The Days Are Just Packed

Written by: Bill Watterson

First line: MOMMM

Why you should read this book: If you find yourself yearning for a simpler era, one in which the entire country was rallied around the philosophical musings of an impulsive six-year-old and his more mature but equally prone to chaos tiger companion, perhaps it's time to revisit the magical world of Calvin and Hobbes. This collection from the early '90s has it all: dissociative daydreams, rhyming verse, Calvin harassing his father, Calvin harassing his mother, Calvin harassing his teacher, and, of course, Calvin harassing the little girl next door. Just all around late twentieth century joy from a time where everyone consumed the same media and people felt OK about little children reading the news.

Why you shouldn't read this book: This work is not to be consumed by authoritarians. 

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest

Written by: Aubrey Hartman

First line: Clare was dead.

Why you should read this book: Clare the undead fox is an Usher, a gentle, folksy sort of psychopomp whose job is to help any confused souls in the area find their way to the most appropriate afterlife in one of four realms: Peace, Progress, Pleasure, and Pain. Clare takes pride in his work, and comfort in the solitude of his free time, spent amidst his beloved mushroom friends, but has little use for company and zero interest in badgers, until the day that a dead badger called Gingersnipes turns up, completely unable to access any of the possible realms, but brimming over with nonstop questions and exposition and completely destroying Clare's job satisfaction. This is a lovely and deep story for children about death, loss, and grief, but also about love and life, and what we owe other people, and ourselves. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Might be a bit heavy for those who are not prepared to read a children's book about death, loss, and grief. 

The Prophet

Written by: Kahlil Gibran

First line: Almustafa, the chosen and beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day, had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese for his ship that was to return and bear him back to the isle of his birth. 

Why you should read this book: A beloved and enduring longform poem written one hundred years ago, The Prophet is a series of mind-expanding dialogs between the prophet and the people of Orphalese, who ask him to speak to them of various aspects of the human condition. The prophet answers with advice--some metaphorical, some concrete--on living fully, openly, joyfully, and honestly. Each short chapter offers musings on topics such as love, work, freedom, pleasure, and so on, turning the everyday experience of all humans into a spiritual quest wherein every individual can hope to achieve enlightenment in this world. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The dust jacket of the edition I have in my hand suggests that if this book doesn't uplift, educate, and inspire you, that you are likely "dead to life and truth."

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Written by: Philip K. Dick

First line: Barefoot conducts his seminars on his houseboat in Sausalito.

Why you should read this book: In the third, and probably most accessible book of the VALIS trilogy, Angel Archer, a young, educated Berkeley woman watches with semi-rational perspective as her husband, Jeff; his father, the titular Timothy Archer, Bishop of California; and Tim's not-so-secret lover, Kirsten Lundgren, pursue knowledge and understanding into death. Angel loves and admire her father-in-law above all men, and experiences, with great distress, his descent into heresy and the occult, never believing Tim's revelations, but suffering along with him nonetheless. Tim walks into the desert searching for the truth about Christ, the host, and eternal life, and whether he dies there or walks out again in some transmigrated form is left to the reader to decide.

Why you shouldn't read this book: In the course of the novel, Timothy Archer is tried for heresy by the Episcopalians but ultimately outargues his detractors, and yet, pretty much every idea in this book would probably be considered heretical by most Christian standards of faith.

Parable of the Sower

Written by: Octavia E. Butler

First line: All that you touch/You change.

Why you should read this book: Published in 1993 but set in 2024-27, this speculative fiction novel presents a chilling, but plausible, picture of a near future in which human life has lost much of its value, corporations hold most of the power, and only a dwindling few people are able to band together to protect their version of civilization in walled communities under constant siege by a brutal, impoverished outside world. Lauren Olamina is one of the fortunate ones, a teenager protected by the walls of her small neighborhood, whose father is still employed, and who lives in relative comfort, despite her nagging belief that things outside the walls are getting worse and worse, and that no matter how they defend their borders, they will not be able to hold out indefinitely. Lauren begins exploring her own perception of reality, discovering a new religion she calls Earthseed, which addresses the types of change she anticipates, and preparing for the inevitable collapse of civilization, which is scheduled to take place even sooner than than she anticipates.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You would totally take a drug that turned you into pyromaniac with no regard for human life, and/or you think debtor's prisons and indentured servitude are valid options for addressing poverty.