Escapist Literature

Nope, not talking about it.

I hope you’re safe, I hope you’re well, and I have faith you are doing all you can to protect yourself, your loved ones, and total strangers.

That said–I’m gonna talk about escape books. A reader once told me that mine is the book she reaches for when she needs a break, when she needs to get out of reality for a while. (This one, specifically–Knight Errant.) It made my day, and continues to make me happy. I never wanted to write a world-altering novel–I just wanted to make people as happy as many a book has done for me.

So. In no particular order–my escape books. I’m not linking them all, but here’s Indiebound if you’d care to go look for any.

None of these are exactly new, but hey. Spoiler warning. If you don’t want spoiled for a title (probably just a little,) don’t look at the paragraph that starts with that title!

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

I first read The Hobbit in 8th grade (so, 12-13 years old.) It was a very bad time for me, but The Hobbit took me away so magnificently, I reread it about eight times in a row. Even after that, I still carried it for months, rereading bits, and especially the chapter Flies and Spiders. Poor Bilbo, lost and alone in Mirkwood, but then he found his courage, and rescued his friends! It was a time I needed courage, and Bilbo finding his, gave some to me. (Don’t get me started on what Peter Jackson did with An Unexpected Journey, which is as far as I’ve gotten and may ever get in that series though I loooooooved LOTR and own the expanded editions…)

The Lord of the Rings, by that same dude

I love Frodo. I adore Sam. The friendship and support and humor of Merry and Pippin, Gandalf’s grouchiness and also the love and joy in him, Galadriel and Gimli, Legolas and Gimli, Sam’s rescue of Frodo, “I am no man!” Boromir’s redemption. Faramir’s choice. And, because the spiders of Mirkwood weren’t horrible enough, Shelob.

That moment in Shelob’s Lair when Sam holds up the glass Galadriel gave to Frodo… “a light in dark places…”

I still haven’t read it as many times as I’ve read The Hobbit, but I’ve read it a LOT.

The Warlock In Spite of Himself, Christopher Stasheff

I don’t know, I just loved hanging out with Rod Gallowglass? A smart hero with a smart mouth, a story with a cool premise, lots of action and heart, and pretty much nothing in it resembling my life…yeah. This was a good one to hide in.

Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling

Why did I first pick this up? I couldn’t tell you. I probably couldn’t find anything else to read. But I never regretted it. Deep in this book, I was on the Grand Banks, with the dark water and the gloom and Disko Troop at the wheel of a small ship creaking and groaning…I can still picture it like I was there, like I too lived a summer on the little We’re Here.

The Beastmaster, Andre Norton

I read a LOT of Andre Norton as a teen and young adult. I loved nearly all of those books, but this one…oh, this one. Hosteen Storm is a man who has lost everything. All he has left is a promise he made, a promise of vengeance, and the special and wonderful animals of his covert operations team. I loved the animals, I loved the glimpses of his culture. I loved him finding what he needed.

Julie Garwood

Ahh, my romance phase…it started when I was visiting my parents on vacation. I’d stayed up late, and there was nothing on. I had foolishly not brought enough books on the plane, and the book my stepmother had abandoned on going to bed was right there…it was Saving Grace by Julie Garwood. I picked it up and read from where my stepmother had left off, then went back and started at the beginning. It was a fun read! On returning home, I read every Julie Garwood I could get my hands on, and I enjoyed the historicals mightily. When I hit the contemporary ones …yeah, no. Couldn’t get into those. But I held onto my Julie Garwood for years, slowly winnowing my collection until I had passed them all back to the great churning used book market.

Nevada Barr

Anna Pigeon is fun to follow around. Nevada Barr writes you right into the park where the novel takes place. Blind Descent was my first (or was it Firestorm?) Anyway. VERY good at yanking me out of my life and plunking me down in someone else’s, and that was what I wanted. I read a lot of mysteries in this phase. Agatha Christie, of course, but also Tony Hillerman, to visit the Navajo Nation, Sue Henry to see Alaska, and Sara Paretsky to explore Chicago a bit. (natch! if you think I was going to start at Nevada Barr and not find Sara Paretsky, I don’t know what to tell you.)

On Basilisk Station, David Weber

How many times did I want to throw this book as the author explained how the spaceships flew again? Lots. But I stuck with it because I loved the characters, and holy schneikes, was it worth it. One of the best space battles I’ve ever read, with images that were and are painted on my brain. I close my eyes and I see Honor’s ship limping in to engage once more a ship she cannot match, because she’s not letting the bad guys get past her…

I have a great big huge soft spot for characters who just. will. not. stay. down. HUGE soft spot. Love them. Want to help them. Can’t look away from them. I’ve read a LOT of words, following Honor Harrington (despite the fact that it’s pretty clear the author is in love with her, sigh) because how can I not follow her? (Seriously. A LOT. Have you seen how thick those books are?)

All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot

Oh em gee, these books. What an absolute flippin’ DELIGHT these books are. This is the first of the memoirs of a country veterinarian in Yorkshire, and I have loved this book/this series since I first picked up my mother’s friend’s copy at her house when I couldn’t have been more than ten. If you’re an animal lover, these are stories you’ll never forget. The dog who liked to bark in visitor’s ears. The cat that didn’t want a home, but brought her kittens to safety. The dog who went “crackerdog” and sent rich wonderful gifts to the vet who took care of him. The cows, the horses, the sheep, the dales, the vet, his boss and his boss’s brother…all a delight, start to finish and end to end. Joyful and wonderful, and as escapist as can be.

So there’s my list. Some of them I’ve worn out, read so much that they don’t take me away anymore because I can be both there and here. Some of them (lookin’ at you, Mr. Herriot) I haven’t picked up in so long, I’m heading from here to my local bookstore’s website, to see if I can have copies shipped to me so I can own them yet again. (I’ve probably owned them and passed them on three times already…)

And then there’s The Hobbit, which I’ve never let go of. When I wear out a copy, I buy another. It’s on my desk in front of me now. I’ll probably read at least Flies and Spiders, and maybe the whole thing, before I put it back on the shelf I grabbed it from–to see if I’d remembered the chapter name correctly and of course I had. Some loves never leave you.

Many of us need an escape right now, so please–share yours. Where are you running away to, today?