The Road Less Traveled

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes about “Connectors,” people who are responsible for spreading “social epidemics” to others.  He has a test in the book that lists 250 surnames taken at random from the Manhattan phone book.  The task is to go down the list and give yourself a point every time you see a surname that is shared by someone you know.  Here is the list:

Algazi, Alvarez, Alpern, Ametrano, Andrews, Aran, Arnstein, Ashford, Bailey Ballout, Bamberger, Baptista, Barr, Barrows, Baskerville, Bassiri, Bell, Bokgese, Brandao, Bravo, Brooke, Brightman, Billy, Blau, Bohen, Bohn, Borsuk, Brendle, Butler, Calle, Cantwell, Carrell, Chinlund, Cirker, Cohen, Collas, Couch, Callegher, Calcaterra, Cook, Carey, Cassell, Chen, Chung, Clarke, Cohn, Carton, Crowley, Curbelo, Dellamanna, Diaz, Dirar, Duncan, Dagostino, Delakas, Dillon, Donaghey, Daly, Dawson, Edery, Ellis, Elliott, Eastman, Easton, Famous, Fermin, Fialco, Finklestein, Farber, Falkin, Feinman, Friedman, Gardner, Gelpi, Glascock, Grandfield, Greenbaum Greenwood, Gruber, Garil, Goff, Gladwell, Greenup, Gannon, Ganshaw, Garcia, Gennis, Gerard, Gericke, Gilbert, Glassman, Glazer, Gomendio, Gonzalez, Greenstein, Guglielmo, Gurman, Haberkorn, Hoskins, Hussein, Hamm, Hardwick, Harrell, Hauptman, Hawkins, Henderson, Hayman, Hibara, Hehmann, Herbst, Hedges, Hogan, Hoffman, Horowitz, Hsu, Huber, Ikiz, Jaroschy, Johann, Jacobs, Jara, Johnson, Kassel, Keegan, Kuroda, Kavanau, Keller, Kevill, Kiew, Kimbrough, Kline, Kossoff, Kotzitzky, Kahn, Kiesler, Kosser, Korte, Leibowitz, Lin, Liu, Lowrance, Lundh, Laux, Leifer, Leung, Levine, Leiw, Lockwood, Logrono, Lohnes, Lowet, Laber, Leonardi, Marten, McLean, Michaels, Miranda, Moy, Marin, Muir, Murphy, Marodon, Matos, Mendoza, Muraki, Neck, Needham, Noboa, Null, O’Flynn, O’Neill, Orlowski, Perkins, Pieper, Pierre, Pons, Pruska, Paulino, Popper, Potter, Purpura, Palma, Perez, Portocarrero, Punwasi, Rader, Rankin, Ray, Reyes, Richardson, Ritter, Roos, Rose, Rosenfeld, Roth, Rutherford, Rustin, Ramos, Regan, Reisman, Renkert, Roberts, Rowan, Rene, Rosario, Rothbart, Saperstein, Schoenbrod, Schwed, Sears, Statosky, Sutphen, Sheehy, Silverton, Silverman, Silverstein, Sklar, Slotkin, Speros, Stollman, Sadowski, Schles, Shapiro, Sigdel, Snow, Spencer, Steinkol, Stewart, Stires, Stopnik, Stonehill, Tayss, Tilney, Temple, Torfield, Townsend, Trimpin, Turchin, Villa, Vasillov, Voda, Waring, Weber, Weinstein, Wang, Wegimont, Weed, Weishaus.  

When I took this test, I scored a 72.  Gladwell says that “the first–and most obvious–criterion is that Connectors know lots of people.”  One of my close high school friends used to joke that I know everyone because whenever we were out, I would see four or five people or more that I knew.  There was a running joke that if I went to a different state, I would still see someone I know.

I never took this joke seriously until a few years ago my wife and I were at King’s Island and I bumped into a lady I used to teach with.  The next summer, I was in line for a ride at Cedar Point and realized I was just a few people behind one of the school counselors at GW. 

