DAY 16: BACH

Click on a cover for more information about each book!

Nine of my favorite books on Bach, along with special guest star Nina Simone (with her daughter Lisa) and her autobiography, which supplies the great quote.

Nina Simone began her music career as an accomplished classical pianist who attended Juilliard. She wanted a career as a concert pianist, but believed that this was denied her by racial prejudice. Nina Simone didn't want her talented daughter Lisa to go into show business, so Lisa spent over ten years in the air force before starting her own successful music career.

DAY 15: JOSEPH CAMPBELL

The first Joseph Campbell book I read was A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. Joycean scholars were somewhat annoyed that Campbell was barging into their territory, but I think that he is actually the ideal tour guide for Finnegans Wake, which absorbed stories and myths from many different cultures , many different times. His opening paragraph is still one of the best summaries of the Wake that I know of:

 

Running riddle and fluid answer, Finnegans Wake is a mighty allegory of the fall and resurrection of mankind. It is a strange book, a compound of fable, symphony, and nightmare-a monstrous enigma beckoning imperiously from the shadowy pits of sleep. Its mechanics resemble those of a dream, a dream which has freed the author from the necessities of common logic and has enabled him to compress all periods of history, all phases of individual and racial development, into a circular design, of which every part is beginning, middle, and end.

 

 And believe it or not, that is a real cosmic object, in fact it is...

Hoag's Object 

 

 

DAY 14: MATHEMATICS

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Ten of my favorite books on math. These are not math textbooks, nor do they require anything more than a high school math education to read and enjoy. They are lively accounts from the history of math, or of the nature of math which is still controversial to this day.

While many of these books have some biographical threads running through them, I am saving biographies of mathematicians for another group in which I will include such great books as Hidden Figures and other works about great women mathematicians too long neglected and ignored. 

The history of mathematics has long fascinated me, particularly for the ability of mathematics to escape any logical box or straitjacket anyone has tried to put it in. It is as free as the human imagination... 

Mathematics: The Art and Science of Thinking Outside the Box

DAY 13: DESTROYERMEN SERIES

This series follows the adventures of the intrepid crew of the destroyer USS Walker (DD-163) at the beginning of WWII as they are transported by a storm to an alternate Earth where evolution has taken a different course and provided them with strange and unexpected allies and enemies. These are the first ten books of the series.

DAY 12: THE OCTOPUS FAMILY (CEPHALOPODS)

Nine brains, eight legs, three hearts and true blue blood. What's not to like about these amazing creatures? Proof positive that there is intelligence in the natural world that we do not yet understand or appreciate.

Explore the nature of this wonderous creature in our octopus posts:

The Amazing and Mysterious Octopus 
 

The Legendary Giant Squid  

The Vampire Squid From Hell

DAY 11: FIREFLY/SERENITY

It was a sad day when the Firefly TV series was cancelled, but then came the great Serenity movie to continue the series. But what happened between the end of the TV series and the movie? 

Fortunately Joss Whedon got together with some comic artists to give us a great set of graphic novels that fill in the gaps, tell us about the life of the mysterious Shepherd, and continue the series beyond the events of the movie. 

On the second line, the Unification War series gives us the early events that led up to the time of the TV series. The final two books in this group are novels that begin hopefully what will be a continuing series of Firefly adventures set in the times of the TV series.

DAY 10: THE BOOK OF KELLS

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The Book of Kells is endlessly fascinating and there have been many fascinating books about it. These are my ten favorites that have helped me in my own ongoing exploration.

Here is a link to my own exploration of the Book of Kells, with help from many books and many wonderful websites, particularly Trinity College, Dublin where the book resides and which has generously provided online access to each and every page which you can zoom in on to an amazing level of detail:

The Beautiful and Mysterious Book of Kells 

DAY 9: THE EXPANSE

My favorite science fiction book series of the 21st century. There have been eight great books in the series so far, so I added at the beginning, two prequel short stories that fill in some important background for the series.

 The book series was made into an excellent TV series, almost cancelled but sustained by an amazing show of fan loyalty and support. There have now been four seasons, and I hope for more!

Day 8: ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT AND ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE

Alexander Humboldt is one of my all time heroes. His travels are fascinating to read about both in his own accounts and recent biographies. He believed strongly in the interconnectedness of all of nature, and knew that to understand this interconnection in any new area he was exploring he had to go to the experts: the indigenous people. Throughout his travels he was always an advocate for indigenous people and was frequently appalled and enraged at their exploitation. 

I added to this group, another favorite scientific explorer, Alfred Russel Wallace. Unlike Humboldt and Darwin, Wallace was not born into a wealthy family and had to always scramble to finance his expeditions by selling his specimens to museums and collectors. He sent his essay on evolution by natural selection to his friend Charles Darwin and so inspired Darwin to go ahead and publish his own work in this area, which he had been hesitant to do, knowing what a bombshell it would be. Wallace was fascinated by islands and their distinctive flora and fauna. Like Humboldt, his travels make for fascinating reading.

