5 free classics under 150 pages

Here's my curated collection of 5 free classics to get you started in your journey of reading the classics. All of these are great books. You can read one of these beauties in one weekend. If you've wanted to get into the world of the classics, but don't know quite where to begin, this would be a good start. 

1. Frankenstein - 134 pages
   Read about Victor Frankenstein's pursuit to give life to his ambitions. In the book, the monster talks back to Victor, and is even more eloquent than the scientist. Explore the depths of the monster's feelings and see if you are not moved by his story.
   Link: http://amzn.com/B0084BN44Q
   
   
2. Red Badge of Courage - 154 pages
   Ok, this is just over 150 pages, but it's still a great read. This is a story of a young soldier that signs up to fight the entire rebel army. He's faced with his own challenge of courage, and he finds out that he might not be up to the challenge of facing the enemy. Does he find his courage? Read it and let me know what you think.
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZHYIU
   
   
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 96 pages
   At only 96 pages, you can probably read this in one or two sittings. Dr. Jekyll lets out his darker side as he takes his magic elixirs and summons the demon within, Mr. Hyde. Do we all have an inner demon wanting to get out? Is the freedom worth it for Dr. Jekyll? Read this one to find out. link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZR7BY
   
   
4. The Pilgrim’s Progress - 136 pages
   This was the second most read book in the English language besides the bible. And it's good. If you're not a christian, the historical value alone is worth it. Follow Christian as he describes in his dream his journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083Z665M
   
   
5. Call of the Wild - 111 pages
   This classic may not be for dog lovers (some of the dogs aren't treated that great in the book), but you'll gain tremendous insight into the primal law of the wild. Learn what Buck learns as he finds himself thrown from civilization into the primal world. Does he succeed? What does he learn in his struggle to survive about man and beast?
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZBW2Y
   
   
6. Bonus book!
   The Wind in the Willows - 194 pages
   At over 190 pages, it's a little longer than these other classics, but this one is definitely worth it. You may remember Toad and his love of cars, but to me, the real story is about the Water Rat that loves to be on his river messing about on boats. A classic tale of love of the land in a beautiful pastoral setting in the English countryside.
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083Z9D7U

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

This is another book, like Frankenstein, whose moral of fortune and ambition comes back with bitter friends. The book was published in 1947. In the story, there is a native Mexican, Kino, who is a pearl diver. He has a wife and a small child.

The child gets sick with a scorpion sting, where the parents take him to the doctor to get treated. But the doctor won't treat the baby unless Kino has money. Kino doesn't have money, so he dives to find a pearl to pay for the doctor.

He finds a pearl. But the pearl is so large, it attracts the attention of the entire town. Fortune at first seems benevolent, but in the end, they also taste the bitter that is attracted by Fortune.

"Luck, he said, sometimes brings bitter friends."

No sooner had he found the pearl then he was besieged by people looking to take it from him. In the end, they Kino had killed 4 people and their own child was shot in the head and was killed. The pearl had cost them the one thing they were trying to save. Kino's ambition cost him his family and a pleasant life of diving for pearls with his family.

Like Frankenstein, the ambition of Kino, like the ambition of Victor Frankenstein, ended up killing the things he loved most.

Here's another on of my favorite quotes from the book:

"But now, by saying what his future was going to be like, he had created it. A plan is a real thing, and things projected are experienced. A plan once made and visualized becomes a reality along with other realities."

Wind in the Willows

I love English literature and Wind in the Willows is one of my favorite. I wasn't expecting much when I read this book, but it pleasantly surprised me.

I didn't really care for the character of Toad, and all his immature antics; however, I was duly pleased with the sublime passages detailing the beautiful English countryside and the quiet life these animals had carved out for themselves.

About the book:
The book takes place in the English countryside at the turn of the century. It was published in 1908, just about the time the motorcar was making its scene in the world, before WW2 had started, and the ending of the aristocratic caste in the Western world.

The story follows the life of a water rat, a toad, a mole, and a badger. And they are all very good friends. The story is broken up along their different lives and how their lives intertwine with each other.

The wind in the willows is the music the Water Rat hears all through the country.

"with his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so constantly among them."

'I hear nothing myself,' he said, 'but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers.'

He is a poetic rat that writes his own lines, and enjoys the river immensely, along with his own house and his provisions. It is hard to describe the enchanting scene that the author writes, but it is wonderful.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"The Badger's winter stores, which indeed were visible everywhere, took up half the room—piles of apples, turnips, and potatoes, baskets full of nuts, and jars of honey" 

"eating oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls." 

"broad meadows, and cattle browsing in them, raked by sun and wind; of kitchen-gardens, and straight herb-borders, and warm snap-dragon beset by bees; and of the comforting clink of dishes set down on the table at Toad Hall" 

"The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one's ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.' 

"we shall be home-sick once more for quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream." 

"Why, sometimes I dream of the shell-fish of Marseilles, and wake up crying!" 

