When I first decided to join the Peace Corps, I also made a decision to expand my understanding of literature. I asked several folks with various literary pedigrees for recommendations and came up with a list that I grouped into the general categories of Classics, Satire/Dystopia, Fun Fiction, Social Development, Service-Related Readings, and Philosophy/Self-Growth. I’ve since supplemented that list with countless recommendations from folks in-country, so please chime in if you have a book worth reading! In this first year of service, I’ve read the following 33 or so books (grouped by category, and with my rating for each, generally based on enjoyment or how much it made me think):
Classics
· Picture of Dorian Gray – 4/5
· The Metamorphosis – 1/5
· For Whom the Bell Tolls – 3/5
· Frankenstein – 4/5
· Dracula – 5/5
· A Tale of Two Cities – 5/5
· Crime & Punishment – 3/5
· Anna Karenina – 2/5
· All Quiet on the Western Front – 4/5
· Moby Dick – 1/5
· Huckleberry Finn – 2/5
· East of Eden – 4/5
Satire/Dystopia
· Catch-22 – 5/5
· Handmaid’s Tale – 3/5
· Animal Farm – 4/5
· Brave New World – 2/5
Fun Fiction
· Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Books 1-5 – 5/5
· Beautiful World, Where Are You – 5/5
· Ready Player One – 5/5
· Atonement – 3/5
Social Development
· The Bluest Eye – 2/5
· A Room of One’s Own – 3/5
· I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – 3/5
Service-Related Readings
· Chasing Chaos – 4/5
· Things Fall Apart – 3/5
· The Revelation (Gambian poetry)
· The Qu’ran
· Various academic articles
Philosophy/Self-Growth
· The Unbearable Lightness of Being – 5/5
· Lives of the Stoics – 3/5
· Enlightenment Now – 5/5
It’s a bit of a spread, but I’ll highlight my top 5 recommendations here, in case anyone is in the market for their next read!
1. Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (Fun Fiction)
I simply cannot recommend this book enough, particularly for those with any interest, passing or devoted, to sci-fi, nerdom, the 80s, prescient dystopia, and action-packed storylines. The story follows Wade Watts as he navigates a digital universe on a quest to become the first to solve an Easter egg hunt with immense wealth and glory at the end. He must battle both a host of evil corporate minions and allies in his quest, fighting against his inner desires and the common good along the way. It’s a timeless storyline with incredible twists and quirks, including a somewhat dark outlook for what the Metaverse could do to society. It was the only book on my list that I truly couldn’t put down, even to the point of completely zoning out my friends as I raced to finish it.
Quotes:
“It was the dawn of new era, one where most of the human race now spent all of their free time inside a videogame.”
“I’d come to see my rig for what it was: an elaborate contraption for deceiving my senses, to allow me to live in a world that didn’t exist. Each component of my rig was a bar in the cell where I had willingly imprisoned myself.”
“The once-great country into which I’d been born now resembled its former self in name only. It didn’t matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it. Besides, now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists.”
2. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Books 1-5, Douglas Adams (Fun Fiction)
HGttG is also a very fun adventure for those looking to escape some of the drudgery of everyday life. It follows Arthur, the last (maybe?) earthling alive after the planet was blown up to make way for a new intergalactic highway. As Arthur travels the universe, interacting with several quirky companions and encountering bad luck time and time again, you get thrills, laughs, and a great set of societal critiques, all wrapped in one. The humor and tone resonate clean out from the text (which makes sense given that it was written based off of a radio show), taking you for a ride of great fun.
Note: while this is number 2 on the list, it was good to read this before Ready Player One as the latter contains some allusions to this classic of the 70s/80s.
Quotes:
“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”
“If there’s anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”
“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
“To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.”
… And countless more! They’re books filled with zingers!
3. Enlightenment Now, Stephen Pinker (Philosophy/Self-Growth)
For quite some time, I have resisted the pull of the Humanists, a generally secular group of folks concerned with meaning-making and ethics beyond religion, founded upon the ideals of the Enlightenment and progress. That is, until now. The book charts a largely optimistic trajectory of human society, demonstrating the countless ways in which life is better now than it used to be and how it continues to improve. While I don’t agree with all of Pinker’s premises, particularly those regarding the environmental difficulties we face, it is a refreshing, data-packed antidote to the news cycle of doom-and-gloom, as well as the tenor of both highly progressive and highly conservative circles which suggest societal collapse is just around the corner. For anyone who cares about the future of society, I’d say it’s a must read, capturing much of what’s missing from the conversations we have these days. The only warning I’d put with it, besides the inevitability of your mindset changing, is that the writing is laden with archaic vocabulary, seemingly designed to make everyday folks question whether they can understand anything at all. Read with a dictionary nearby (or better yet, on a tablet through which you can look up the countless words you will not understand).
Quotes:
“Though I am skittish about any notion of historical inevitability, cosmic forces, or mystical arcs of justice, some kinds of social change really do seem to be carried along by an inexorable tectonic force.”
4. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (Classics)
I have yet to read an analysis of ATOTC, but I would absolutely believe it if someone told me that it is the archetype of the modern English story. The two cities, Paris and London, could not be more different at the time, the former dissolving into chaos while the latter looked on safely and insularly from afar. The story tracks several characters as they navigate their new standings in this topsy-turvy world, ultimately including everything from a beautiful romantic arc to dashing heroism to comedy to a scathing review of what humanity is at its worst (I think it’s safe to say that the Reign of Terror at the start of the French Revolution is one of the West’s major low points). It stands as a delightfully entertaining, beautifully written, and timeless work.
Quotes:
“That, if statues were decreed in Britain, as in ancient Greece and Rome, to public benefactors, this shining citizen would assuredly have had one. That, as they were not so decreed, he probably would not have one.”
“The great grindstone, Earth, had turned when Mr. Lorry looked out again, and the sun was red on the courtyard. But, the lesser grindstone stood alone there in the calm morning air, with a red upon it that the sun had never given, and would never take away.”
“Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.”
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
5. Dracula, Bram Stoker (Classics)
Rounding out my Top 5 list is the 125+ year-old Dracula, the story of which we are all very familiar… or are we? While many of the ideas and themes are not going to be novel, having been translated into countless stories, movies, and TV shows, it’s still well worth the read. You might discover, like me, that there’s several pieces of the story you didn’t know. I found the style to be particularly compelling, as it’s not an exact narrative, but a compilation of the different characters’ journals and letters, as well as clippings of newspapers. The shifting across first-person perspectives as characters become more and more aware of the issues at hand is great fun to navigate. While it may seem long, it’s absolutely a page-turner of a thriller, and you’ll get through it in no time.
Quotes:
“I suppose a cry does us all good at times—clears the air as other rain does.”
“I heard once of an American who so defined faith: ‘that faculty which enables us to believe things which we know to be untrue.’”