The books that made me, well, me

I had such fun with yesterday's post that I thought I'd take a stab at listing the books that have shaped my life, for better or worse. I've tried to put these in the chronological order in which I read them, with a one sentence explanation of why the book has stayed with me.

There's no way I could put a limit on this list. Like the albums, I'm sure I'll soon think of 50 other titles I could name. But, let's have some fun, OK?

As is quoted in the Jefferson/Adams letters, "I cannot imagine a life without books." And, yes, I'd love to spend a week in the library at Biltmore Estate with no tourists and a big stack of books.

The books: 

"Danny and the Dinosaur" Syd Hoff -- Learned how to read it before kindergarten.

"While The Clock Ticked" Franklin W. Dixon -- The one that ignited the inferno.

"Where The Red Fern Grows" Wilson Rawls -- Joyce Hill's fourth-grade class, Brickey School, 1987. Read it twice.

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" Arthur Conan Doyle -- So darn fun, plus I was (am) envious of Sherlock's brain.

"That's Not All, Folks" Mel Blanc -- This book began my love affair with vocal impersonations, old-time radio and Jack Benny.

"Curtain" Agatha Christie -- Hercule Poirot's swan song. Sigh.

"The Moon Is Always Full" David Hunter -- True crime tales from a friend and mentor set in my neck of the woods.

"The Bible" -- It's history, literature, spiritual study, puzzling, promising, and pure poetry in parts.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" Harper Lee -- Read it before I was assigned it; the book made me a better person.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" Ian Fleming -- The best 007 novel

"A Tale of Two Cities" Charles Dickens -- Sydney Carton's sacrifice is the truest form of love.

"The Great Gatsby" F. Scott Fitzgerald -- I've been gazing at blinking green lights for years.

"Education of a Wandering Man" Louis L'Amour -- Daytona Beach, 1996. Knew I wanted to roam the world and become a writer.

"Nixon" (three volumes) Stephen Ambrose -- Summer 1996. Convinced me to major in history at UT.

"Lincoln" David Herbert Donald -- Life-changing look at our best president.

"A Life on the Road" Charles Kuralt -- July 4, 1997, Jackson, Wyo. Wanderlust. Wishes. Wonderful.

"Anna Karenina" Leo Tolstoy -- Terrible. Tragic. Terrific (in both senses).

"American Scripture" Pauline Maier -- Rekindled my love for the Declaration of Independence

"Lee: The Last Years" Charles B. Flood -- Cut through the crap to the power of reconciliation.

"Lonesome Dove" Larry McMurtry -- Read a 1,000-page novel in two days. Those cowboys became real, flesh-and-blood characters. I think of them often.

"Shoeless Joe" W.P. Kinsella -- I'm a shameless romantic about baseball. Beautiful book (and hook).

"It Wasn't All Velvet" Mel Torme -- One of the best memoirs I've ever read by an underrated citizen of jazz.

"My Antonia" Willa Cather -- Grabbed me in a way I can't quite explain.

"The Sun Also Rises" Ernest Hemingway -- Memorial Day 1999, my Dad's cabin. Thus it began...

"A Farewell To Arms" Ernest Hemingway -- St. George Island, 2000. Brilliant. Beautiful.

"Julius Caesar" William Shakespeare -- The Bard's bait that hooked this fish forever.

"A Drinking Life" Pete Hamill -- Not a wasted word can be found in this textbook study on how to write a memoir.

"Joe DiMaggio" Richard Ben Cramer -- Graceful, classy, just like its subject

"The Old Man and the Sea" Ernest Hemingway -- Read it in one night. I still struggle with that marlin.

"The Catcher in the Rye" J.D. Salinger -- One big "stuff it" to the Establishment.

"Theodore Rex" Edmund Morris -- Trust-bustin' Teddy Roosevelt in his prime.

"The Last Picture Show" Larry McMurtry -- Hopped in the car on my own journey to find McMurtry after reading the book that saved me from the worst brawl I've ever had with the Black Dog. All I found was his bookstore and the Dairy Queen, but had a heck of a fun road trip.

"The Lords of Discipline" Pat Conroy -- Those broken sand dollars still haunt my dreams.

"Killings" Calvin Trillin -- Among other stories, one filed from Halls Crossroads, set in March 1977. Stunning, sad, shocking, superbly written.

"Amazing Grace" Robert Drake -- No Good Friday passes without me thinking of this true Southern gentleman and the finality of his father's passing.

"Careless Love" Peter Guralnick -- The best book ever written about Elvis (along with its prequel).

"Centennial" James Michener -- Rocky Mountain High, baby.

"The Last Lion: Alone" William Manchester -- Churchill's most fascinating period.

"Sinatra: The Song Is You" Will Friedwald -- A superb study by a marvelous musicologist.

"Master of the Senate" Robert Caro -- History of the U.S. Senate and its best Majority Leader.

"In Cold Blood" Truman Capote -- Haunted me, showed me how a "nonfiction novel" works. 

"Love, Me" Garrison Keillor -- My dream come true: Best-seller, The New Yorker, William Shawn

"The Things They Carried" Tim O'Brien -- Vietnam tales that haunted my dreams

"At Random" Bennett Cerf -- Cerf's is the life I wish I had lived (other than my own).

"Swimming in Sky" Inman Majors -- He calls Knoxville "paved hell." Yet he loves it. Great debut.

"Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming" Rheta Grimsley Johnson -- This cemented my love for a writer I am proud to call a friend. Hell of a read, too.

"Cosmos" Carl Sagan -- Puts one's place in the universe into perspective.

"Maine" J. Courtney Sullivan -- The best novel I read in 2011.

"The Descendants" Kaui Hart Hemmings -- Heard about it in Hawaii before the movie. Marvelous!

"Death of a President" William Manchester -- This is how one writes a historical narrative.

"Life Itself" Roger Ebert -- A heartfelt final curtain to America's best film critic.

"Cronkite" Douglas Brinkley -- Cronkite was the best news anchor. Period. "And that's the way it is..."

"All In Good Time" Jonathan Schwartz -- Charming, troubling, moving memoir by my favorite radio personality.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" Arthur C. Clarke -- I will never look at the world in the same away again.

The journey continues...

'The bookstore that changed my life'

Fellow bibliophiles:

Please don't miss this touching tale by Salt Lake City librarian and author Josh Hanagarne.

Based on this piece alone, I'm going to read his new book, "The World's Strongest Librarian," which is scheduled to be published this week.

Wow. What a story.

I signed my first book contract today....

...more to come...stay tuned...

Ooh, wee! Still can't believe it.

I put a little Buck Owens on the turntable tonight, got the Red Sox/Tigers on the tube, and am eased back in my "Archie Bunker" chair.

Life is good, y'all. Life is good.

Sue me, I'm a bibliophile

I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them - with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself. - Eudora Welty

Call it an illness. Maybe it is an addiction.

OK, I'll 'fess up. I love books.

Take this past week alone. I'm already juggling Bruce Catton's centennial history of the Civil War, John Laurence's Vietnam volume, "The Cat from Hue," and Douglas Brinkley's book on John Kerry's "Tour of Duty" in that crazy Asian war.

Sitting on the corner of my coffee table is another 'Nam story, "...And A Hard Rain Fell." On the book case is colleague Joe Rector's debut novel, "Baseball Boys."

Somewhere I spot a reference to a Civil War story I wanted to read last year, "Walking to Gatlinburg." So, I surf over to the library's web site. Three days later, I'm picking it up at the Halls branch.

Wednesday night, Mom and I stopped at the Books-A-Million in Oak Ridge. I found a Lincoln book for five bucks and the one Larry McMurtry I didn't own for three. Out front, we stop to skim the bargain bins. And, yeah, I come away with a coming-of-age novel centered around baseball and Bob Schieffer's collection of his commentaries. Hey, they were only a buck apiece.

Yesterday afternoon, Dean Harned and I bounced over to Barnes and Noble before taking in Robert Redford's excellent new flick, "The Conspirator." I found "Breakfast at Tiffany's," which I'd wanted Wednesday, and another Lincoln book in the bargain bin. Oh, I also threw in a magazine about a 77-day stand at Khe Sanh.

Last night I surprised my fiancee with a sick gift. Yes, that meant a return trip to Barnes and Noble. No, I didn't buy anything else. Just wait, though. It gets better.

Jenn has an appointment. I have time to kill. So, I bounce over to, you guessed it, Books-A-Million.

"Be good," I tell myself. "Just browse."

But I spot a History Channel documentary on Lincoln in the bargain bin. Four bucks. Then my eye wanders over to a paperback I'd seen the other night, "How to Read Literature Like A Professor." $13.99. What the heck.

Almost forgot to tell you. Already sitting in my pile is a Pete Hamill, a book on Ike as in Eisenhower, two more Lincolns, a study on the war in Afghanistan and "1861." Oh, yeah, and Dean brought by a book he'd ordered for me on Thomas Jefferson's travels to wineries, a presidential "Sideways," if you please.

Call it what you will. Knowledge is a good addiction.

Ready to read

And so the rains have arrived on Rocky Top.

The meteorologists are now saying we might get lucky, that this sudden squall has weakened, might save us from the Category 3-like pressure that shocked the Midwest earlier this afternoon. What a strange day. We set a record here -- mid-80s in late October. Crazy.

I am hunkered down at the house, tired of the television, ready to read.

For some reason, I can't get Pat Conroy out of my mind. Maybe it is because I finally got around to reading "Beach Music" when we were in Florida back in September. Maybe it's because he is releasing a new book, "My Reading Life," next week. Maybe it's for no reason at all.

I keep vowing that I'm going to give up Conroy. He keeps writing the same book. He's too wordy. His books are like mini mental breakdowns, full of pain and passion and misery and mysticism.

But, heck. He's such a good wordsmith. And he tells a good tale.

I think I'm going to like this next one. It's a memoir, about the writers and the writing that shaped his life. One can relate. Don't know where I'd be without Hemingway, Hamill and the Hardy Boys.

I've told you before how much it bothers me that people don't read books anymore. It scares me for one thing. Occupational hazards and all that. But it also makes me wonder what kind of society we've become.

Plus it's so much fun.

Maybe I will venture into the Spanish Civil War later tonight with Papa Hemingway's Robert Jordan. Maybe I will "Look Homeward, Angel" with Thomas Wolfe. Or maybe I'll find myself walking once again along the Carolina coast with Conroy.

Whatever I choose, the journey will be mine, singular, solitary, satisfying.

Such is the pleasure of a good book on a rainy Tuesday night.