"he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes"

"Much of the book was about letting go of ambition and enjoying what was already there."
"It is a goodly life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are strong enough to lead it!" 

"I had everything I could want—everything I had any right to expect of life, and more"

What I didn't much care for was the aristocratic life of the Toad and his immature love of motorcars. I've seen enough love for motorcars in my life from those in my current culture, and find it all to be a bit silly. The story really shows you the English life, with commoners and aristocrats. Toad being of the latter variety. 

"You common, low, FAT barge-woman!' he shouted; 'don't you dare to talk to your betters like that! Washerwoman indeed! I would have you to know that I am a Toad, a very well-known, respected, distinguished Toad! I may be under a bit of a cloud at present, but I will NOT be laughed at by a bargewoman!"

"Stuff and nonsense!' said Toad, very angrily. 'What do you mean by talking like that to me? Come out of that at once"

The maturity of Toad and his friends that go the extra mile for him is endearing. But I would much rather read the intimate experiences of the Water Rat and his subtle joys of his life along the river.  

Frankenstein

What an interesting read! Nothing like I was expecting after watching parts of the movies.

What I liked about Frankenstein. Three things I thought were interesting:

1. Frankenstein's story was about virtue and vice. 
Have you ever heard that Frankenstein is about moral development? About virtue? Anyone, Beuler...Beuler...

Well it is!

Shelly takes us from Frankenstein's innocence after being created where he knew nothing of humanity into a world where Frankenstein learned about virtue and vice from a small family he observed while hiding from them, but still be able to observe them. Listening to their conversations, Frankenstein learned about vice and virtue:

"I learned to, from the views of social life which it developed, to admire their virtues, and to deprecate the vices of mankind."

"I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise within me, and abhorrence for vice."

"But I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse, which I detested, yet could not disobey." 

"Evil thence forth became my good." 

Much of the story is the personal struggle the monster had with his creator and which path, virtue or vice, the monster should take.

"My person was hideous, and my stature gigantic: what does this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I wasn't able to solve them."

He found himself in a world that he didn't understand, but over time, he learned about living a good life and living a bad one, but through his struggles to be good, he could never overcome being a monster, and people treated him as such, and so he wanted vengeance. He wanted vengeance upon his creator and humanity. And after killing several of Victor Frankenstein's family members, and making Victor follow him to the ends of the earth, he finally lamented his bad deeds after Victor died trying to kill the monster:

"When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue, the feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed, that I wish to be participated. But now, that virtue has become to me a shadow, and that happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair."

2. Frankenstein teaches us natural education (the natural state of humans beings before creating civilization)
The similarity of Frankenstein's experience to life is similar to our own. He awoke into his life, barely being able to experience the difference in forms with his own eyes. He learned about eating nuts and berries from the earth, about the warmth of fire and how it burns wood, which he learned to do, and he learned that sounds humans make correspond to natural things in his world, like the word fire for the light that comes when wood burns, the word rain for the drops of wet liquid that fall on his face, etc.

After this rudimentary education, he learned about virtue and vice, about history and the civilizations of man, and about human nature. Shelly takes the reader from the earliest memories of humanities own consciousness coming out of the wild forests and leads the reader up to the present time. Besides Robinson Crusoe, it's one of the best books on natural education I've read.

3. Avoid Blind Ambition 
Victor Frankenstein was a brilliant man that was obsessed with an idea of bringing dead things to life, or giving life to a dead thing, the monster. The life lesson of Victor Frankenstein is about not letting blind ambition ruin your life.

"If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for the simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, than that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind."

In the end, all of the people Victor cared about were killed by his own obsession, not actually, but causally via his monster that he created. On Frankenstein's deathbed, he said this:

"Seek happiness in tranquility, and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries."

It was a tremendous book. I was astounded to read the monster speak back to his creator, and to do so with such eloquence. I definitely recommend you read it, dear reader.

Literary Pattern - Transcendence

I'm starting to notice a pattern in the books I read. It's called the pattern of Transcendence. I just made that up.

The Literary Pattern of Transcendence:

1. The characters start out in a hard place, usually they're at the bottom of their respective place.
2. They rise up to get out of their place, but they are challenged and beaten back down.
3. Finally, after enduring hardship and learning of their place, and their inner strength, they overcome their place, their boss, their nemesis, their enemy, something that blocks them from ruling their place.
4. After finally getting to the top of their place, they then go beyond the bounds of that place, and they go from place leader to myth.
5. After becoming a myth, they later turn into a god.

I'll just put that there and then make a note of it whenever I read it.

Call of the Wild:
1. Buck, the dog, is taken from a good place to a bad place and is in the lowliest of spots.
2. But tries to rise up out of his place with his strength, but is literally beaten down by the man in the red sweater and by Spritz, the lead dog of the dog sled team.
3. Finally, after enduring much hardship and learning, he kills Spritz and takes his place as the lead dog of the dog sled.
4. After finally getting to the top of his place, he then, eventually, is leaves his place and finds himself in the wild, where he becomes a mythic creature that runs in the wild as an 'evil spirit,' which the Indians understand him to be.
5. He is now a myth to the Indians that turn tell his legend to all. And we read a book about his life journeys.