Wait… it gets better.  The following year, I traveled to Disney World with my wife and kids.  Keep in mind that Disney has four parks, each of which has hundreds if not thousands of people in attendance.  We were walking through Magic Kingdom when I spotted a student of mine and her father, sitting on a bench.

Gladwell says, “Sprinkled among every walk of life, in other words, are a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are Connectors.”  I don’t know if I’m a connector or not, but I do know a lot of people.  Gladwell also points out that most people score around 20 or less.

It isn’t hard to believe that I know a lot of people.  I have worked in fast food, retail, and at the local movie theater.  And as a teacher, I have approximately 125 students and I get to know many of their parents, as well.  So I get the opportunity to get to know 200+ people a year.  And I’m grateful for every one of them.

Try this test out and see how you score.  I was thinking of trying it with a local phone book, but I don’t know if it would be as effective.

Until later– “There’s no turning back now that you opened up to your mind.”

DISCLAIMER:  The following playlist contains language that may be offensive to some listeners.

This one was actually not the result of boredom.  I was made after a creative whim.  I was thinking of how cool it would be to make a playlist inspired by the Beat Movement.  The playlist has a mix of jazz and blues that are true to the Beat Movement time period as well as some more modern poetic songs that I feel are true to the messages and views of the Beat poets.  And, my favorite part, there are some poetry readings by famous figures of the Beat Movement. 

If you’re not familiar with the Beats, check out this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Movement

Right now, my favorite Beat writer is Jack Kerouac.  I’m currently working my way through On the Road and I just recently bought The Dharma Bums (which I heard is more enjoyable than On the Road, but not as important).  I just love the idea of traveling across the country just to feel free.  My brother and I are planning to hike into the woods this summer with sleeping bags, food, and anything else we think we need, walking until we get tired, rolling out our sleeping bags, and spending the night wherever we are in the woods.

Hope you enjoy.  You should try this some time, create a playlist inspired by your favorite book, movie, video game, or whatever you want.

This is really difficult. I have read a lot of great books, mostly because my taste is picky and I don’t even bother finishing a book if it’s not great. I’m the guy who walks out of bad movies and I’m the guy who donates the worst books I have read to charity.

Nevertheless, here is what I think of as the top twenty greatest books I have ever read. I ranked these by enjoyment, not by importance. Mind you, they’re not the greatest of all time, just my favorites:

1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

2. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

4. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

5. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

6. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

8. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

9. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

10. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

11. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

12. I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

13. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

14. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

15. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

16. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

17. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

18. Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina

19. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

20. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

So there you have it. That was every bit as difficult as expected. I hope it wasn’t difficult for you to read or agree with.

Try posting your own list (if you’ve read 20 novels to rank.)

In an article for Time magazine, Lev Grossman says, “Literature is the realm of the ineffable and the unquantifiable; lists are the realm of menus and laundry and rotisserie baseball. There’s something unseemly and promiscuous about all those letters and numbers jumbled together. Take it from me, a critic who has committed this particular sin many times over.”

Nevertheless, when inspiration calls, I must answer. I have decided to compile a list of the top ten authors who have made the greatest impact on my life, as a writer and as a person. These are not the greatest authors of all time, just the ten who have made an impression on me, personally. A brief explanation of each one will follow.

1. Stephen King — The first author who fascinated me and possessed me. Since ninth grade, his work has inspired me to write. In his book On Writing, he says:

“Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading, or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic.”

Stephen King’s work, style, and inspiration has had more impact on me than any other writer. He is the reason I became a writer.

2. Kurt Vonnegut — No writer has made me laugh so hard or shown me that cynicism can be okay when it is justified. I started with and loved Slaughterhouse-Five until someone recommended the funniest book I have ever read: Breakfast of Champions. In an article about style, Vonnegut gave some of the best advice I have heard:

“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”

3. Sylvia Plath — Her autobiographical novel The Bell Jar was the first book I read more than once. I fell in love with her and consumed her poetry the way you consume the words of a trusted friend.

“I felt like a race horse in a world without racetracks or a champion college footballer suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit, his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like a date on a tombstone.”

