Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Public Broadcasting Company last week announced America’s 100 favorite books of all time, at least among readers of today, according to an extensive survey they engineered.
I was a little disappointed that I had only read 30 of them.
One of those was the top winner, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, which should be somewhere on everybody’s reading list, especially now when we need strong reminders of the early days of the civil rights movement and the steely courage it required.
After “To Kill a Mockingbird” stand Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series, the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, and “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, none of which I have read.
Here are my excuses: I had not heard of the Outlander series, I knew that the Harry Potter books were meant for kids (but the movies had stunning special effects), and Jane Austen wrote about 19th-century manners, a subject that fails to motivate me.
Lousy excuses, aren’t they.
That brings us to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” ranked fifth, one of the few series I have actually read twice, just because Tolkien told a rollicking good story.
I shamefully admit that I have seen movies based on a few of the books, but I haven’t read the books. Besides Harry Potter, these include “The Help” by Katherine Stockett, “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold, and “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya.
Living in New Mexico without reading “Bless Me Ultima,” I believe, is treasonous and yes, I do intend to read it. Apparently, enough New Mexico school kids have read it to get it ranked No. 91 in the listing.
Like millions of “Game of Thrones” fans, I am patiently awaiting the sixth book in the “Song of Fire and Ice” series (ranked 48th) by George R.R. Martin, who is privileged to live in Santa Fe.
He might be discouraged by the hordes of social-media know-it-alls who have already second-guessed just about every possibility that the sixth book could offer.
The “Game of Thrones” series on HBO has already outrun the books, so Martin has the network’s second-guessing to contend with, as well.
People, please let the master tell the story.
It also seems that about 15 of the most-read books were written either in the 19th century or before. “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan and “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift have retained popularity after up to four centuries.
As a writer — OK, a reporter and some-time pontificator — I have always dreamed of writing a work of fiction that will be critically well-received, get made into a movie, and make some money.
In the 1970s, the one author I knew of who actually did it all was James Dickey with “Deliverance.”
What an author’s dream. The book got rave reviews, it became a big-budget movie with Burt Reynolds in which Dickey actually landed a bit part, which he handled competently.
It just doesn’t get better than that for an author.
Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at: