the amazing way you write, I also almost feel like we’ve read different books(when they’re the same)! Ace writing!
My top 5 -
Birdsong – Stephen Faulks
Pillars of The Earth – Ken Follett
She’s Come Undone – Wally Lamb
The Only Way to Quit Smoking Permanently
Life Of Pi – Yann Martel
xx
top five authors
gary jennings RIP
ed mcbain RIP
robert parker RIP
anne perry
brooke takhar TBA
Official Top 5
*Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
*Giver by Lois Lowry
*I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
*Preacher by Garth Ennis
*Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang (unpleasant title, i know, try leaving that one on the dining room table)
These aren’t by necessarily the best books i may have read, but the books that gave me something that i needed before i knew i even needed it, and because of that i have loved them ever since.
1) The Rainbow Goblins- the book i remember the best as young as i can remember, the book my moms read to me all the time. what i love about it the most isn’t just the most amazing art you will ever see, art that feels like you are in someone else’s imagination; but that it is dark. a kids book about evil goblins that are rainbow junkies, and how all of nature conspires against the goblins and kills them for it. straight murder one. probably the reason to this day i gravitate towards darker material.
2) The Outsiders- growing up poor is tough, especially on the hard streets of fernwood and no one understands what i dealt with. until ‘the outsiders’, finally someone that got what i felt, i wasn’t alone, someone else out there knew what it meant to be a greaser.
3) The Godfather- all about family, loyalty, respect, violence, resolve, determination, cunning, and sonny’s big dick. taught me how to think as a man, and turned me on to probably my fav genre, true crime/mafia.
4) The Power of One- first with the head, then with the heart. i think it may have been the first book that made me cry, and one of only a few.
5) my five slot has to be shared with three books, and no it’s not a trilogy.
Life of Pi- this book was suppose to be the greatest book i could read, a book that would help me understand both myself and religion better and leave me enlightened. what it did was tell me hype can be bullshit, and this book turned me off of reading for a while. yes it has a few moments, but when i turned over the last page i was thoroughly frustrated and let down. boo life of pi, boo.
Game of Thrones- thee best fantasy i have ever read and reinvigorated my reading. if life of pi turned me off, game of thrones turned me back on. geogre r r martin, if you die before you finish this series, magua will eat his heart, before he dies, magua will put his children under the knife, so the grey hair will know his seed is wiped out forever.
The Time Travelers Wife- like movies i find it hard to get through anything romantic, but like movies, when it is done right it touches something almost deep down, and resonates for a while. i compare this book to eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (movie), it was beginning to end a page turner and stayed with me for long after i finished it. i also think that this book helped to open my heart and mind to someone very important now, jen. ps, i had one hell of an odd experience with this book, and all i will say is ‘every angel is terrifying’.
finally i want to say thank you to brooke for getting me thinking on this. it was a ridiculously hard list to make, but thinking about these books (and many more) was fantastic.
My top 5 movies (or mini series) based on books? This does not mean that I favor one medium over the other, just that they were both awesome.
1. Jurassic Park.
2. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
3. Fight Club
4. The Road
5. The Shawshank Redemption
Damn…no particular order.
1. Human Punk – John King
I don’t know how to fully explain how much I love this book. It took my childhood fandom of the sex pistols and turned it into how i wish i grew up. It starts mid story with a 15 year old punk rockers summer with his friends in Slough, England.( Where David Brent plied his trade)
2. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest – Ken Kesey
Fantastic. I can’t think of a better narrative. It pulled me in immediately and has an ending that “Empire Strikes Back” should be jealous of.
3. Watership Down – Richard Adams
Unreal. It apparently started as a story he told his daughters while driving on vacation. Seriously, Richard Adams made up the entire story off the top of his head and created a rabbit religion to avoid being asked “are we there yet”
4. The Outsiders – SE Hinton
I can still recite “Nothing Gold Can Stay” if asked. Nuff said.
5. Johnny Got His Gun – Dalton Trumbo
Masterpiece. The author also directed the movie starring Donald Sutherland as fucking Jesus!
.
Here’s my Top 9, minus 6, plus 2:
The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
Everything Russian Axe Wound said, except the penis stuff. The Godfather is a guidebook on the codes of honour that men should conduct themselves by. Required reading (and viewing) for dudes.
Different Seasons (Stephen King)
I read this after Piggy told me that The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me both were born here, along with Apt Pupil. I barely remember the fourth story, but it involved some horrible thing happening to a pregnant chick. If you haven’t read it already, you may want to skip that one…
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
For some of the same reasons that RAW chose it, but also because I’ve always been drawn to stories that stress the importance of, or revolve around, brotherhood. Also, when I was a kid I wanted to be Dally. I guess you can blame S.E. for all of the leather jackets and smoking. Some of us decided that Anami’d totally be a Soc.
Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
This book lead to my earliest realizations of the inherent depravity of men, and how we’re all bloodthirsty dirtbags at heart. And shit.
Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All (Donald J. Sobol)
My favourite childhood series, and this was my favourite (and first) installment. Each book contained ten cases for Encyclopedia (and the reader) to solve. The answers were in the back, but after looking up the first one I read, I was proud of the fact that I never looked again until I was sure I solved it. (The few where I was way off were disheartening.) My favourite cases in this book were The Case Of Sir Biscuit-Shooter and The Case of the Made Up Muscles. Semi-relevant sidenote: Encyclopedia Brown was almost my rap name. ‘Cause I’m an encyclopedia, ya racist!
I thought of other ones since I first planned to leave this comment, but that’s cheating.
Also, no graphic novels. Those will get their own post in early July…
oh! this is hard. but i think i’m gonna have to go with all children’s books for this particular top 5, seeing as they are what made me first realize how much i loved reading and writing.
1. the giving tree, shel silverstein (still one of my all-time favorites)
2. the polar express, chris van allsberg (i read it every christmas with my mom)
3. where the wild things are, maurice sendak (needs no explanation)
4. green eggs and ham, dr. seuss (for obvious name reasons)
5. alexander, and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, Judith Viorst (i still feel like this sometimes)