Pages Breathing Fire: 10 Books About Dragons

Watership Down was the first of a wave of animal books that included Duncton Wood, The Book of the Dun Cow, and Tailchaser’s Song. It’s inspired an animated movie that is not terrible (bear in mind that I dislike most movies) and which has weathered the years well.

What: A group of rabbits whose warren is destroyed by the bulldozers of a housing development try to find a new place to live, despite various pitfalls and traps along the way.

Who: Anyone who loves animals will love this book, and any writer interested in writing epic journeys as well as non human protagonists will find an analysis of the rabbits’ trek an instructive one.

When: Read this for immersion or when you want to share a saga with your children.

Why: Read it to see how well Adams has worked out rabbit soceity, including a vocabulary full of rabbity concepts like tharn and fabulous phoneticisms like hrududu. Read it to see the rabbit mythology and listen to the folktales told among the rabbits, very much in the same tradition as Kij Johnson’s The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North park after the change.

Where/how: Read it on a summer afternoon, preferably one when you can see a young rabbit or two frisking on the lawn, flicking their long ears back as they eye you whenever you flip a page.

I’m headed into the city this evening to hear John Scalzi read from Fuzzy Nation. I’ve loved the Little Fuzzy books (and I’ll note that there’s a bunch of his stuff free for e-readers) since discovering them as a teenager and found a book club edition of the first two this weekend at the thrift store. I’d forgotten what a tear jerker the first one is, and the anti-corporate message seems even more timely than usual. I haven’t read Fuzzy Nation yet, but I’m picking it up today and looking forward to it. I’m also fascinated by the idea that Scalzi’s written fan fiction – it opens up some interesting questions about that debate.

I recommend the first book for people working on learning how to create emotional depth, which a couple of writers have mentioned to me lately. Any book that has me welling up with tears is doing its job right in that regard. I’m taking my Writing F&SF class to this reading so they can be inspired by seeing a writer in action – maybe Scalzi will get them to cry (in a good way).