 
It seems strange to see so many statues of Alexander Humboldt in Cuba, but Cubans were used to Europeans coming to exploit their land. Here finally was a famous one who had come to seriously study all the wildlife, plants and geology, and it gave them a new pride in their land that they would never forget!

DAY 7: NORTHROP FRYE

And speaking of mythologies, I should now look at ten great Canadian books by my all time favorite mythopoeic literary critic and theorist.

 Fearful Symmetry had a huge impact on me as a student of literature and of William Blake. While studying Blake and Fearful Symmetry, I made a triptych to present Fearful Symmetry's interpretation of Blake: 

The Fearful Symmetry Triptych 

 

DAY 6: ROBERT HOLDSTOCK

This set combines the Mythago Wood series (here in chronological order rather than publication order) and the Merlin Codex trilogy, a saga of the young Merlin and a fascinating combination of Greek and Celtic mythologies. Between them we have Merlin's Wood which links them both. 

In The Hollowing we learn from the French researcher Lacan that there is a mythago wood in France:

"Ryhope Wood, the wood in France: they are the same wood, they share a common time, a common space, a dimension we cannot really see, the same shadows, the same dreams. We have no way of defining it, this imaginary time, this sylvan time. It’s beyond our language."

One of the best articles I have read on the Mythago series was written by Kevan Manwaring:

Ways Through the Wood: 

The Rogue Cartographies of Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood Cycle 

as a Cognitive Map for Creative Process in Fiction

DAY 5: THE COMPANY OF ARCHERS

Just finished book 23 of this great, medieval series by Martin Archer. Some critics have complained about the crude quality of the writing, but then again the premise as stated at the beginning of each book is that these stories have been stitched together from the first hand accounts of the longbow men involved as taken down by scribes. So expect a lot of action and not much lavish or literary description!

DAY 4: COLIN WILSON FICTION

Colin Wilson was also an excellent novelist. His magnum opus was the amazing Spider World fantasy series (first six books above), but he also wrote science fiction and fiction using motifs from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos such as his novel The Philosopher's Stone which is one of my favorites.

DAY 3: COLIN WILSON NONFICTION

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Ten of my favorite nonfiction books by the British author Colin Wilson.

DAY 2: ANCIENT ROME

Today we look at historical fiction about the Roman Empire starting in the days of Emperor Claudius and following the adventures of two Roman soldiers that range across the entire Roman Empire. Here are the first ten books in Simon Scarrow's Eagle series. Like Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow is a stickler for accurate historical detail in his novels.

The Cato and Macro website gives us a map of these heroes' travels:

 

The Journey of Cato and Macro 

  

Now check out: 

 Goodreads Page on the Eagle Series

Index of Past Posts

DAY 1:  BOOKS ON BIRDS

DAY 2:  ANCIENT ROME

DAY 3:  COLIN WILSON NONFICTION

DAY 4:  COLIN WILSON FICTION

DAY 5:  THE COMPANY OF ARCHERS SERIES

DAY 6:  ROBERT HOLDSTOCK

DAY 7:  NORTHROP FRYE

DAY 8:  ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT AND ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE

DAY 9:  THE EXPANSE

DAY 10:  THE BOOK OF KELLS

DAY 11:  FIREFLY/SERENITY

DAY 12:  THE OCTOPUS FAMILY (CEPHALOPODS) 

DAY 13: DESTROYERMAN SERIES

 

 DAY 14:  MATHEMATICS

DAY 15:  JOSEPH CAMPBELL

DAY 16:  BACH

DAY 17:  THE SAGA OF ROLAND INNESS

DAY 18:  THE FAR SIDE

DAY 19:  MATHEMATICIANS

DAY 20:  PENDERGAST SERIES

DAY 21:  FAVORITE BIOGRAPHIES

DAY 1: BIRD BOOKS

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DAY 1: The first subject is BIRDS. I am not really a dedicated birdwatcher, however, birds do fascinate me and here are ten books I have enjoyed this century and which go beyond field guides to provide an interesting and entertaining look at birds, in general or at specific species.

Among these bird books, I would single out the Canadian wildlife photographer and naturalist Wayne Lynch's Owls of the United States and Canada for his stunning photographs of North American owls in the wild, which he has often gone to extraordinary lengths to take...

Owls of the United States and Canada 

And visit Wayne Lynch's amazing website with a great collection of his nature photographs:

Dr Wayne Lynch:  Canada's Wildlife Specialist

 

I did a series of blog posts on Birds of Prey. Owls are among the birds I am most fascinated by... 

Birds of Prey: Owls 

 Another beautiful and fascinating bird book that almost made the cut:

The Art of the Bird: The History of Ornithological Art through Forty Artists

 

SOME OF MY OTHER BIRDS OF PREY POSTS:

Birds of Prey: Introduction to Raptors
Birds of Prey: The Osprey
Birds of Prey: Owls
Birds of Prey: Haast's Eagle
Birds of Prey: Great Nicobar Serpent Eagle
Birds of Prey: Steller's Sea Eagle
Birds of Prey: Eagle on Stilts
Birds of Prey: Gyrfalcon