“If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell. I’ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.”

“There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice - patched, retreaded and approved for the road.”

4. Ernest Hemingway — I think every guy who has read Hemingway would say he was a favorite. And I don’t think there is a writer out there who does not at least consider him as an inspiration. Hemingway’s simple but profound stories touched hearts, turned stomachs, and gave thousands of boys a taste of African adventure.

5. Ray Bradbury — Other than Stephen King, I have read more work from Ray Bradbury than any other writer. Diving into a Bradbury story is like transporting to a different world. Bradbury became my escape through high school and college. If you’re new to Bradbury, try his collection of stories The Illustrated Man. This book amazed me. Just read it.

I have also found that you can never go wrong reading a good Bradbury story to a group of students.

6. Katherine Paterson– Her novel Bridge to Terabithia was the first book to make me cry. My first year as a teacher, I wrote her a letter thanking her for being such an amazing writer. I did not expect a Newbery winning author to write back, but she did. She even took the time to write a post card to my students, encouraging them to “read more and more books from many different authors.”

Thank you, Katherine, for helping me remember that famous authors are people, too.

7. Denise Giardina — Some of you have not heard of Denise. She was the first published author I met. Shortly after taking one of her college courses, I bought and read every book she wrote. And I was lucky enough for her to sign every one of them. She gave me a lot of hope that West Virginia authors have a chance to be heard and she encouraged me to have more faith in my abilities and to always push myself to become better and better with each day. Check out her books: Storming Heaven, The Unquiet Earth, Saints and Villains, Good King Harry, Fallam’s Secret

8. Belinda Anderson — The first author I met to also become one of my best friends, my mentor, and taught me more about writing than anyone. I spent three days of an unforgettable summer talking to Belinda about writing, life, childhood, marriage, and anything else that was on our hearts and minds. She taught me that everyone has a story to offer and we all deserve a chance to tell it our way. Her two collections of stories, The Well Ain’t Dry Yet and The Bingo Cheaters are must reads.

9. Dolly Withrow — Dolly is possibly the funniest grammar goddess I have ever met, the kind who would argue over the difference between nauseous and nauseated. She is a writer whose work inspires you to enjoy life and look out for important moments, and to laugh, laugh, laugh. She was also one of the first authors to agree to visit my students and read some of her essays to them.

I thank Dolly for being a mentor and a great friend.

10. Brad Barkley — Another West Virginia author I had the pleasure of meeting during a summer writing workshop. Brad’s humor and wit is sometimes dry and harsh, but always honest. But humor, Brad taught me, is sometimes the writer’s way to a reader’s heart. He also taught me to carry a notepad and jot down funny or interesting things that I experience every day.

Check out Brad’s two novels, Money, Love and Alison’s Automotive Repair Manual.

So, there you have it. My top ten. Did it feel sinful? Not really, because I am proud to say that I know four of the ten personally.

Can you come up with your top ten most influential writers? Post it in my comments.

People who know me well know that I am an ADHD reader.  I am usually reading three to four books at a time, and sometimes I will completely forget about a book and start another one.  The funny thing is I could map a list of books that I have started and not finished in order to move on to a different book.  I’ll put (inc.) next to the ones I didn’t finish and you’ll see my point.  This will also tell you a lot about my eclectic taste in books.  I’ll start with last summer:

The Gunslinger—-> Bag of Bones (inc.)—-> On the Road (inc.)—-> To Kill a Mockingbird—-> Crum (inc.)—-> All the Pretty Horses (inc.)—> The Book on Leadership—-> It’s Not About Me (inc.)—-> Empire Falls (inc.)—-> Lonesome Dove (inc.)—-> Breakfast of Champions-—> Cat’s Cradle—-> Sirens of Titan (inc.)—-> The Maltese Falcon (inc.)—-> Trainspotting (inc.)—-> The Kite Runner (inc.)—-> One Hundred Years of Solitude (inc.)—-> The Tipping Point (currently reading).

