Jesse Richards - My Favorite Books

	1) Scott Pilgrim: Books 1-6 Bryan Lee O'Malley Meet Scott Pilgrim. Rating: awesome ... ? Scott lives in Toronto. He plays in a band (but they're not that good.) He's dating a 17-year-old (like in Trainspotting, but totally not like that.) He shares his dreamspace with an Amazon delivery girl (who has seven evil ex-boyfriends.) He sleeps with a man (but only because they can't afford two beds.) Best of all, he's the hero, and he's much cooler than you. 2) His Dark Materials Philip Pullman I had heard that this trilogy - The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass - was a better fantasy series than Harry Potter, but that was hard to believe ... until I read it. View book on Amazon.com
	3) The Demon-Haunted World Carl Sagan This book singlehandedly set my research hobby for two years - debunking pseudoscience and encouraging critical thinking. My favorite non-fiction book and one that I have re-read several times. View book on Amazon.com 4) House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski Freaky, creepy, totally unnerving. A haunted house that is its own dark universe. Stunningly original, creative, frustrating and impressive. View book on Amazon.com
	5) Oxford Very Short Introductions This isn't one book, but rather a series of hundreds, each covering a topic such as "Art Theory", "The Cold War", "Buddhism", or "Nietzche". Together, these books have increased my knowledge exponentionally. Plus, they're short, fun to read, have illustrations, and the best ones are organized brilliantly. The books on Gandhi and Architecture are among my favorites. 6) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon If the other books above here on the list weren't so danged meaningful and relevant, this one would be tops just for the sheer joy of reading it. Chabon's language is wonderful, his characters completely engaging, and his portrayal of the Golden Age of comic books and World War II is like stepping back in time. View book on Amazon.com
	7) Watchmen Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons Arguably the best graphic novel written, certainly the most complex and intelligent. Moore weaves together dozens of subplots dancing around the effects of superheroes in a real Cold War world, ending with the best expression I've seen in literature for the classic dilemma: Do the ends justify the means? Can humanity only be saved by a lie? View book on Amazon.com 8) Batman: Year One Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli I've read this so many times ... it's so gripping and impossible to put down. Miller reimagines the Batman mythos perfectly. This book was the main basis for Batman Begins.
	9) The Complete Calvin & Hobbes Bill Watterson Am I weaseling out of choosing a specific Calvin & Hobbes book by picking this entire collected edition? Yes. Something Under the Bed is Drooling was my first book, but they are all stupendous. Like Stupendous Man himself! Read them all in order to watch the cartoons evolve from gags to creative art experiments to esoteric musings on life. 10) Preacher Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Part Western, part Romance, part vampire Horror, part gross-out, part religious tract, part Great American Novel ...
	11) The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien I read this first in fifth grade and several times since. It never gets old, and easier each time. So relieved the movies are wonderfully executed. View book on Amazon.com 12) To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Just an incredible novel from start to finish. The message is amazing but never preachy. The quality of Scout's narration is one of the best impersonations of a child's voice in literature. Harper Lee nailed it in one try and then quit. And why not? View book on Amazon.com
	13) 1984 George Orwell War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength in this idealistic tale of rainbows and puppy dogs. Certainly no parallels with, say, the Bush Administration. Terrorists helped us beat Russia and now Russia must help us beat terrorism ... View book on Amazon.com 14) Bone: Out From Boneville Jeff Smith The entire Bone series is great, but it changed dramatically right in the middle, from light-hearted adventure (though still deep) to straightforward and serious action. The collection of the first 6 issues was so good that I passed around to almost everyone I know - my friends, my grandmother, my teachers, my girlfriends, my parents. It's beautfully drawn and terrifically written.
	15) Harry Potter #3 & #4 J.K.Rowling The Harry Potter books start fluffy and get progressively longer and more sophisticated. The fourth book has an unbelievable 4,000+ reviews on Amazon, with a perfect average. The third one was good also, especially at the end, and the third movie is my favorite. The other books are of course also good, but these two take the cake for me. View book on Amazon.com 16) Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury Stirringly poetic and right on target with several predictions 50 years later. Fascinating but scary. View book on Amazon.com
	17) Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy I expected this to be one of the greatest novels of all time, and to perfectly express romantic relationships, social issues, and wonderful characters - and it does. But down-to-earth landowner Levin takes a surprise twist and ends up also making it one of the most perfect expressions of profound spiritual faith I've ever read. It took me six months, but it was absolutely worth it. View book on Amazon.com 18) American Gods Neil Gaiman This book is almost good enough to seem like the prose version of Sandman. Gaiman uses all of his standard mythologies, while throwing in some new ideas of what types of Gods we're worshipping today. His heroes are always understated and relatable, and he paints a wonderfully comprehensive picture of America in classic road trip format. View book on Amazon.com
	19) We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families Philip Gourevitch Like The Diary of Anne Frank, this is essential reading to understand the depths of human depravity. But unlike Anne's Diary, this crisp journalistic style hits closer to home by examining not one but dozens of personal stories. This book reminds us that this horrible genocide happened only a decade ago, and that humanity has not yet learned the terrible lessons of the twentieth century. View book on Amazon.com 20) Contact Carl Sagan It shows Sagan's versatility that he gets both a fiction and non-fiction book on this list. It's even more amazing that this great novel is the only fiction he ever wrote. This is perhaps the most realistic science fiction novel ever written, about scientists receiving a radio signal that contains alien instructions for building ... something. View book on Amazon.com
	21) Nonzero Robert Wright This amazing book was part of the inspiration for my own. Wright proves anthropologically that history, as one of his reviews says, is getting better all the time.
