Three Books that Changed My Life
It’s Three Books that Changed My Life in some variation of order. I think this is chronological in the way I ran into them. A good guess of what order I first read them.
1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The classic, “Savage journey into the heart of the American Dream,” circa 1970. Over the years, I think I’ve re-read the epic a couple of times. Its stark, fictional condemnation of wretched American excess, before its time? While not the first of the so-called “New Journalism,” it did stick the narrator right in the middle of the action. Poised as journalism, when, it was more fiction?
Must’ve read this — I can’t say, the first time. Eventually, though, after rereading a second or third time, I realized more about the depth and layers of myth, along with satire, and outright attack on the perceived problems of the times. Not that much has changed, just slightly different media these days..
Book changed the course of my life.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
2. Dharma Bums
I was late to this one, reading it in old East Austin, the first time, long after I’d completed any kind of school work, so it was strictly reading for pleasure, and the way it explored ideas. I knew of the author from his seminal classic, On The Road, but no, it was this novel that changed me.
That copy, can’t locate it now, but it was a second-hand copy from Tempe, Arizona, still with a used books sticker in place, from the student barrios, but I didn’t get around to consuming the book until Austin. While only peripherally about Buddhist principles, that paved a way for my further spiritual, meditative education.
Book changed the course of my life.
The Dharma Bums
3. Practical Demon Keeping
The author has another book called Lamb, and I would recommend it over just about any other novel. But for me, not anyone else, for me, the change occurred as a result of reading Practical Demon Keeping that first time.
Buddy of mine, a palmist I worked alongside for dozens of years, back in the day, he recommended this to me. I got it at a Half-Price, used bookstore. Ignored it on my shelf for a few months, then devoured it the first time. It happened at a point, an early part in my career, and that’s why I remember it so vividly — elements that I use to this day — showed up in the text. Like most authors’ early works, there’s a vibrancy, and immediacy with the language itself. Perhaps a bit rough to some, or pointless, the attention to certain details?
The Author Guy — he’s got the one novel, aforementioned Lamb, and that novel can sometimes be found in a limited release, done up like a bible. It is great! Humor, an understanding of how the world works, and later, an affection for Shakespeare, but first, for me? Practical Demon Keeping. I think, to a certain extent, it’s the inherent magical realism, that’s what the secret ingredient. Magical realism that is less magic and more real — in my own world.
Book changed my the course of my life.
Practical Demonkeeping (Pine Cove Series)
