The Odyssey by Homer

Now we get to move on to the others in my top ten, a nine-way tie of sorts for second place. I'll start with The Odyssey, not out of any preference over the other eight, but simply because it happens to be sitting on my desk right now.

The Odyssey is not a classic simply because it reflects the cultural ideal of Ancient Greece. Thousands of hours have not gone into translating this poem as a simple anthropological exercise. The Odyssey is read in English classrooms across the world not because it has historical value, but because it's a good book.

Before I continue, I should warn you that I am a huge fan of Greek Mythology. I was lapping up children's versions of the stories of Pandora's Box and the Siege of Troy by the time I could read. I had tackled Edith Hamilton's Mythology by the time I was 12, and Bulfinch's Mythology and countless other retellings since. Seriously, you say "pomegranate" I say "Persephone." This means I have a little bit of a bias. It also means that those unfamiliar with the basic premise of Greek myth - Mount Olympus and the Twelve Olympians, the different creatures, who fathered who - will have a little bit of a learning curve that I didn't have to deal with. That being said, I believe the epics of Homer are open to anyone who is willing to dive into the language of the story and make a couple forays onto Wikipedia.

Now, I'm assuming you already know the basic story of The Odyssey. Odysseus, the brave mastermind behind the Trojan horse, is delayed on his journey home to Ithika by storms at sea and his own crew's stupidity. He ends up traveling island to island, encountering great adventures on his mighty odyssey and epitomizing the hero cycle with every step.

The story you might not know, however, is the story of Telemachus. Telemachus is Odysseus's son, merely an infant when his father left for the war, but now ready to prove himself a man. The goddess Athena takes the guise of an old man named Mentor (which is how we get the word, by the way) and guides the boy on a quest to find his father and put an end to the hordes of suitors badgering his mother and abusing his household. "Clear-minded" Telemachus is the unsung hero of the Odyssey, and his triumphant rise to manhood is one of the most compelling aspects of the poem.

And, yes, it is a poem. This Fitzgerald translation of The Odyssey perserves all the beauty and verse of the original Greek in a way not yet accomplished by any other translator. His prose flows across the page like Shakespeare, and in what I consider his greatest triumph, he even manages to recreate Hermes's hilarious rhyming dialouge.

There are other translators that you can turn to if the language of Fitzgerald presents with you with too great a challange. Fagles is the most notable among these, though none other than Butler (I spit upon his name) are truely verboten. I warn you, however, with the certainty of Apollo's oracle at Delphi, that if you forego Fitzgerald you will be missing out on one of the most beautifuly told epics of all time.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Now I know I said I'd go through my books as they lie on my shelf, in alphabetical order by author's last name, but I felt my first reviews ought to be of The Top 10, the oh-so prestigious group of texts that have warranted the title of the best books I have ever read. These books were selected painstakingly and with many tears; each and every one has earned the spot it has. I will start with the only member of my Top 10 actually numbered, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Literary fantasy is a rare thing. I'm not bashing my favorite genre, simply stating the facts. Many a YA novel is deeper than than it appears at first glance, and even many of the books I would consider "cheap reads" hold characters and stories worth getting to know, but finding true literature amidst the fairies and elves can sometimes seem a quest worthy of a prophesied Chosen One.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell fulfills this need and more. The New York Times describes the novel as a marriage of Jane Austin and J.K. Rowling, and I couldn't agree more. It portrays dark and mysterious magic alongside British high society in a seamless masterpiece worthy to be called a literary classic.

Some summary, before we continue. The book takes place in England during the early 1800's, where societies of scholarly "theoretical magicians" study great feats of magic preformed long ago and write long papers on the history of English magic. It is prophesied that two men will restore magic to England, and soon Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, the first two practical magicians in a hundred years, take up the task.

Susanna Clarke does an excellent job of creating her scene. Her footnotes citing fictitious sources and the dry wit with which she references them combines with her excellent knowledge of history to create a setting so real that it has you wondering if there really is a tradition of English magic that you haven't heard about.

Her magic is even more compelling, a thing of riddles and shadows, strange other lands, and above all fairies - creatures of great magic and little reason, unable to discern good from evil. The only thing that can match it are her characters, which complement each other perfectly and slip from simplistic to complex with the a grace I have yet to see in any other writer.

If you are not someone for the witty social commentary and clever banter, be warned. For the most part, Jonathan Strange is not what you would call a fast-paced book. That being said, it is undeniably the best book I have ever read.