BeaconRay's Books Great Literature Shelf

This immortal novel of the sea is the story of a British sailor haunted by a singe youthful act of cowardly betrayal. In it you'll find all the elements of a Great Book-- the yearning of a man to find the Truth, and to face Reality, whatever the consequences may be.

"The air was full of flying water. There was a fierce purpose in the gale, a furious eanestness in the screech of the wind, in the brutal tumult of earth and sky that seemed directed at him, and made him hold his breath in awe. He stood still. It seemed to him he was whirled around. . . He confronted savages on tropical shores, quelled mutinies on the high seas, and in a small boat upon the ocean kept up the hearts of despairing men-- always an example of devotion to duty, and as unflinching as a hero in a book."--Lord Jim

"And as I sat there, brooding on the old unkown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under night. . . Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. . . It eluded us then, but that is no matter-- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past." --from The Great Gatsby

As relevant today as when it was first published, Catch--22 stands as the classic anti big-bureaucracy novel of our time. Heller's modern masterpiece expresses the concerns of an entire generation in its black comedy. . .and "catch--22" has stepped into our language to signify all the absurdities one encounters from time to time in this paradox called life. It's one of my favorite books. I've read it four times, not including the countless times I've picked it up and read random chapters. Yossarian is "one of us." He's an honest man, attempting to serve his country and defeat fascism, and lurking around every corner is somebody who wants him dead.

"Why'd you steal it from Coloneol Cathcart if you didn't want it?"
"I didn't steal it from Coloneol Cathcart!"
"Then why are you so guilty, if you didn't steal it?"
"I'm not guilty!"
"Then why would we be questioning you if you weren't guilty?"

No American masterpiece casts quite as awesome a shadow as Melville's monumental Moby-Dick. Captain Ahab's quest for the White Whale is a timeless epic-- a stirring tragedy of vengance and obsession, a searing parable about humanity lost in a universe of moral ambiguity. Ahab seeks his diginity in this malicious context, and thus he is the noble madman, as portentous as Hamlet and Socrates in their eternal contemplations of justice. But again, this is one more Great Book which pays homage to man's quest for the Truth.

" Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all."--Moby Dick

"Know ye...that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast us on the treacherous, slavish shore? But as in lanlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God-- so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety!"-- Moby Dick

Here's yet another classic book characterizing the inherent evils of big bureaucracy. In the novel, what starts out as a completely idealistic declaration, "All animals are Created Equal," is soon amended to, "Some animals are more equal than others." Upon having completed this book you will find yourself fond of term-limits, and your respect for the intellect of the authors of The Declaration of Independence, and the framers of the Constitution will have augmented.

Big Brother's watching you. This novel depicts what life would be like if it weren't for the triumph of freedom over communism brought about by America's superior development of science and technology during the cold war. Thanks Ron and thanks Science.

This classic is the story of an intransigent young architect who must create the way he is commanded to by his internal aesthetic sense. He cannot be taught architecture. Howard Roark gladly flunks out of school, for he already knows his soul to be the fountain of the true beauty which schools are founded to teach. But within him it is the living Truth, and thus it seeks beyond what is known in the text-books. Once again this Great Book portrays the struggle of the young artist and independent thinker against the oppressive, inhumane, stultifying bureaucracies of mediocrity. An anthem to the freedom upon which this nation was founded, the novel follows Roark as his imperishable faith in his abilities leads him over conventional socsiety's obstacles, and he realizes his artistic vision. This novel gave rise to Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophy which is rooted in the free-market economy and critical of any bureaucracy which would hamper the freedom of the moral individual to aspire to create Greatness-- Objectivism.

In the forward to the Novel, Rand quotes Nietzsche: "It is not the works, but the belief which is here decisive and determines the order of rank-- to employ once more an old religious formula to a new and deeper meaning, --it is some fundamental certainty which a noble soul has about itself, something which is not to be sought, is not to be found, perhaps also, is not to be lost.-- The noble soul has a reverence for itself.--" (Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evile)

Here's an awesome book which many of my peers deem as their "favorite." This book was written in an era just before music and videos became the dominant medium of the "youthful" voice. Words still meant things, and Salinger labored for ten years on this short novel to ensure that each word would further the work of art, and none would hinder it. Salinger's plain white books have no blurbs on the back covers, and they kind of look like tombstones, but they are the reference point that all this new fluff "generation-x" literature gets compared to when editors try to sell their mediocre neon-covered products which look more like boxes of Tide than books. But Salinger's stoic classic enjoys a silent laugh, for a book is not to be judged by its cover. Salinger once said, "My books need no critics-- they criticize themselves." With a humble nod of respect to the master, we shall say no more about his books, except that they are every bit as awesome as people have told you they are.

"It is the mark of an immature man to die nobly for a cause, and it is the mark of a mature man to live humbly for one."--The Catcher in the Rye

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Here is a light-hearted excursion into boyhood, a notalgic return to the simple, rural Missouri world of Tom Sawyer, his Aunt Polly, and his friends Huck Finn and Beckey. It is a dreamlike world of summertime and hooky, pranks and punishments. The romantic adventure culminates with Tom and Beckey's finding a treasure in a cave, only to realize that they themselves are lost within it, along with a murderer. For adults it recreates the vanished dreams of youth. For younger readers the moral tale unveils the boundaries of horizons yet to come. And for everyone, it reveals the heart and mind of one of America's greatest authors.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Referring to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, H.L. Mencken noted that the discovery of this classic American novel was "the most stupendous event of my whole life"; Ernest Hemingway declared that, "all modern American Literature stems from this one book." T.S. Eliot called Huck "one of the permanent symbolic figures of fiction, not unworthy to take a place with Ulysses, Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Hamlet . . . ." It's a cool book. If you miss those care-free summers that you thought would never end, check it out. This powerful masterpiece will transport your soul right on back.