My Favorite Books of 2008 (Slightly Late)

As is typical, the year of reading started out very quickly, especially since I was desperately searching for poetry and prose pieces, but slowed dramatically when I started the school year. This fall was extremely slow because I’ve been so busy (as is pretty evident from my lack of blogging). Still, I did read some pretty good books. Here is my top five ranking.

1. Walking to Martha's Vineyard - Franz Wright

This is a book of poetry that won the Pulitzer a couple of years back. It’s just absolutely fantastic—a series of brief, lyrical, sincere gems. I’ve never read anything quite like this, and Wright’s subject matter—his own redemption from depression and drug abuse—really struck a chord. A year after I first read it, this is the book from last year that I keep going back to.

2. Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise - Robert Inchausti

This book was fascinating as well. It was a pretty brief overview of the countercultural thought that key Christian thinkers have managed to articulate during the modern era. I’d heard of most of these people, and studied some of them, but it was pretty amazing to see how the work of people as diverse as Wendell Berry, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Dorothy Day, Marshall McLuhan, Jacques Ellul, and Walker Percy ties together. And it’s amazing to me how their thought transcends and supersedes both the liberal and conservative narratives I hear so commonly.
3. Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke
I’d always heard of this one but never read it. Rilke’s mantra to ‘hold to the difficult,’ though, is so overwhelmingly life affirming. I’d think that anyone with an artistic sensibility—particularly an idealist or a person of faith—should find time to read this at some point.

4. The Crock of Gold - James Stephens

This was clearly the best novel I read of the year. It’s an old one and is extremely difficult to describe accurately. It’s based in Irish folklore, but there are plenty of elements that are certainly not from Irish folklore. The plots a little strange. The Philosopher creates quite a crisis when he inadvertently gives away the position of the leprechaun’s pot of gold. The leprechauns retaliate by framing the philosopher for murder and calling the cops. At the same time, the god Pan shows up in the village and seduces a young woman away from home. The philosopher decides to take off on his first journey from home and find her. Yes, and some people fall in love and some other people stay in love, and there are some fairies and children and poetry and magic and all sorts of things. It’s funny, and has the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read. I clearly don’t know how to describe this book.

5. I Am One of You Forever - Fred Chappell

Fred Chappell is evidently the great North Carolinean author, and I happened across him while I was looking for southern prose. He’s just the best there is. I don’t know when I’ve read a funnier or more heartfelt book. This is the story of the author’s childhood, but it’s certainly not straightforward. There’s plenty of southern folklore and southern humor and magical realism thrown in. It was wonderful.