True literature is like homemade bread, it is something that fills your soul and makes you realize that none of that cheap white fluff they pass off as bread, will ever satisfy you again. To write literature literally means to create something of substance, something that will last like a rock through the ages, instead of the flame of passion that flares up with popular books only to die months later. True literature will be appreciated only by those who understand what literature is, and long for the real deal.
My friends, literature is becoming more difficult to find with our modern day writers, because the easiest way to get published and read is to sell out to the popular way of writing. However, here are several books by contemporary writers which I have read and consider to be in the same realm with the greats. Feel free to add to the list, and explain why you think each qualifies for literature.
The Giver, by Lois Lowry: I actually was privileged to meet Lois at my University, but I read and loved the book before I met her. As far as her books go, The Giver is the one that is the most literarily rich, as the depth of the idea and the thought behind the world leave the reader thinking. You might be interested to know that she got the idea from a short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omalas” by Ursula K. LeGuin.
Sample excerpt:
They had heard Father complain about the night crew before. It was a lesser job, night-crew nurturing, assigned to those who lacked the interest or skills or insight for the more vital jobs of the daytime hours. Most of the people on the night crew had not even been given spouses because they lacked, somehow, the essential capacity to connect to others, which was required for the creation of a family unit.
*The Queen’s Thief Series (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and Conspiracy of Kings), by Megan Whalen Turner:
My best friend first recommended these books to me, and I have never found anything to top them on my list. The first book starts out slower than any of them, but Turner’s creation of Grecian, yet completely fictional places and pantheons are stunning, and each book is better than the last (my friend would argue The Queen of Attolia is the best, and my personal favorite will ever be the King of Attolia). The main character, Gen, short for Eugenides, is a character I cannot top with any other; he alone would carry the stories, but Turner creates other characters of equal caliber to create a real, yet simple, world with real people. When I read it, I almost felt as though I was intruding on the lives of these characters, that I was, in essence, a god looking down on the lives of these people on pages of a book. Turner is a master of character and world creation, and weaving a story like no other; she also writes romance with a depth that far exceeds any other book; if you ever need inspiration on any of these subjects, these books are the ones to read.
Sample excerpt: The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and a groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen’s shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home and the end of the day. “I didn’t have the gardens searched,” he said. “I’m sorry.”