Fifteen Books in Fifteen Minutes

One of those Facebook memes, which I can usually ignore but which sometimes have an irresistible hook in them. I now inflict it on those who read here, with minor alterations. The idea was that one would try to come up with 15 books that have "stayed with" you, but to not take longer than 15 minutes to come up with titles.

1. The Bible (Rather expected, I believe)

2. Taming a Sea-Horse, Robert B. Parker (The first book by Parker that I ever bought, I think. Picked up at Crown Books in Evanston, IL which is probably no longer there. The bookstore, I mean. Parker when he was on top of his form; he'd refined his style into its lean, muscular best but had yet to begin the recycling that weighs down most of his current work.)

3. The Stand, Stephen King (The earlier, edited and much better version. What a storyteller King was when he was good)

4. In Country, Bobbie Ann Mason (Every time I read this I discover another layer. It's sometimes lumped in with Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero and Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, also novels about young folks trying to find their way in 1980s America that were published at about the same time. Vastly superior to Ellis's unfocused blathering and McInerney's affected second-person weirdness)

5. Nine Days Queen, Mary Luke (Fictionalized bio of Lady Jane Grey, executed at 16 after her parents tried to set her up as queen of England in place of Henry VIII's daughter Mary. Strict biography readers balk at the way Luke theorizes inner dialogues and thoughts in people's heads, but it's a chilling true story about a young woman sacrificed at the altar of many others' ambitions)

6. Parliament of Whores, P.J. O'Rourke (Answers the question: What would "The Federalist Papers" have been like if the authors had been loopy Irish-American humorists. The title has a double-meaning. Maybe our legislators are indeed "whores," people who sell favors for money. But are we voters who put people in office based on how many goodies they promise us any different?)

7. Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian (Stands in for the whole 20-book Aubrey-Maturin series)

8. Why Time Begins on Opening Day, Thomas Boswell (Although this collection of columns concerns ballplayers and teams that haven't played in more than 30 years, Boswell's discussion offers a convincing explanation of why time does exactly that)

9. I Was Right on Time, Buck O'Neil (A man of spirit, grace and wisdom tells his story. That he is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame makes the place's name less than meaningless)

10. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien (The standard which so many have failed -- and continue to fail -- so emphatically to meet)

11. A Wrinkle in Time, Madelaine L'Engle (Simple enough for kids, but great for adults)

12. A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs (Purple prose from a bygone day, one-dimensional characters and a predictable story; would have been an "airport read" if there had been airports in 1917. And it will keep kicking Dan Brown's ass every day until the heat-death end of the universe)

13. One More Time, Mike Royko (Stands in for all his books and columns)

14. The Real Jesus, Luke T. Johnson (Simple, masterful dissection of 95% of the kind of silly Jesus scholarship that Newsweek likes to write about every Easter)

15. Jesus: God and Man, Wolfhart Pannenberg (A theologian who takes history seriously, takes his faith seriously and takes science seriously. You may disagree with him if you work your way through this, but you'll have better reasons for believing what you do after you've sharpened them defending against Pannenberg's arguments)