	22) Blankets Craig Thompson This is probably the most romantic work I've ever read, except for some passages in Anna Karenina. It's the best in a wide field of autobiographical comics. Thompson remembers here his first love, growing up with his brother, and weaves through them fascinating aspects of art, religion, friendship and loss. View book on Amazon.com 23) Shopgirl Steve Martin If only all us men could get inside the head of a woman the way Steve does here. The characters are brilliantly vivid. The book's also completely hilarious, in ordinary, unexpected moments. If you saw this movie, read the book: it's even better.
	24) A Time to Kill John Grisham I've read every Grisham novel except the one about baseball and I had a hard time picking my favorite. This was his first, and though The Firm was the first one I read (thanks, Craig!), this one was my favorite for a long time. (The film is perfect, too.) It's definitely got a strong To Kill a Mockingbird echo, but that's a good thing here. Runaway Jury was also great. At any rate, it's a tough call. I like reading Grisham, is what it comes down to. 25) A Short History of the World John M. Roberts If by short you mean still 500 pages ... nonetheless, this reads incredibly fast and does an excellent job of jumping from culture to culture and not excluding anybody. Focuses on the major themes of history, the big-picture stuff that really matters. View book on Amazon.com
	26) The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley The last chapters of this book are absolutely stirring. I wish everyone with such recent negative views of Islam could see the inclusiveness of the faith for the first time through Malcolm's eyes. View book on Amazon.com 27) Picasso's War Russell Martin This book manages to combine my favorite interests - history and art. In telling the story of Guernica, the book conveys the power of art to change society. It also goes through the history of Spain in the twentieth-century in a riveting way. Highly recommended.
	28) ALIAS Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Gaydos This is the only item on the list that isn't really a book. But just because this comic series wasn't compiled into one bound edition doesn't detract from its realism and fun. Bendis created a great character in Jessica Jones, a former B-level superhero who becomes a private investigator as a way to cope with her own demons. Gaydos's art evokes the best of crime noir and modern New York edginess. View book on Amazon.com 29) High Fidelity Nick Hornby The most recent addition here, I related directly to this novel better than any other book on this list. It's not only a good story with fun characters and lots of great music references, but has some of the best insights into relationships and memory from a cynical male point of view. And a happy ending, against all odds. View book on Amazon.com
	30) Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler Every Chandler book is great, so I picked this one almost randomly. It's definitely one of the best, though. If you've never read him, you have to read at least one. 31) The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald I've read this book many times since middle school, and I got to really appreciate it when we read it for class in high school. We also had a Gatsby party at the home of our teacher, with all the students dressed as flappers and characters from the book. I went as Dr. T. J. Eckleberg, who's a poster of eyes. That's right, don't ask. View book on Amazon.com
	32) Another Century of War? Gabriel Kolko This is a great small book that poses many difficult questions for the future of America and the whole world. It looks at the horrible history of the twentieth century as well as our recent incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq and wonders where we're going. View book on Amazon.com 33) The End of Poverty Jeff Sachs Jeff Sachs is a hero economist - not a term tossed around too much. This book is sobering and inspiring at the same time. I quote it a lot in the economic chapter of my own book (The Secret Peace). It's got cool maps, too.
	34) The Norby Chronicles Janet & Isaac Asimov This was one of my favorite books as a kid. Keeping it on this list is a guilty pleasure. I just re-read it and it certainly doesn't stand up as a book for adults. Worse, there were like 20 sequels that got increasingly absurd. Still, it brought back great memories and I had spent countless hours fantasizing about what it would be like to have a robot that could travel through time and space. You let me down, future! 35) The Quiet American Graham Greene An excellent book that inspired a movie that was, for once, just as good. The best story-based account of the perils of US intervention and European colonialism. Great characters and complex moral dilemmas. View book on Amazon.com Find more great books listed in my Book Review section!