Hurtin' My Head

Anathem
Neal Stephenson
William Morrow

A few days ago, one of my friends sent me the email equivalent of a chain letter in which he listed 25 random things about himself. In an ideal world, the recipients of his note were supposed to respond in kind, but since I don't exactly go for that kind of thing, I didn't reply. I did, however, spend at least a few minutes thinking about the types of things that I might write.

When I tried to come up with my favourite book of all time, I got stumped. It appears that I have a favourite song, a favourite colour, and a favourite city, but I can't seem to settle on just one "favourite" book. What about a favourite author? Well, that objective seems a little more reasonable and I think I've come up with a top ten.

The D-E-S Top Ten Authors, Poets and/or Playwrights (in no particular order):
Paulo Coelho
George R R Martin
Neal Stephenson
Robertson Davies
Geoffrey Chaucer
William Shakespeare
Edmund Spenser
James Joyce
Jane Austen
Margaret Laurence

Number three on this list, Neal Stephenson, writes super brainy, math-based fiction, and I think his latest offering, Anathem, has just made my top five books of all time. The story is narrated by a young monk, Fraa Erasmus, who wrestles with concepts of space, time, quantum physics, logic, and multiple realities. I'm not going to lie to you ... this was not an easy read. Once you start it however, be prepared to get lost in the 900 plus pages. It is totally worth it. Five almost Socratic dialogues out of five.