Writers and readers have a lot in common – you have to be a good reader to be a good writer. I can think of books I literally read over and over again growing up, and I’ve from time to time borrowed phrases from books I’ve read for everyday life.
You have to be a good reader to be a good writer. Click To TweetThere are some books I read growing up that I thought were great – and of course, it’s the Beanie and Cecil phenomenon. You think its great when you’re a kid until… you watch it when you’re older and realize how terrible it was.
Some of the books I loved have that phenomenon. Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was great when I was growing up. Now I realize it’s a little passive. Three men trapped in a submarine sit and watch fish for page after page. If I pitched that book today to an agent, their eyes would glaze over.
Mysterious Island ends up being more a survivalist primer, a day to day diary about escaped Americans from a prisoner of war camp trapped on a deserted island and trying to survive. It promises more than it delivers, and it’s one of those things where you’re meant to marvel about how smart the people are – but see, most people just can’t figure out how to make gunpowder cotton out of natural materials. You strain credibility. I’ve read many Verne stories, and even I couldn’t fabricate many of the things the supposed common soldiers would have made.I think the publisher forced Verne to tie in Captain Nemo at the end to sell the book.
H. G. Wells fares a lot better. I can remember reading The Invisible Man and telling friends about it, and getting into arguments with everyone that you wouldn’t actually see food in someone’s stomach. Okay, that’s the only weak point. And one of the pivotal characters is not introduced until the very last chapters of the book – an illiterate man who steals the Invisible Man’s notebooks.
Island of Dr. Moreau of course does well. It’s a very creepy book, but the protagonist is very whiny. He tries to do the right thing, but ends up lacking the courage to do the right thing. Perhaps that’s a deliberate characterization – a contrast between Moreau who has no scruples and the protagonist who has no courage. If that was Wells’ intent, then it succeeded admirably.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a morality play wrapped in science fiction. Your inner person – the monster we all are inside and barely hold under control – is too easily released, and can quickly take over your life. As the story continues, It’s becoming clear that Jekyll is becoming more and more Mr. Hyde even when he’s not changed. And it’s no surprise that even without the solution he drinks, Jekyll physically becomes Hyde, and now has to use the solution to become Jekyll. It’s a subtle point – He’s no longer Jekyll in reality. He’s now really Hyde. He isn’t in danger of losing himself, he already has.
As an adult, I read a lot more of Tom Clancy. My problem is he has a habit of dwelling on things I’d rather not read in books. I’m a man of faith, and I’d rather not be exposed to certain situations – there’s no need to weaken a story with adult content, something that appeared more and more often in his books. However, Red Storm Rising remains to me one of the best Clancy novels there is. Alas, Clancy’s novels did not translate well as movies, except for Red October. The rest were terrible.
I can only say that Lord Of The Rings was one of my favorites, as was Dune. But the problems with Dune was that like Clancy, certain things were brought up over and over again – and really, the books didn’t need them. The last two books were self indulgent, and it was becoming clear that Herbert was trying to recapture the essential magic of the first one. If he’d left out all of the adult content, kept with the characters he’d introduced in the first book and not tried to space out the series over 10,000 years it would have fared a lot better. The thing that killed the series was Herbert’s untimely death, and the lack of a return of Paul Atreides, long promised but never fulfilled. I think if he’d finished the series up that way, it would have been more successful.
What books are your favorites? Which have held up over time? Which stories did you read that entranced you when you were young, and now seem a little contrived or weak?