A Great Way to Get Into Literature

If you're looking to get into reading literature this year, then this might be a great way to go. Here's a good list of books that are under 200 pages. It's always a thrill to finish a book. It's almost like you're leveling up in a video game.

There's something to finishing a good book, somehow you're transported to the author's world, and you feel the same emotions and meanings the author creates. It's a great way to get outside of your own particular drama and see a bigger world.

 Here's the list of books under 200 pages: http://ebookfriendly.com/55-great-books-under-200-pages-infographic/

Here's the list:

1. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
   
2. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
4. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
7. Help Thanks Wow by Anne Lamott
8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (not the Complete Guide)
9. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
10. Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates
11. The Neon Bible by John Toole
12. Consider the Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher
13. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
14. Chronicle of Death Foretold by Gabriel Garciá Márquez
15. The Stranger by Albert Camus
16. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
17. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
18. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
19. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
20. Being There by Jerzy Kosinki
21. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
22. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
23. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
24. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
25. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan
26. Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
27. Black Orchids by Rex Stout
28. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
29. Animal Farm by George Orwell
30. The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
31. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
32. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
33. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
34. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
35. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garciá Márquez
36. Grendel by John Gardner
37. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
38. Flatland by Edwin Abbot
39. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
40. Shopgirl by Steve Martin
41. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
42. Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.
43. The Girl on the Fridge by Edgar Keret
44. Love is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald G. Jampolsky
45. I And Thou by Martin Buber
46. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
47. Pafko at the Wall by Don Delilo
48. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
49. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
50. At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom by Amy Hempel
51. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
52. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
53. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
54. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
55. Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates.

Review of St. Augustine's Confessions

St. Augustine in 400 AD

"All things looked gloomy, even the very light itself"

St. Augustine was around 46 years old when he wrote his Confessions. Augustine was a professor of Rhetoric at a public school in Carthage in the Roman Empire. He ended up teaching in Rome and Milan until his conversion to Christianity and the Catholic Church later in his life.

If there was a blogger that wrote a letter to God and posted his thoughts and confessed his inner most feelings with each blog post, you'd basically have a bastardized modern version of what Augustine wrote in his Confessions. His confessions were just that, him confessing to his Creator.

It's so refreshing to read about Jesus. All the modern education I received banned the reality and impact Jesus had on history and culture, and with it, the philosophical and cultural past of our own Western heritage has been verboten.

What I liked about the book:
Augustine wrote some of the deepest and most honest questions I've ever read, and some of the most relative to my own life. He was concerned with which path to follow in life, and wanted to know if he was on the right one.

These were some of my favorite questions of his:

"Where do you go along these rugged paths? Where are you going?"

"I was sinking down to the very depths. And I said to my friends: "Do we love anything but the beautiful? What then is the beautiful? And what is beauty?" 

"I will set my feet upon that step where, as a child, my parents placed me, until the clear truth is discovered. But where and when shall it be sought? Ambrose has no leisure – we have no leisure to read. Where are we to find the books? How or where can I get a hold of them? From whom could I borrow them? Let me set a schedule for my days and set apart certain hours for the health of the soul."

That line really got to me, "we have no leisure to read,"  which is one of the struggles I deal with myself. But Augustine knew that in reading you can find health for the soul.

Part of me had given up on the idea that there was truth in life, and to a certain extent, I don't think there is any 'truth,' just perspectives. But I still look for wisdom. I still try to find the right answers to some of the same questions that Augustine he himself struggled with nearly 400 years after Christ was born.

I don't have very many answers.

But in reading literature, I have gained many different perspectives, which have given me a much broader understanding of my own place and time in this world. I appreciated his honesty. I appreciated his questioning and his openness. He was a very real human being that cared for these grand ideals, which is quite a refreshing contrast to the nihilism in modern books, i.e., On The Road by Jack Kerouac. 

It wasn't a fun read. Much of the book is about the nuances in christian doctrine and the nature of God. While I do, to an extent, find that interesting at times, it's really not my cup of tea. But I did enjoy Augustine's humanity. I would recommend you read it, too, at least some of of the parts where he was talking about his own personal experiences.

This was probably the most powerful quote from the book that I read:

"Men go forth to marvel at the heights of mountains and the huge waves of the sea, the broad flow of the rivers, the vastness of the ocean, the orbit of the stars, and yet they neglect to marvel at themselves."

When Francesco Petrarch, the father of Humanism, climbed the famous Mt. Ventoux in France, he had this very book in his pocket. As he reached the summit, he read that quote.

I find it an amazing reality that I can read this same quote and experience a somewhat similar understanding and awe that Petrarch had at the top of that mountain in France. I think that's what reading can do for you, share a soulful insight about life with fellow travelers across distant land and times. In the word we are connected to each other. Right? Isn't that what you are doing now reading this blog post? Are we not sharing a mind?

Good night.