 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to Top 5 Friday. This is a third in a series of my top 20 books of all time. And today, let's see if I can get it right. We are working on numbers 10 through 6. So 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, Top 5 Friday. Like I said in the last video, I always have a problem with that. There are 5, but it seems like there's only 4, because there's a difference of 4 between 10 and 6. But I'm repeating myself. We're going to jump right into it with the number 10 spot, which is The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury with the caveat. This book is written in a poetic nature, but it is, I feel, it is a perfect thematic experience where Halloween is concerned. I feel that this book is to Halloween what Charles Dickens a Christmas Carol is to Christmas. That's how much I love this. And it is on this list, as I've said in the other two videos, there's a reason for each and every book on here. And there's never a repetition of theme. And this time, it's Halloween. I'm a horror fan. I was an outsider growing up. Of course, I love Halloween. I love darkness. I love those things. I don't know, it's not a gothic mentality. It's just one of those things. I love Halloween. And this is the perfect example of why everything that I love about Halloween is in this book. The history, the culture, the idea, the candy, the selling, the corporation, all that stuff. Well, it's very, very small. He does focus heavily on all of the cultural aspects and the different spectrum of beliefs that you go from Egypt to Ireland, to Mexico, all over the place. And I appreciate that. But there's also that feeling of, you know, there's just the trick or treating and just the candy aspect also. I appreciated that. It's the whole thing. It's the whole package and I loved it. Now, I know my friend and fellow author Chad Lutzky does not like this book. I think because the language is too plain for him, it's more of a children's book, and it is. It's published by Yearling. I also have fond memories of the cartoon that was, I think, Leonard Nimoy played Mound Shroud. I can't, or voiced Mound Shroud. I can't remember. Maybe he was just a narrator. But if you want a more adult feel to this, a more, whether it be violent or bloody or gruesome or just a more adult language, I have another choice for you. It is not tied for me. It is a close second on the Halloween list. If the Halloween tree was not on this list, this story would be. There is, I don't think there's bias, but there is. I do have a connection to the author. Gregor Zane. His story, The Riggle Twins, in the first Bad Apples anthology. I have a story in that anthology also. I don't want you to pay any attention to that. I don't even care if you pay any attention to the other three stories in there. Gregor Zane's The Riggle Twins is a perfect adult take on Halloween. He captures the essence of Halloween perfectly if you're looking for a more adult experience. I'm not talking adult insects. I'm talking the violence and the disturbing nature of the content. Whereas this one, while it can be at times disturbing, I tried reading it to my son last year. We had to quit because it was too scary for him. But he's a little more sensitive to the, he was six at the time. He's a little more sensitive to the horror aspects of it. And when you get to the point with the Grim Reaper and the scythe and all that stuff, he was terrified for the boys and we had to stop, unfortunately. But that's my number ten spot. My number nine spot, we have The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Layman. The reason this is on the list is because it is an accomplishment for me. And this is going to sound, it's going to sound like a hunk of braggadocio, a hunk of bragging. And it is. I think that this is a book that I set out to write my own version of. My novel, Bay's End, was written with several books as inspiration. The Voice of the Night by Dean Coons. That was on this list at one point in time. When I had repetition, I had that and twilight eyes. I've since matured quite a bit and I've grown away from Richard Layman and Dean Coons. And well, not Jack Ketchum. Jack Ketchum will be a favorite of mine for all time. But Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door is another one that inspired that book. But this one, it's the relationship between the trio. It's those three kids that inspired me to write the trio of friends that is in Bay's End. There is a fourth one. There's Sanders. But the main trio of Trey, Eddie, and Candy are basically the trio that are in here. Replaced with me, my best friend, and my first, I guess you want to call her girlfriend, my first kiss kind of thing. So that's where this comes in. It's a matter of me finally overcoming. I think, I know this sounds terrible, I think my book is better than this book. But it's on this list because if this book did not exist, I never would have written my book. Now, Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door is not on this list at all. I don't have a place for it because there's only, there's one more book that I like more than that one that fits that theme. But we'll get to that because it's in my top five. But if that book wasn't in my top five, The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum would be on this list. In fact, it hurts me just to think that Ketchum's book is not on this list. But I feel that a repetition of theme would defeat the purpose of this list. I hope that makes sense. Let me down there in the comments below if you disagree. So, next up, and also, I have not beaten The Girl Next Door. I think Jack Ketchum's book is far superior but I think mine is better than that one. I hate me down there and do video. So, next up at number eight, at number eight we have Invisible Monsters by Chuck Pollanek. I hear loads of stuff about Fight Club and Fight Club and Fight Club. I don't care much for the Fight Club, I prefer the book at all. I prefer the movie, don't at me. I prefer the movie over the book. It's just a simpler consumption of that piece. I also don't think it's anywhere near his best work. It's something that he will forever be remembered for that I don't think he needs to be remembered for. If he's going to be remembered for anything, I think it would be either Chuck or Invisible Monsters. Invisible Monsters more so than Satire. It is the peak of him writing in using style. His peak experimentation with style that he actually succeeded with. You have experiments with style like Pygmy that is a complete nut or clusterfuck. You have a style in Snuff that has an alternating first person perspective that is super confusing because it's only like a 200 page book. You never know whose mind you're in. At least I didn't. I think his top three Poinic books, in fact, I'm going to leave that for a top five Poinic books when I do my re-read. So I won't tell you here. But this one, he tried to mimic the verbiage of like a Cosmopolitan magazine. A Glamour magazine is what he did. It was his first time. I went out and I bought several copies of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, L, a bunch of different magazines. I brought them home and I read them and I was fascinated by how well he was able to write a book of fiction based on that style. There's more to be said if this book wasn't on this list. Ameena Akhtar's hashtag fashion victim would be in this spot because it is a parody, a