Meadow337
Former Moderator
I agree! To all points.
Maybe we three (or more hopefully) need to get the ball rolling.
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Transcendent Reads - your thoughts and lists
- Thread starter Meadow337
- Start date
I agree! To all points.
Maybe we three (or more hopefully) need to get the ball rolling.
Meadow337
Former Moderator
Oh HOW could I forget "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry! I read that before I even left the library and half a dozen times more before I returned it.
And "Jonathon Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach. I discovered Jonathon Livingston Seagull and The Beatles at the same time while house sitting for a friend of my mother. I read it in one night while listening to The Beatles.
There are some truths in Jonathon Livingston Seagull that it has taken me years to appreciate just how fully true they are. For example:
(* insert mine)
And "Jonathon Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach. I discovered Jonathon Livingston Seagull and The Beatles at the same time while house sitting for a friend of my mother. I read it in one night while listening to The Beatles.
There are some truths in Jonathon Livingston Seagull that it has taken me years to appreciate just how fully true they are. For example:
Sparhawk
Active Member
oh well lots has happened since last I was online. Comments about descriptions in books sparked a memory of a very beautiful description I read once, but I can't remember which book or what it was about 
the two important things! actually the whole entire book was beautiful, but I can't remember what it was. I remember I really loved that book but ....... it left a feeling behind. no facts but a feeling.
There was some guy standing on top of something looking at something and it was describing what he was looking at. That's all I can remember.
the two important things! actually the whole entire book was beautiful, but I can't remember what it was. I remember I really loved that book but ....... it left a feeling behind. no facts but a feeling.There was some guy standing on top of something looking at something and it was describing what he was looking at. That's all I can remember.
Peder
Well-Known Member
Maybe it is a law of nature, but no list of mine seems to be complete until after an afterthought, or two. In any event, here is one more book I would list:
The House at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham.
It is a wonderful story about love, of course, and a story line quite different from any I have read, plus an absolutely beautiful scene of transcendent love toward the end. It may clutch your heart as it did mine.
The House at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham.
It is a wonderful story about love, of course, and a story line quite different from any I have read, plus an absolutely beautiful scene of transcendent love toward the end. It may clutch your heart as it did mine.
Bluenote
Member
Is not the concept of a " transcendent book" rather dependent upon the given readers mindset and mood at the time of reading? Along with of course the readers particular taste in literature?
Does it evoke emotion , be they ugly and irrational fears ( I walked a wide path around storm drains for a while after reading King's It...for example) or simply musing on the state of society ( Skinner's Walden Two) does it take you " back home again" through the auspices of rich prose and descriptives ( ala James Lee Burke).
Can the term even be accurately defined beyond an individual basis.......
Does it evoke emotion , be they ugly and irrational fears ( I walked a wide path around storm drains for a while after reading King's It...for example) or simply musing on the state of society ( Skinner's Walden Two) does it take you " back home again" through the auspices of rich prose and descriptives ( ala James Lee Burke).
Can the term even be accurately defined beyond an individual basis.......
Sparhawk
Active Member
I think that a transcendent book is whatever kind of book that you want it to be. Be it a horror story that makes you run out if your house yelling "the monsters are coming!", or a book that is so funny that you laugh until you cry, it is up to you.
For me a transcendent book, is a book that is ..(thinking).. Zen. And I can't even tell you in a clear way what Zen is, but I know it when I see it lol.
For me a transcendent book, is a book that is ..(thinking).. Zen. And I can't even tell you in a clear way what Zen is, but I know it when I see it lol.
Meadow337
Former Moderator
No I don't think it can be defined beyond what you think it is, and certainly each person experiences a book on entirely a personal level. 'One man's meat is another man's poison', but this is what makes life and discussion of these things interesting.
Doesn't it?
What is your list?
PS I still avoid drains and don't step on cracks for fear the bears will get me
SFG75
Well-Known Member
Yeah, but when someone posts about that one book you know of, it gives a good rush.
Meadow337
Former Moderator
It is always good when some one else has a similar experience to you about something - whether it be a book or a movie or favourite walk - the shared experience is affirmative and bonding, but it is also good when people have a different experience because that brings a different insight, a different point of view and a new way of looking at it. It is even possible for that experience to change your negative view into a positive one, or perhaps just a more neutral one or it could change your positive view into a negative one because you just didn't see objectionable content in it previously.
This is why discussion of all kinds is interesting.
Roxbrough
Member
Interesting indeed. I personally read for entertainment and relaxation. Surely trying several times to read a book is the very antithesis of this?
Meadow337
Former Moderator
I have enjoyed many of his other books so I decided to give it a fair try because sometimes if you aren't in the right mood for a book, coming back to it at a later date changes your perception of it.
Roxbrough
Member
I have never done that, interesting notion though.
