Publisher’s note: The Texas Lawbook is pleased to offer this new column in partnership with Texas-based Half Price Books sharing our readers’ favorite reads. “My Five Favorite Books” will publish every other Wednesday. Please email brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net for more information.
It’s really disappointing to realize the number of people who read for pleasure is continuing to decline – one recent study found by as much as 40% in the past 20 years – and despite research showing the positive effects of discretionary reading on our mental health, social capabilities and overall well-being. Those results may vary, but I still read 100 or more books annually and have for most of my adult life.
In developing this list, which was much harder than I anticipated, I was struck by the fact that all are novels that were published more than 40 years ago — while I generally read current mysteries, thrillers and non-fiction. Perhaps that only means that in my case a “favorite” made an impression as a young adult or even a child, and has stood that test of time.
I hope this list may re-kindle – no pun intended – your love for reading.
For more information or to purchase the books, click the covers below.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
I was probably seven years old when I was introduced to the public library in our little community, and this was maybe the first book I ever checked out. I go back and re-read it every year or so as this grand adventure tale takes me back to that time of learning the eager enjoyment of reading.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Another book I go back to on a regular basis, it’s certainly one of the best of the Sherlock Holmes tales. It has a very cinematic structure for a turn of the 20th century novel – probably why it’s been adapted so many times in film and other forms – and the separate threads and subplots come together in a very satisfying and, a-hem, elementary way.
Another Part of the House by Winston M. Estes
This is a simple and somewhat obscure novel of family life in a small Texas town during the Depression. Told through the first person narrative of a 10-year-old, you can feel the effects of dust and drought on every page, while it touches on the dynamics of family, race, religion and most important of all, death. Less dramatic than The Last Picture Show or To Kill A Mockingbird, but still a worthy companion.
You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
Epic in scope but highly personal in its revelations, the protagonist is a young author who feels compelled to leave his home in search of his own identity and place in the world. Beautifully written – if perhaps a bit overwritten at times — George Webber’s journey takes him through America and Europe during the turmoil of the 1920s and 30s. Webber is always on the move, always observing, and the stitching together of those experiences forms the novel and balances his optimism and fears for the future.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
This one gives me a chance to go dark. While Cormac McCarthy wrote other novels of violence, despair and the evil that men do, none of them come close to exploring those themes as Blood Meridian. Not an easy read by any standard, it depicts a nightmarish world on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s where murder is committed without remorse, but with prose that’s both spare and poetic. You may not like it, but it will linger in your mind.
Barry Pound is Director of Public Relations for Androvett Legal Media & Marketing in Dallas.