See what I mean.  Now, in my defense, some of those books are pretty hefty.  Lonesome Dove is somewhere near 1000 pages and Trainspotting is tough to read because it is written using Scottish phonetics.  “Now most people would put this doon tae experience, ye always want what ye cannae have and the things that ye dinnae really gie a toss aboot get handed tae ye oan a plate.”  And I have read Bag of Bones before,but I wanted to read it again.  Once I stumbled on to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, however, I just abandoned Stephen King’s beautifully written horror romance to go traveling across the country with the Beats.  And when I suddenly remembered I had never read To Kill a Mockingbird, I was appalled and just had to read it right away.  And so on, and so on.

You can also tell from this list what kind of impact Kurt Vonnegut’s work has on me since I did finish all but one of his novels on the list.

In her book The Bell Jar (the first book I read more than once, by the way ) Sylvia Plath’s narrator says,

“If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell.  I’ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.”

I’m usually flying back and forth between six or seven mutually exclusive things at the same time, and it is usually a stack of books.

I can understand what people who have a shopping addiction are going through. I just bought three new books today, The Dharma Bums, The World is Flat, and Blink. I felt that exciting rush when I cracked open the first one and read the first line. It was The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. The line was this: “Hopping a freight out of Los Angeles at high noon one day in late September 1955 I got on a gondola and lay down with my duffel bag under my head and my knees crossed and contemplated the clouds as we rolled north to Santa Barbara.” People just don’t write like that anymore. In fact, no one has ever written like Kerouac.

All three of the books I picked up have something in common. They have been said to have changed people’s lives. According to most of the reviews, all three of these books have had an impact on our country in some way.

Jack Kerouac pioneered a movement that changed the face of literature and art forever and opened readers’ eyes to a generation of men who were beaten but not defeated.  The Dharma Bums tells about his venture into Buddhism and self-discovery.  Reviewers of this books have said it changed they way they look at life, at material possessions, at money, and inspired them to pay more attention to what really was important.  I’ve read On the Road and most reviewers say that Dharma Bums is much better.  I can’t wait.

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is one of those books I already know is important without even reading a word of it.  WV State Department of Education is pushing for 21st century learning skills and this book is one of the essential texts for understanding how much our world has changed in just the past few years and what we can do to prepare to become 21st century learners.  This book has been out for several years and I already feel like I’ve missed something by not reading it.

Blink is another one that I know is important.  Who can resist the title: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.  It’s tough for me to explain what this book is about, so I will recruit my amazon.com announcer friend to do it for me.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Blink is about the first two seconds of looking–the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of “thin slices” of behavior. The key is to rely on our “adaptive unconscious”–a 24/7 mental valet–that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea. Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us “mind blind,” focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to “the Warren Harding Effect” (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the “dark side of blink,” he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell’s ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. –Barbara Mackoff –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Sounds great doesn’t it?  Amazon users only gave it 3 ^1/2 stars, but that;s been true about a lot of books I have read and loved.  His other book, The Tipping Point only received 4 stars and I absolutely love that book.  That’s a lot coming from someone who shunned nonfiction works for years (except for autobiographies and memoirs).

So go out and but one of these great books.  Let me know what you think if you have already read them.

 Disclaimer:  If you already hate Shakespeare, this blog may not concern you.

I think I have just stumbled onto the same frustration many people face when reading a Shakespeare play.  No, it’s not the language.  I get that.  Believe it or not, I have been exposed to so much Shakespearean language over the past ten years that I have come to understand it and thus to love it.  But, actually, my frustration does have something to do with the language.  Let me explain.

I am torn, as the alternative title to this blog suggests, by my love of Shakespeare’s language and the almost ridiculous situations in which he places his characters.  I’ve started reading “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”  An old college professor of mine would ask one of the most intelligent questions I have ever heard:  Why?

Anyone who knows me well is aware that my taste in literature changes faster than the weather.  It is the reason why I take forever to finish a novel, because my ADHD will kick in, I’ll become interested in something else, and I’ll start reading that instead.