work of fiction. A Poinic always has that little twist at the end where it's like holy shit. In this one, I think that Choke has the better holy shit moment. I don't care too much for the holy shit moment in Fight Club at all, but I think it's funny that that has gotten as much success as it has whereas Choke or Invisible Monsters has not. There's a bit and all I want to say about this is it with the color blue at the end that is absolutely brilliant and I think it's the best thing he's ever written. But as far as why it's on this list, it is an experimentation with style that goes outside of your typical narrative, stylistic choices that he absolutely nailed. And that's why it's my number 8 spot. Now, going into the number 7 spot, we have One Flu over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kessie. I've read this book multiple times throughout my life. I think three times so far and each and every time it has met something different to me. But there is a constant thing throughout. It is the best portrayal I've found of mental illness as both objectified individuals and human beings. You have both sides here. You have the chief character, the Murphy character, the entire cast of patients at this insane asylum, care facility, whatever you want to call it. You have every single aspect of how the mentally ill are treated in our society. Especially back then. You have they're treated like animals but then you get them around each other and they treat each other like human beings. You have these mentally ill individuals who are all broken in some drastic way. Even Murphy. Murphy doesn't think he is. I think that's the beauty of the narrative is that Murphy thinks he's perfectly fine where he is. Well, he never comes to grasp how sick he actually is. Then you come to the ending which is one of the most powerful endings I have ever read aside from of Mice and Men. And the only reason, once again, if we were going for a comparison if you didn't like this book, I would say try of Mice and Men. Because oddly enough even at 270 pages some people think it goes on too long and the setting and the themes get tiresome. If you want the same themes go check out of Mice and Men but for the bang for my book I go with One Flew with a Cuckoo's Nest but I love both books equally. It's not a matter of love on this list. It is a matter of theme and what these books mean to me. There's probably a thousand books I love that mean something to me, but they're all in the same classification. And I'm wondering if maybe I should do a series like that. Maybe I do my top Carnival novels or whatever. I think I've been doing that anyways with things because people keep requesting great ideas like Top 5 Villains and whatever. And you'll see these books but you won't see all of these books on those lists. Sometimes you will see books on those lists that aren't on this list at all, whatsoever. And that's because I think that those aspects like the best villain, you have a Nurse Ratchet. I put Nurse Ratchet in there because I fully believe that One Flew with a Cuckoo's Nest is a horror novel. I get a lot of flack for that but I believe that One Flew with a Cuckoo's Nest is a horror novel because of Nurse Ratchet. She is a terrifying monster of an individual. And then you have, there's such a balance there with Chief and Murphy and Ratchet. It's that triangle there that just you have the neutral, chaotic, you have neutral chaotic good because the good that he brings to the group as a whole and then you have the evil. You have evil, neutral, good. So, and I know saying Murphy is good is a controversial statement, but here we are. And here we go on to the number 6 spot. I gotta get this right. It's the number 6 spot on the list. The last one for today. And that is Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmin War. This is a newer addition to this list. I would say newer because I just read it I think within the past two years. Where the line bleeds by her is equally fantastic. In fact, I might like that one more. Again, I know it's confusing, but I might like that one a bit more. But as far as race relations go, this is the book I point out when people bring up writing race properly. And that's why that's on my list. And that's why it's so far up on my list. If you remember in the last video I was saying these are the things to me. And at number 6 is race relations. Now where the line bleeds there is not there are white people in that book there's not too much going on. But the importance of this book is how the black family, you have the white family you have the mixed couple. It's almost not really, but it's almost a Romeo and Juliet type thing because the white parents are of course far more disliking of the relationship between the black woman and the white man than the black family although there is that animosity on the other side also that distaste. But I think the way Jasmine Ward tackled race relations in this book, I've never felt it more powerfully than I did in this book because if you're a fan of the channel you know my wife's black. It's one of those things that what made me look at this closer and inspected and really get down with the microscope after I had my kids. You know what are my kids, you know how are people going to treat and react to my children. Is it even something I can control? Is it something that I have to ignore or what is it? And I've been fighting with that since then because we do get a lot of flak living where we live. We live in the southern United States. We do get a lot of flak here and this book covers those aspects as well. I just really loved the way she tackled it without being I guess not subjective, without harping on one side or the other. She didn't show favoritism I don't feel and I feel like if I were to write a book like this I would probably show favoritism to one side or the other. Which side that would be I'm going to leave that for you to think and form your own opinion. But with this book it's definitely here for the race relations, but also the writing is fantastic. Let's throw that out there. This book wouldn't be on this list if it wasn't so damn well written. Part of the reason I love this but that's part of the race relations is it is so well written to make all these characters believable and true and then you get to the ending and there's a fantastic magic feel to the ending that just blew me away. It is a complete experience and it has the amazing race relations. I really cannot recommend this book high enough and I don't talk about enough. That's why I'm kind of just going on and on. I want everybody to go out and grab it or anything that Jasmine Ward has written. I've only read two of her books so far but I have perused her nonfiction Men We Reap. The Men We Reap salvage the bones and where the line bleeds I do not. I have not read salvage the salvage the bones or Men We Reap but I have glanced through them and the writing is just as terrific in there as it is this one. So let me know if you have a top 20 list or a top 5 or whatever share that stuff down there if you have a top 20 and you want to split it up with these videos like I'm doing that would be cool too if you just want to talk about some of your favorite books or any of the books that I discussed in this video please do so down there in the doobly-doo and I'll see you there until next time I have any you and you this has been another top 5 Friday I'll talk to you guys later bye bye