Roxbrough
Member
I have found the site helpful, in that I now know some titles to avoid. I think dissimilar tastes is actually more helpful than conversing with those who all like the same thing.
SFG75
Well-Known Member
I think that a transcendent book is whatever kind of book that you want it to be. Be it a horror story that makes you run out if your house yelling "the monsters are coming!", or a book that is so funny that you laugh until you cry, it is up to you.
For me a transcendent book, is a book that is ..(thinking).. Zen. And I can't even tell you in a clear way what Zen is, but I know it when I see it lol.
Excellent post, I agree entirely. Oliver Wendell Holmes appreciates the last sentence too, I'm sure.
753C
Active Member
Here's a start....
The Bible
To put it succinctly, no other book has had such a profound effect on the way I live and behave. Not that I am a perfect Christian (no such thing), but I frame everything I do for better or worse within the concepts and teachings of this book.
The Hobbit & The Lord Of The Rings – JRR Tolkien
Outside of Bible stories, this was the first truly epic adventure story I ever heard. It seems exposure as a child goes along way towards framing people's opinions of this story, but for me it will remain one of the greatest fictional tales ever told.
All The Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
The landscape, characters, dialogue, prose. McCarthy is masterful.
The Heart of The Matter – Graham Greene
A richly and beautifully told morality play. One of the first stories I read cast in a British Colonial landscape. These settings have been a draw for me ever since.
Independence Day – Richard Ford
Ford's Bascombe trilogy, is, in my opinion the greatest work by any living American author that I have read. I have never read of a more richly drawn and complex character than Frank Bascombe.
James Lee Burke – Four way toss-up between Heavens Prisoners, Burning Angel, Dixie City Jam, and Crusaders Cross.
Burke is simply the best there is in this genre. And he writes some of the best prose from any genre.
The Piano Tuner – Daniel Mason
In 1886 a humble London piano tuner accepts a commission from the department of war to travel through British India to Burma to repair a rare piano owned by a mysterious surgeon-major who is somehow using the piano to further the expansion of the British Empire. Absolutely mesmerizing prose that paints all the beautiful little scenes and interactions with magic and mystery.
Pet Cemetary – Stephen King
Transcendent because it scared the &%*# out of me when I was thirteen.
Man Child In The Promised Land – Claude Brown
The grittiest, most realistic, and most honest piece of writing I've ever read about growing up black in the Ghetto. Sad, exciting, funny, provocative, hopeful. I think it would be difficult for anyone to read it and not be changed.
Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
Stayed with me for a looong time after I finished it. The stream of consciousness of young Iraq war combat vet Billy Flynn is hilarious, profound, indicting, forgiving, terrified, and brave all at once.
The Things They Carried – Tim O'Brien
Wrenching, beautifully told stories from the Vietnam war. Everyone should read it.
The Bible
To put it succinctly, no other book has had such a profound effect on the way I live and behave. Not that I am a perfect Christian (no such thing), but I frame everything I do for better or worse within the concepts and teachings of this book.
The Hobbit & The Lord Of The Rings – JRR Tolkien
Outside of Bible stories, this was the first truly epic adventure story I ever heard. It seems exposure as a child goes along way towards framing people's opinions of this story, but for me it will remain one of the greatest fictional tales ever told.
All The Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
The landscape, characters, dialogue, prose. McCarthy is masterful.
The Heart of The Matter – Graham Greene
A richly and beautifully told morality play. One of the first stories I read cast in a British Colonial landscape. These settings have been a draw for me ever since.
Independence Day – Richard Ford
Ford's Bascombe trilogy, is, in my opinion the greatest work by any living American author that I have read. I have never read of a more richly drawn and complex character than Frank Bascombe.
James Lee Burke – Four way toss-up between Heavens Prisoners, Burning Angel, Dixie City Jam, and Crusaders Cross.
Burke is simply the best there is in this genre. And he writes some of the best prose from any genre.
The Piano Tuner – Daniel Mason
In 1886 a humble London piano tuner accepts a commission from the department of war to travel through British India to Burma to repair a rare piano owned by a mysterious surgeon-major who is somehow using the piano to further the expansion of the British Empire. Absolutely mesmerizing prose that paints all the beautiful little scenes and interactions with magic and mystery.
Pet Cemetary – Stephen King
Transcendent because it scared the &%*# out of me when I was thirteen.
Man Child In The Promised Land – Claude Brown
The grittiest, most realistic, and most honest piece of writing I've ever read about growing up black in the Ghetto. Sad, exciting, funny, provocative, hopeful. I think it would be difficult for anyone to read it and not be changed.
Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
Stayed with me for a looong time after I finished it. The stream of consciousness of young Iraq war combat vet Billy Flynn is hilarious, profound, indicting, forgiving, terrified, and brave all at once.
The Things They Carried – Tim O'Brien
Wrenching, beautifully told stories from the Vietnam war. Everyone should read it.