So my recent “reinterest” in Shakespeare lead me to reading one play I had not been exposed to, hence “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”  It begins well, two best friends Proteus and Valentine, arguing over love.  Proteus is smitten by young Julia, and Valentine ridicules him and love:  “Love is your master, for he masters you, and he that is yoked by a fool methinks should not be chronicled for wise.”

Then some other stuff happens, Valentine goes off to work for a duke, Proteus stays behind because he loves Julia too much.  But… gasp… Proteus’ father makes him go to work for the duke, as well.  So, before he leaves, he exchanges vows (and rings) with Julia, swears his undying love and wishing a curse upon every second he does not think about her:  “And when that hour o’erslips me in the day wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake, the next ensuing hour some foul mischance torment me for my love’s forgetfulness.”

The fun stuff starts (note sarcasm) when Proteus arrives at the duke’s “royal court” and learns that his friend Valentine has recently fallen in love with the fair Sylvia.  And guess what…? Proteus falls in love with her, as well, at first sight.  So, right after his meeting her, he begins to devise a plot to forget about Julia, have Valentine banished from the duke’s court, and live happily ever after with Sylvia.  Therefore proving that even in the romantic world of Shakespeare, men are pigs, yes we are, destined to a life of infidelity and woe.

Come on.  I really want to love this play, I truly do.  It has some of the most eloquently written lines I have read in any Shakespeare play.  “What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?  What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?  Unless it be to think that she is by and feed upon the shadow of perfection except I be by Silvia in the night, there is no music in the nightingale; unless I look on Silvia in the day, there is no day for me to look upon; she is my essence, and I leave to be, if I be not by her fair influence foster’d, illumined, cherish’d, kept alive.”  But man, what a horrible situation he has these characters in.

I have not finished the play (but, oh, I will) but apparently it gets worse.  I’ve heard that Proteus tries to force his love upon Sylvia (yes, that means what you think it means) and Valentine catches him.  It gets better.  Proteus apologizes, and Valentine decides to give Sylvia to him as a token of their renewed friendship.

Wow.

So where is the juxtaposition?  I love Shakespeare so much that I am going to subject myself to the torture of such a horrible situation in order to venture into a world of his I have not yet experienced.  How can you not resist such lines as “Is she kind as she is fair?  For beauty lives with kindness.  Love doth to her eyes repair, to help him of his blindness, and, being helped, inhabits there.”  That’s powerful stuff.  I hate Shakespeare, yet I love him, yet I hate him.  I’m so confused.

Just wish me luck.  I’m off to read Act 3.

Until later– “There’s no turning back not that you open up to your mind.”

Last time I posted, I wrote that my mother-in-law’s dog, Lucy, was being put to sleep.  My wife said her mother asked the vets to dispose of the body; she didn’t want to see it.  On the way home from the theater Friday night, I had a lot of time to think as I stared at the half moon that resembled an lemon slice.  This made me think of how sour and bitter my day had been and I fought back tears.

For some reason, this whole situation reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.  The aliens that Vonnegut writes about, the Tralfamadorians, do not look at life one day at a time.  They are able to see across all existence, from the beginning of time to the end.  So, when someone “dies,” they do not think of them as dead at all, because they know they still exist in the past.  Instead of mourning someone’s death, they simply say, “So it goes.”

I felt like Lucy’s death had that effect on me, at first.  I was sad, yes, but it just didn’t feel like she was really gone until later Friday night.  When my wife called to tell me she had been put to sleep, I just said, “Okay,” and I didn’t feel much of anything.  I felt like saying, “So it goes.”  Is that horrible?  It wasn’t until I thought about my mother-in-law’s reaction to Lucy’s death that I began to feel something.

I am worried my guinea pigs are dying, and it’s not the thought of their death that upsets me; it’s the thought of how my daughters are going to react that upsets me.  I do this often.  The thought of someone else’s misery, not my own, is what usually sends me over the edge.

However I see it, Lucy is gone.  No more little circles around my ankles when I come over to visit.  No more curling up in my lap, begging for a belly rub.  Lucy is gone.  So it goes.