Five favorite books

 

My five favorite books, read over and over, are: Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo (who grew up in my home town of Whitefish, Montana), Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Savages by Shirley Conran, and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

 

 

All of them, interestingly, are about survival. Sacajawea, of course, is about the famous Indian woman who guided Lewis and Clark. This is big book-- thick as a brick --  and is fascinating. Inspired as a child picking up Indian spearheads from along the shores of Whitefish Lake, it took Waldo 10 years to write it this marvelous book.

 

 

I love Swiss Family Robinson, especially the ways and means by which they survive and thrive after their shipwreck. I've always had a small smattering of skill in making something out of nothing and this is what, in this book, makes my heart flutter -- building shelter from salvaged boards and crafting bowls and utensils and using wits and skill to flourish and survive. Part of me has always embraced a bit of "pioneer woman," matching wits against whatever life throws at me.   

 

 

Gone with the Wind! Has there ever been a more marvelous book printed (well, except for the Bible)? What an amazing story this is. This book captured my heart with the first read and enlightens me with each additional read.

 

 

I have probably read Savages six times or more. In the past I've bought this book half dozen at a time to give to friends. It is the story of a band of spoiled wives who go with their corporate husbands on a junket to a tiny tropical country. When a catastrophe occurs the women are left to fend for themselves. This is truly a book of survival -- about a band of disparate, and desperate, women wandering the jungle and trying to stay alive.

 

 

I first read Atlas Shrugged just after high school and I still remember that feeling of despair and fear that a government could be so obtuse and terrifying in using its power to rid the country of capital enterprise. Everyone is urged to work for socialistic ventures, saving this or that helping these and those. The inventors, entrepreneurs, brilliant businessmen and their ilk are stifled and despised -- although their money isn't. They assuage their helplessness by going on strike.

 

 

 In this book, rules and regulations -- while touted to promote fairness and equality -- are geared to stop and inhibit progress. No one can own more than one business. If a person manufactures, say, shoes, he can't make more shoes than any other company making shoes. Production comes to a standstill as, one by one, the nations greatest minds and innovators disappear, leaving the country in chaos. And what happens next? Can't tell you, you have to read the book -- or watch the movie.

 

 

Even though I was so very young the first time I read this book it took days to shake the incredible alarm it set off in me. It was an urge to get ready for the apocalypse, to stock up and start preparing for the end of life as we know it. It was an unsettling sort of terror that the government could so stifle the very basic compulsion of man -- the ability to create and invent and build. That the government could steer a country into sneering at the basic human nature of wanting to excel and improve and succeed. For individuals to achieve!

I read Atlas Shrugged several times in my early years, each time haunted by its message. But, how many years ago did I last read this book? Twenty, maybe? At least that long ago. And when we watched the movie recently I was stunned to realize that so much of what frightened me originally has come to pass in actuality. Our government is making these changes. Capitalism is being stifled and regulated to the point of collapse. In some cases social programs are gaining while free enterprise is waning. Monetary success is scorned by those who demand government coddling and alarming things are rearing their heads continually -- such as the upcoming Supreme Court decision on whether we can sell our belongings.

 

 

 A belligerent, ugly, powerful book that didn't receive great accolades when it came out in 1957, Atlas Shrugged the movie came out a couple of years ago and, as a movie, doesn't carry the same power as the book to cause fear. Maybe this is because so many movies these days, with their horrific villains and vampires and Satanists overwhelm any frail and seemingly feeble fear of government as downright silly. Despite that, Atlas Shrugged Part 2 will be released this month and I can't wait!

Even though I was so very young the first time I read this book it took days to shake the incredible alarm it set off in me. It was an urge to get ready for the apocalypse, to stock up and start preparing for the end of life as we know it. It was an unsettling sort of terror that the government could so stifle the very basic compulsion of man -- the ability to create and invent and build. That the government could steer a country into sneering at the basic human nature of wanting to excel and improve and succeed. For individuals to achieve!

I read Atlas Shrugged several times in my early years, each time haunted by its message. But, how many years ago did I last read this book? Twenty, maybe? At least that long ago. And when we watched the movie recently I was stunned to realize that so much of what frightened me originally has come to pass in actuality. Our government is making these changes. Capitalism is being stifled and regulated to the point of collapse. In some cases social programs are gaining while free enterprise is waning. Monetary success is scorned by those who demand government coddling and alarming things are rearing their heads continually -- such as the upcoming Supreme Court decision on whether we can sell our belongings.

A belligerent, (sort of) ugly, powerful book that didn't receive great accolades when it came out in 1957, Atlas Shrugged the movie came out a couple of years ago and, as a movie, doesn't carry the same power as the book to cause fear. Maybe this is because so many movies these days, with their horrific villains and vampires and Satanists overwhelm any frail and seemingly feeble fear of government as downright silly. Despite that, Atlas Shrugged Part 2 will be released this month and I can't wait!