Treat yourself to a book over break

Just thinking about being able to sit at home and take some time for myself is the last string of hope I’ve been holding on to for these past weeks of the semester. In hopes of snow outside instead of this depressing rain, I’d suggest re-examining your library, finding that stack of books you were trying to finish back in the summer, or even buying a few new ones to reward yourself. As I’ve been reading and rereading Shakespeare this semester until my head has nearly exploded, I’m personally going to stay as far as I can away from British literature and anything written in play format. This just isn’t the time to go back and read Paradise Lost again, although I’m sure the epic scenery of hell would make an Erie winter feel like Florida. But no, considering I’ll be working on my thesis and deconstructing 1950s avant-garde literature, it would be good to start from that inspiration. I’m providing a list of readings that challenge you as a reader, both getting you away from this cold environment and making you revel in this chance at relaxation after a difficult semester.

Steve Roggenbuck – Internet sensation, avid blogger, and rising poet, Roggenbuck is perfect for readers our age who are tied to technology. I don’t want to say that he’s the human form of the hipster’s handbook, because he’s really more than that. He and his blog-poet contemporary Poncho Peligroso have stormed the internet and have become somewhat of a voice for yet another uncomfortable generation. His poems are minimalist, inspired equally by spontaneity as they are by the greats Whitman and Ginsberg. Check him out at steveroggenbuck.com or his blog livemylief.com.

Frank Herbert – Herbert is the author of Dune, a book that I’ve been waiting to tackle since I finished the Dark Tower series and am slowly recognizing as legitimate science fiction. In telling a rather political and adventurous tale in space, Herbert laid the ground work for massive fan approval and the following prolific and expansive Dune saga that followed the original. Having not yet read Dune, it’s said to have been created out of the author’s own study of Zen in the 1960s and the idea of utilizing science fiction as avant-garde to challenge the regular thought process of reading a realist work. Either way, Dune has carried an immense forum fan-base for quite a while now, so it’ll be interesting to tackle over break.

Robert Kirkman or Jeff Lindsay – Whether you’re a realist or someone looking to embrace another kind of science fiction, neither of these authors will disappoint you. In the growing trend of television series’ becoming as dynamically polished as feature-length films, everybody has their suggestions as to what show is best on TV right now. What many don’t realize is that television would be nothing without their written adaptations as ground for their production. In celebrating the success of The Walking Dead and Dexter, I give you their origins: The Walking Dead, a graphic novel by Robert Kirkman and Darkly Dreaming Dexter, a quirky horror saga written by Jeff Lindsay. While both are decently  gory, they  maintain a level of entertainment by being less about the grit and more about the complexity of violence.

So, while I could’ve handed you a list of brand new best sellers that provide virtually no challenge to the reader, I provide you with change. This being quite the sorted and weird list of authors, their connection lies in their greatness. Dune has already left a big imprint on the science fiction world, while Kirkman and Lindsay have a few years yet to gain the credit they deserve. As far as Roggenbuck goes, I consider him a modern day definition of Ginsberg’s Howl, and in a few years, he could easily become the literary voice of this internet generation. Don’t let these authors slip by. Pick up their books, relax inside with hot beverages over winter break, and enjoy new worlds provided for you. That’s what I’ll be doing, call me boring.