Top Ten Books of 2009. Are these the best? Who knows? I can’t always remember everything I read. Scattered randomly throughout the year were also some poetry (Korean, Chinese, Irish), history books, Native Canadian authors, ecology, postcolonialism, and more. Note: these are simply in alphabetical order, not from best-to-worst or anything like that.
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Campbell, Joseph. Transformations of Myth Through Time. Campbell’s thirteen final lectures, apparently. Accessible and interesting chapters describe numerous Eastern and Western religious/mythical traditions. Egypt, Greece, and the Americas; kundalini yoga and the Arthurian quest for the holy grail. Comparable, with its conversational tone, to Campbell’s excellent The Power of Myth.
Craighead George, Jean. My Side of the Mountain. This was one of the very first “chapter books” I remember reading (Walnut Park School, Mr. Dubroy’s grade 3 class). About a city kid who runs away from home to live off the land, with detailed journals and diagrams of how he lives, eats, and even trains a hunting falcon. I remember what an effect this book had on me! How much it inspired me and my friends back then. I just read it again recently, and enjoyed it almost as much. Good bedtime reading.
Dillard, Annie. For the Time Being. Less positive, you might say, than her Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Here the author asks difficult questions about faith, life, and the universe. Does God actively cause human calamity? Or passively let it happen? Some of the many diverse themes and explorations include Jewish mystical philosophy, travel and palaeontology in China, human malformation, and the natural history of desert sand.
Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. A classic religious-studies text by one of the field’s most important and influential scholars. Not really for the beginner, I suppose, but still it’s a poetic and enjoyable book. Some interesting themes and ideas. I read this one on city park benches and while riding the subways of Seoul.
Heo Gyun. Korean Buddhist Temple Motifs: Beautiful Symbols of the Buddhist Faith. An invaluable resource for appreciating the history and symbolism behind the art and architecture of Korean sacred spaces. (Useful, anyway, if you happen to be tramping around the mountains of South Korea!) Not only the ancient statues and the elegant wooden buildings; even specific patterns and colors of paint have their own sets of meaning. Dragons and pagodas, drums and bells and pine-forest pathways, murals and clay-tile rooftops . . .
Lamott, Ann. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. A book I just wrote about in a recent post, but I think it’s well worth a second mention. Childhood and family memoirs both dysfuntional and deeply moving; shocking and inspirational spiritual autobiography. Christianity as we rarely get to see it.
Shepard, Paul. The Only World We’ve Got. An essay panorama: anthropology, deep history, early-childhood development, biology, art history, psychology, folklore, and eco-criticism. Why is the natural world (especially animals) so important to human beings? What might an original human culture have looked like? Various selections from the late Shepard’s prolific career.
Thorp, Gary. Caught in Fading Light: Mountain Lions, Zen Masters, and Wild Nature. The author seeks out the beautiful and elusive mountain lion native to northern California, and the quest itself becomes both a meditation and a metaphor. Natural history and travel, self-discovery and Eastern philosophy.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Children of Hurin. Somewhat like the Silmarillion (also excellent), this is early history of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Dense prose, highly-developed characters and settings, scenes of high adventure and suspense. Originally an unfinished long poem; an epic story of a noble family unable to escape its violent and tragic fate.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Bluebeard. Not his best, but all the Vonnegutian trademarks are here: satirical jabs at society (and in this case, the insular and self-important world of art), pseudo-autobiography, and general all-around sad absurdist humour. This novel documents the humble retired life of a once-great but now virtually unknown abstract impressionist painter, Rabo Karabekian – who is actually a minor character in the great Breakfast of Champions. I read this one in a travel-trailer in Manitoba.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!