Facebook memes are usually the intellectual equivalent of getting gum stuck in your pubic hair, but any meme that’s about books is probably one that’s okay by me.<\/p>\n
So, the meme has sometimes mutated to “ten of my favorite books,” but fuck that.\u00a0Favorite<\/em> isn’t that meaningful of a metric. I prefer the original meme I saw going around — books that “stayed with you.” Like a haunting ghost.<\/p>\n 1.) Swan Song, Robert McCammon<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n It was\u00a0Boy’s Life<\/strong> that made me want to be a writer, and it’s\u00a0Mister Slaughter<\/strong> that disturbs me the most, but while a lot of folks love epic fantasy, I fell in love with epic horror reading Swan Song<\/strong>. Actually,\u00a0Swan Song\u00a0<\/strong>was my gateway into horror — to King, Koontz, Barker, Brite, and beyond. (Also, thanks to my wonderful sister, I have a copy of the illustrated first edition.)<\/p>\n 2.) Blackburn, Bradley Denton<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Forget Dexter. Go read Blackburn. How does a boy become a serial killer? It’s grim, hilarious, sad, scary, sweet, and back to grim again. It run laps around most other books and is some truly amazing writing. Denton’s a helluva prose-master, good as Lansdale.<\/p>\n 3.) Beloved, Toni Morrison<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Beloved<\/strong> is at first blush a horror novel. The horror of slavery. The ghost (real or imagined) of a dead child. Elegant, astounding work. (I actually got to meet the author when I was in college.)<\/p>\n 4.) Ulysses, James Joyce<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n It’s a book so big you could use it to kill a man. It’s long and rambling and strange. It also contains playful, powerful prose and moments of mundane bullshit elevated to mythic horseshit. It’s an astounding read. A hard slog, but worth it if you can manage.\u00a0Finnegan’s Wake<\/strong> is also a book that will stay with you, provided you don’t mind trying to read a book that may or may not just be a cuckoo idea virus scrawled madly onto paper.<\/p>\n 5.) The Southern Reach Trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Talked about this one last week<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Just shut up and go read it.<\/p>\n 6.) Exquisite Corpse, Poppy Z. Brite<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This book is\u00a0super-gross<\/em>. By which I mean — grisly, gory, sex with dead bodies. It’s also written with such beauty, and crafted with such love, that it’s an astounding achievement. A tough book. Worth every word. All of my Brite books are a gift. All her books are horror written in neon, blood, hairspray, lighter fluid, sex juice.<\/p>\n 7.) The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n It feels like we’re living in its prequel at times.<\/p>\n 8.) Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets, David Simon<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n If hard-ass journalism had a baby with Greek tragedy, you’d get this. This is also the book that effectively parented both the television shows\u00a0Homicide\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0The Wire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n