Hi everybody. Josh Corman here from bookriot.com
to check off another task of the 2016 Read
Harder Challenge. This video we're going to
talk about books that are under 100 pages.
Now books under 100 pages are great. Who doesn't
love a short book that you can sit down and
just a few hours and knock out. In fact, if
you are in the middle of a reading slump,
I would recommend picking up a really short
book as a way of kind of jump starting your
reading habits, getting back into it, because
like I said you can knock it out in such a
short amount of time. Now if you pick one
of these that I'm gonna recommend today or
something else, go ahead and do it because
a short book is a special kind of reading
treat. Now the first book that I'm going to
recommend is James Wweldon Johnson's autobiography
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. This
is a book about an African American man who
passes as white after witnessing a lynching.
And the reasons for that are really pragmatic
and understandable. He's seen something horrible
and becomes convinced that he is safer, right?
There's a measure of security in passing as
white among the people around him in light
of what he's witnessed. I did not know what
"passing" was until college. I read a book
called Passing by Nella Larson thanks to a
professor, Yolanda Griffith, Dr. Yolanda Griffith
-- shout out to you -- in a major black writers
class. But until then, I was completely ignorant
of this specific element of racism in America
that would lead people to pass as a race other
than their own, as a way to kind of assimilate
into the world around them and avoid some
of the terrible things that happen because
racial prejudice in this country. Now Johnson's
book deals with all of that and what starts
out as a decision made for practical reasons,
reasons that might spare the main character
a lot of heartache, becomes more complex as
the story goes on. And the book starts raising
these questions about what the character had
to sacrifice in order to obtain that level
of security and that kind of pragmatic piece
of the decision to pass. What was lost as
a result of that? Including this really strong
desire to create something original, this
kind of African American artform in music
that never gets the chance to happen because
of the decision that's made to pass. This
book historically might be one that kind of
gets passed over in favor of works maybe by
James Baldwin or the non-fiction works of
Malcolm X or Martin Luther King when it comes
to race issues in America. But this is a book
that deals with, like I said, that really
specific issue in a way that is really compelling.
That's James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography
of an Ex-Coloured Man. Sticking with kind
of classic, well-known works, this is The
Pearl by John Steinbeck. One of my favorite
Steinbeck novels, obviously a whole lot slimmer
than works like the Grapes of Wrath and East
of Eden, for which he kind of drew his greatest
acclaim. But Steinbeck wrote a ton of short
books, Of Mice and Men most well known among
those. The Pearl is something that on the
surface is very different from a lot of his
works because it is about this villager who
is a diver, lives in this ocean village. And
he goes out into the water one day and finds
this enormous pearl. Something that he recognizes
immediately could have life changing consequences
for him and his family. But the ways in which
this book is not all that different from a
lot of what Steinbeck wrote is that very quickly
it becomes a story about greed. What happens
to a person once they have it in their head
that obtaining a material thing is gonna be
what saves them. That thread is kind of running
through Of Mice and Men and the Grapes of
Wrath and some of his other works. And here
it's laid out in this kind of fable-esque
allegory kind of way and has that kind of
timeless quality to it where there's this
very clear kind of moral to the story. But
even as that's obvious, the story's still
compelling. I think the characters are still
fully fleshed out even though they kind of
come from maybe this archetypal sort of story.
I love The Pearl. It's one of those that I
did read in a single afternoon. I love it
because even though it's recognizable and
even maybe what happens plot-wise is not a
huge mystery once you kind of see where things
are going. It's still has Steinbeck's characteristically
beautiful language. It still has that kind
of pathos. The gravity to it. And you feel
for this character because we've all experienced,
even if it's just in passing, that dream of
the winning lottery ticket and what we would
do. But as we've seen throughout history,
that sort of thing is not a cure all. It's
not going to solve all of your issues. In
many cases, it either creates new ones or
brings existing issues to bare in amplified
ways. And that definitely happens in The Pearl.
Like I said, one of my favorite Steinbeck
books, Steinbeck's one of my favorite authors,
so this one is definitely up there for me.
That's The Pearl by John Steinbeck. This is
A Grief Observed. Now you can see my cover
has fallen off at some point. I've read this
book a few times. This is by C.S. Lewis. I'll
put this down and get a cover image to put
up so that you can see what it might look
like if you see it at your local library or
bookstore. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
is kind of like The Pearl in that it's very
different from a lot of what other work that
we have from C. S. Lewis. Now if you know
anything about Lewis, you know he's a famous
Christian apologist and yeah, he's the guy
who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. He became
so noted as a public kind of popular theologian
because he would give these radio addresses
and these speeches in England because he just
had this knack for translating very complex
theological issues into language and concepts
that your average, every day person could
understand. And he liked, I think, speaking
with people about their faith and about Christianity
in general. I don't know that he loved being
the voice of Christianity for a large number
of people. He probably became deified himself
in a lot of ways through his work there. But
A Grief Observed is something totally different.
This was originally just kind of a journal
that he wrote after the passing of his wife,
Joy. She died of cancer. They were older than
typical when they got married and he did not
have very much time with her. The reason that
it's so great is because it is not filled
with great advice on how to deal with the
loss of a loved one. It is not the picture
of somebody who has something bad happen to
them and then just falls into lockstep with
what scripture assures us should happen and
how we should behave according to the Bible.
And instead we get this picture of a guy who
is angry, who is embittered, who is skeptical
and having all sorts of doubts, which are
totally understandable, but which you don't
think a guy like this, quote unquote guy like
this, is supposed to have. He's supposed to
have the textbook response from a Christian
perspective. And I will say, that even if
you're not a Christian, not a person of faith
at all, I don't really think that it matters.
Obviously it makes a difference in terms of
how the book might affect you or might land
some of the concepts might resonate. But I
think everybody can understand what it's like
to go through this kind of trauma. Even if
nobody that close to you has ever passed away,
I think that we understand intuitively what
that kind of pain of losing somebody is. And
to see a person intellectually and emotionally
kind of work through these things on the written
page, but to see that first hand I think honestly
is reassuring as a person of faith. I think
that sometimes it can be intimidating when
you don't have the perfect response to every
situation, you can feel inadequate. You can
feel like you're doing something wrong. And
Lewis kind of shows us this these things are
going to creep in. That these doubts and these
frustrations and these fears, especially when
something so painful occurs, they're gonna
be there. And that his response is not perfect
I think makes the book all the more compelling
and ultimately all the more resonate. That's
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis. Now whether
you read one of these 3 books or something
entirely different to check off this task
of the 2016 Read Harder Challenge, share that
with us. Let us know what books you found
that are great in the comments below the video
here. Or share those with us on social media.
You can tag those posts #readharder so that
other readers can find them and get some recommendations
from the crowd. I hope you enjoy your books
under 100 pages. Don't cheat. Find one that's
short. Don't do like 120 pages. It's fine.
You'll find something that's under 100. Stick
to the script here. As always, thank you for
watching and we'll see you next time.
