Dormant Literature

Just over twelve years ago, during that familiar pre-festive lull we enter every December—right before Wham! and Mariah Carey take over the radio and school dismisses for the holidays—I was tucked away in a quiet corner of my high school library reading the following quote for the very first time:

Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later—no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget—we will return.

— Daniel Sempere, "The Shadow of The Wind"

The words belonged to the fictional Daniel Sempere—main character of The Shadow of the Wind, written by the late Carlos Ruis Zafón. It was a novel of masterful prose that took place in post-civil war Barcelona; a story of mystery, romance, and loss, among so many other things. It hit all the familiar marks of the types of books I enjoyed reading at the time, but despite this, for one reason or another, I never finished it.

It wasn’t until the early summer of 2020 that the book would find me again, eight years after I put it down. I’d enjoy The Shadow of the Wind so much it would end a near decade-long drought of a passion for reading I’d lost in the busyness of all the life that happens between sixteen and twenty four years old. Just like the book itself had foreshadowed, I’d returned to that fictional palace it had sculpted in my memory.

The following list contains some of what I’ve read since revisiting The Shadow of the Wind—in the 4 years between 2020 and today—and will be updated for every new discovery worth mentioning for the remainder of 2024:

S-tier

Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

Unabridged, and where the “S” in S-tier stands for “stick with it” (even through the infamous “boring middle” in Paris). One of fiction’s greatest payoffs in my opinion, and for me the reading equivalent of signing up for a marathon after just getting back into running. Almost DNF!

Ágota Kristóf, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie

Solid A-tier until the third act, where the plot takes some big risks that could either bump the whole book up or down a tier depending on the reader—bumped up in my case.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Read just before the original release date of Villeneuve’s Part One before it was delayed. So good it gave me what I thought were unrealistic expectations for the film but the film came through.

Update: Part Two was even better!

Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul

Have tried and failed to review and recommend this book without sounding overly woo-woo so I’ll just leave it in S-tier and let the ranking speak for itself.

Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

First read back in middle school but couldn’t recall the important bits so decided to revisit it. Immediate S-tier. The kind of book that hits harder the older you get.

A-tier

John Carreyrou, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money

Cal Newport, Deep Work

Lori Gottlieb, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

Evidently, been a big couple years for introspective non-fiction. Where Singer’s The Untethered Soul was the understanding, gentle parent, Goggins’ Can’t Hurt Me on the contrary was the parent who said “OK, so get out of bed and do something about it.”

B-tier

George Orwell, Animal Farm

Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None

Orwell and Christie in the B-tier? For And Then There Were None, it might just be the case where, because Christie “did it first”, reading her work after having already read the stuff she inspired makes it less impactful. Seinfield Is Unfunny? First-mover disadvantage? Once Original, Now Common?

Kōbō Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

Started and finished on the flights of a recent trip. Premise and pacing were very interesting all the way through but just had mixed feelings about the ending.

Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism

Good insights, but I think I was just burned out from Newport’s writing style after reading this and his other book Deep Work back-to-back.

Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements