Reading Addict

If you think Oliver Stone has the conspiracy bug, take a moment and introduce yourself to some of the more creative and paranoid works major, award winning authors have written. Sure, most everyone is aware of The Da Vinci Code and Dan Brown’s unique brand of conspiratorial suspense, but he by no means is the only paranoid fiction writer. Below are some of the better novels that incorporate age old conspiracy theories.

Have you ever experienced this as a reader? Every book you’re reading over a short period of time seems to be exploring the same issues, themes, or cultural touchstones. Maybe it’s not all that uncommon. Perhaps, certain readers tend to be drawn to books that explore specific themes. Still, the serendipitous experience feels like you’ve enrolled in a college seminar, with readings selected to help you understand and reflect upon social and cultural issues.

It’s true that baseball is no longer the most popular sport in America, that football has annexed that position; a sport where impossibly large men line up infinitesimally in the three point stance in the pantheon of America’s sports loving heart. But baseball embodies something more than a fading memory of the 1950’s and 60’s. The folklore of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Shot Heard around the World, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aaron has yet to be eclipsed by any other sport.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Epilogue by Anne Roiphe were published just three years apart and address the devastating loss of the authors’ husbands. Didion expresses her purpose for writing about this period of her life:

I’m sure if you really pressed Chip Kidd he might eventually come clean that, yes, there are aspects of his job that don’t greet with a hug and kiss on the cheek. But from here, his job seems pretty fantastic. You know when you’re browsing a shelf of books and you come upon a great cover? For me, the mantra ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ could not be more irrelevant. If I find a cover that could be a work of art in and of itself, game over. That book wins.