Top Ten Reads for 2012

Going After Cacciato
Tim O'Brien
1974
352pp
To be clear and established 'thin the first one, I could not get behind the man who wrote the assigned text enough to take much of anything he said seriously. His commentary on this novel, his explanation of the basic plot and the way in which the story unfolds (the catalyst bein' madness) - this book seems like it would appeal ideally to the type of reading I've been wanting to find, no book really grabbing my attention lately. A blend of reality and fantasy, the narrator unable to distinguish between, apparently takes the reader on a fantastic journey and I wanna be a part of it.

Kidnapped
Robert Louis Stevenson
1886
224pp
My grandad, still alive though dead to the world, left my dad a few things apparently meant for me; a spoon and a book among them. I tried to read Kidnapped in elementary, not so successfully, despite there being incredibly simple footnotes within the version I possess. Figured I should go ahead and read it this year, as I will need as well-rounded a mental library as possible, since Treasure Island was quite the (expletive).

Catch-22
Joseph Heller
1961
453pp
From all the descriptions I've read and heard, this book resembles One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is, possibly, the best book I've ever read. I attempted to read this book last year and could not follow it, so much going on and constantly introducing new characters. With the aforementioned test waiting for me at the end of this year, though, it would surely be beneficial to have this book in my repertoire, so I shall try again.

The Waste Land
T.S. Eliot
1922
300pp
Last year I "read" Howl by Ginsberg (that is, the majority of it and in the sense that the words were mentally plodded through, not much understanding taking place (I finally realized some of what he was trying to say thanks to James Franco's portrayal)) and, it is in this year, I hope to tackle the greatest poem in English in the 20th century - especially! due to the fact that Eliot understood and invites those ignorant to what he is trying to say to still read him, if not to "just get lost in the words."

On Bullshit
Harry G. Frankfurt
2005
68pp
Oftentimes I feel as though there is indeed an overabundance of the subject matter, infiltrating every aspect of life. I want to read this to be able to validate or change my opinions and just to be able to say I have read such a book. Despite being written by a renown moral philosopher, that species that, unless written in the most convoluted way possible, the title "renown" is inapplicable, it can't be too hard to read a book barely over 50 pages.

The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
1966
152pp
Again, because I could not get interested in the book the man wrote, I do not put much into his opinions. However, in the pursuit of anything different, to broaden my horizons, why I very seldomly read anything written before 2000, the apparently challenging text, though no doubt enough to put me off reading it 'fore I can even get it started, as I am a bit of a spark plug, seems attractive enough to me and

Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism
Daniel Pinchbeck
2002
336pp
Having "read" DMT: The Spirit Molecule (only so much can be absorbed without medical training), originally reserving this spot for one of the more "deep" books of Huxley, this volume grabbed my attention more, as "the best part of this book is the message that really gets driven home to the heart of who we are, the potential of what we have yet to learn about ourselves, something humankind has barely scratched the surface of-- which he saves for the few chapters toward the end," a quote from a reader that seems to hit nearer the head than any other comment on a book I've thus far found of what I long for in literature/knowledge/etc. (refusing to be yet another pawn in the secular, meaningless crapfest life has apparently become)

The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones: Gnosticism: The Key to Esoteric Christianity
Manly P. Hall
2000
170pp
Turning more and more from the countless reruns of the cartoons I so adore to the channels of Science, Discovery, History, a program on the lost books of the Bible grabbed my attention and revealed to me the existence of Gnosticism. The corruption that apparently exists within orthodox Christianity today having sprouted waay back in the attempted eradication of Gnosticism leads me to think that Gnosticism may be the more righteous denomination since it was targeted because of politics, something religion should not be remotely involved with. In my self-proclaimed quest for enlightenment/self-realization/whatever other label my confused psyche wants to put to it, this seems to be a milestone worth stopping at.

Watership Down
Richard Adams
1972
494pp
One of the best movies of all time, if not THE, "Donnie Darko," places heavy emphasis on this story, apparently because of the deeper meaning, as, from what I've heard, this is not a story to be read as it is written - the rabbits are us, for example - though mainly because of Donnie's "friend" Frank. I want to read this to get more from the movie and, of course, to dabble in different genres in different times in different themes in preparation.

Siddhartha
Herman Hesse
1922
152pp
One of my brothers (a homie of mine whom I love) who recently dropped out of school read this and said I should so I'm inclined to believe him as we influenced each other quite significantly. A(expletive)gain, this story of rejecting your birthright, refusing to go the course wished of you for some sort of higher purpose appeals to me and, as I can't stand modern writing and must make trouble for myself in trying to read older works that may be over my head, has filled the final spot in what I wish to read this year.