The awesome task of the "must-read" list

by Dana

A few years ago, I was given a daunting task: I had to pick out five science fiction books to give to someone who was interested in, but had never read, SF.  I was reminded of this just recently because Boskone is just  around the corner.  Also, David Brin recently printed his list of lists of must-read SF books. It's the kind of stuff late night convention-bar conversations and arguments are made of—it's hard to get definitive on a subject like that.

I eventually sent my friend a list of ten books, but gave her five of them to get started. I cannot for the life of me find that list (argh!), but I probably included: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (good intro to the role of technology and juvie fiction), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (hysterically funny and manages to make amazingly complex scientific and social ideas accessible--and if you've read my blogs, you probably already know I'd give it for every occasion, if allowed), Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (a future with no books?!), The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin (a little dystopia and a lot of what-if?), something (probably Burning Chrome) by William Gibson (gotta talk about cyberpunk). I might have thrown in Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age, because I think for all its flaws, it's awesome, and some times you just need the awesome to get someone excited about a genre.

Although I can't find that list (argh!), I know I spent a lot of nights pondering it.  Do I add in H.G. Wells?  What about Asimov, of whom I'm not a huge fan, but who is so very important? Frankenstein counts, but does Dracula—why or why not? And somewhere in the discussion has to come Fantasy and Urban Fantasy—but where? It's not SF, but has an awful lot of similarities and connections...

Doing a top-ten personal list is hard enough, but doing a top-ten “must-read list” one for someone else?  Well, that's a lot of pressure. You're standing up for a whole genre.

All this inevitably led me to think about mysteries.  Someone you know doesn't read mysteries, and wants you to give them a list. Do you tackle it historically, from the Golden Age to last week's announced Edgar nominees? Do you freight it toward things the reader may like, hoping you'll sink the hook? Do you focus on critical and popular acclaim, so she'll have a working vocabulary at cocktail parties?

My first inclination is to write a series of lectures on the subject to get my head around the subject, which is, of course, why I'm no longer invited to parties.  But even if I keep the lectures in my head (“Origins of Crime Fiction,” “The Golden Age of Mysteries,” “Pulp and Noir,” “Genre Fiction as a Reflection of Society,” “Women and Mystery,” “Batman vs. Sherlock Holmes”), pare down the reading list to under a hundred books and strip out all the commentary, it would still be a tough task. I might do it in ten books, but I'm not sure I'd ever be happy with it. I could do five or ten lists of five books, maybe.

So now, I'm thinking about how I'd set about beguiling that would-be mystery reader.  The lists I'm starting with?  The History of Mystery, The Golden Age, Hard Boiled and Pulp, Comfort Reads, Tough Detectives/Awesome Villains, and Other Stuff That Isn't Easily Categorized But You Should Read Because I Said So.

Gentle Readers: pick a category (or make up your own) and give me five names of books you'd use to woo the non-mystery reader. Go!

Comments

[Kelly Saderholm]

Hey! I posted earlier and its gone. :(

Anyway I love this post and am spending some time thinking about the different lists- love that last category of "Read this 'cause I said so!"

A great starter list would be to read any one book from each of the ladies on this blog.

[Donna Andrews]

Working on my list, Dana. But did I ever mention how I HATE boiling the whole of a genre down to a tiny little list?

I'm working on the classics. Christie's Murder on the Orient Express? Death on the Nile? Or The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? Or one of the Marple books? Sayers--Murder Must Advertise or Gaudy Night? The Maltese Falcon for Hammett, I think, and Chandler's The Big Sleep. Mustn't forget R. Austin Freeman--perhaps The Red Thumb Mark? Poe's Murder in the Rue Morgue. I'd go for the collected Sherlock Holmes. And Collins's The Moonstone. And Poe's Murder in the Rue Morgue. And...

Damn, I think I've already outlined a couple of months of reading.

[Dana]

Thanks for persisting, Kelly! And--thanks! Yes, the Femmes' books definitely fit under many of those headings, and I think "because I said/because it's cool!" has to be there, because that's how the enthusiasm starts.

Donna, it's a wonderful, EXCRUCIATING puzzle, and one I've always tried to avoid. But since we all end up being a personal reference for a lot of folks, it's a useful exercise. And it does send one scurrying back to the library!

[Donna Andrews]

And why does it always send us scurrying to the library when we ought to be scurrying to the computer to work on our own books???

[Dana]

Quite rightly observed, Donna! I can only imagine it's the reason we got into writing in the first place: reading!

[krisneri]

I wouldn't try to come up with a list of what I considered the best to try to woo a reader of another form, I would look at what the person reads now, and find something somewhat compatible with it in the genre I wanted her to consider. If she reads literary, for instance, I would show her a good literary mystery, rather than a more category one, even if I considered the latter a more outstanding choice. I've learned as a bookseller that if someone doesn't read genre novels, what I consider great usually leaves them cold.

[Mary]

This is harder than I thought. :)

History Mysteries:
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
CJ Sansom's series
The Black Tower by Louis Bayard

Comfort Reads:
Louise Penny
Jacqueline Winspear

Uncategorize-able:
Colin Cotterill's two series

Golden Age:
Josephine Tey
Edmund Crispin

Hardboiled and Pulp:
Ken Bruen

Funny Brits:
Liz Evans' PI series
Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfigliolo

Just Plain Brilliant:
Bucket Nut by Liza Cody
Pictures of Perfection by Reginald Hill, and most everything else he wrote

[Dana]

You're right, Kris--it's one thing to get someone hooked, and quite another to introduce a genre via a lecture!

It is hard, isn't it, Mary, but what a list you have!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Cannnnot compete with MAry;s list: but how about LIfe-cahnging books?

The Once and Future King
by TH White
Winters Tale by Mark Helprin
Look Homeward Angel by Thomas WOlfe
Bonfire ofthe Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (or maybe House of Mirth)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Hmmm...?

[Dana]

Oooh, I like that list, Hank! The T.H. White would be on my list, and Edith Wharton damn near the top! "Hamlet" or "The Merchant of Venice." The BONE PEOPLE, by Keri Hulme. BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, by DL Sayers. Hmmm...