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The Library of Your Life
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Heather
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Aug 03, 2012 09:59AM
This is a great question. I have to think on this one.
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The question is one I need to ponder... May be one set for my youth and another set for adulthood. This has my brain busy!
I'm new but I really liked this question; for me, my relationships with books is highly autobiographical. When I was growing up, I often escaped into the world of books and those characters could be more important than real people. Wishing I lived in a world more like the world I read about was a pretty conflicted experience. A book I relate to very strongly in helping me to understand that part of my story is The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. A few other books that have been important at different points in my life:
* The World According to Garp
* Of Human Bondage
* East of Eden
* Nine Stories
* Someday Angeline
* Paddle-to-the-Sea
* The House at Pooh Corner
* The Body
* The Secret Garden
* The Cider House Rules
* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
* Miss Rumphius
There were also certain books that I will always associate with particular people, especially people who read them to me as a child. The most precious book to me is probably a copy of Tales from Shakespeare that I used to read obsessively; for my tenth birthday, my great-grandfather inscribed the book for me, which he himself had been given for his own tenth birthday in 1919. It's worn and torn and missing pages, but I keep it in a treasured place near me wherever I live.
Thanks for thoughtful question and I look forward to future conversations with this group.
Welcome, Sarah.The Library of my life:
The Night Before Christmas
A Child's Garden of Verses
Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat
Nancy Drew Complete Series Set, #1-64
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
As I Lay Dying
The Grapes of Wrath
The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses / The Crossing / Cities of the Plain
No Country for Old Men
These are listed in the order that I read them. Looks like I was contemplating death (As I Lay Dying) before I started to get too old (No Country for Old Men)
Interesting question, and great novels listed so far. I think mine would look something like this: 
I'm really having trouble with this one.Library of my childhood...
When I was younger I didn't have much access. I guess the elementary school library supplied books, and I remember the bookmobile coming from Jasper once, but I only remember reading the books at home. So the library of my youth would consist of the World Book (some early 1960s edition), the World Book Annual, Science Year Annual, and Childcraft Encylopedia (also an early 1960s edition). We used to have travelling salesmen that would come by to sell these.
I *loved* those books!
Library of the Middle Years...
In Junior High, I only remember lots and lots and lots of non-fiction and
Laura Ingalls Wilder for the "Little House" books
and
Donald J. Sobol for the "Encyclopedia Brown" books
Library of Later Teens...
Frank Herbert
J.R.R. Tolkien
Kurt Vonnegut
Library of University...
The Canterbury Tales (Canterbury Tales)
English Romantic Poets (Harold Bloom, you old so-and-so)
Story of Civilization (Will and Ariel Durant)
Library of Grad School...
This one is longer, so I have to think some more.
Library of Grad School... (message continued)Grad School in the '80s was filled with French feminism, post-modernism, post-structuralism--I was all -ismed out. But it did help me figure out some things. I had continued reading some books since high school as "comfort reads," and they had continued to show up in my studies, as well:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
and
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
and
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
and
The Silmarillion by J R R Tolkien
I added a few new ones to the list of books that made an impression:
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
After Grad School, the library of my children's years. I have some great books from this one! Later...
Sarah wrote: "The World According to Garp"I liked "The World According the Garp," but
A Prayer for Owen Meany was the one that really ripped me up! I could easily add that one to my library.
Zorro wrote: "Nancy Drew Complete Series..."I had a few old copies of Nancy Drew, but somehow I got some copies of Trixie Belden. Does anyone remember those?
Julie Campbell
Zorro wrote: "Grapes of Wrath"Another great one! Love this book.
Jessie wrote: "Sarah wrote: "The World According to Garp"I liked "The World According the Garp," but
A Prayer for Owen Meany was the one that really ripped me up! I could easily add that one to my library."
Jessie, I agree in that I like A Prayer for Owen Meany best among John Irving's novels I've read, but Garp had a larger personal impact on me, in terms of what it was able to teach me about myself. That's sort of how I thought about this question, rather than books that I really liked/enjoyed/appreciated.
Also, I loved Nancy Drew, too, and could easily add that to my list! I had an old set of books that my mom and aunts had grown up reading. A few Trixie Beldens, too, from the library, but I didn't like her as much.
Mod
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Light in August by William Faulkner
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories by Robert Penn Warren
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
Poachers by Tom Franklin
And the most recent addition is everything I've read by Ernest J. GainesThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman; A Gathering of Old Men; and, A Lesson Before Dying. I have a number of others to look forward to reading. My thanks to Jessie for her original post in this group on Gaines.
Mike
Lawyer Stevens
Mike wrote: "And the most recent addition is everything I've read by Ernest J. GainesThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman; A Gathering of Old Men; and, A Lesson Before Dying. I have a number of others to look forward to reading. My thanks to Jessie for her original post in this group on Gaines."I'm very glad that you've enjoyed Gaines. I've just read the one so far, but hope to read more.
I have to shout out to my local library's Community Read program for choosing Gaines. I didn't participate in those reads initially, but have really enjoyed them in the last two or three years.
Sarah wrote: "Jessie, I agree in that I like A Prayer for Owen Meany best among John Irving's novels I've read, but Garp had a larger personal impact on me, in terms of what it was able to teach me about myself. That's sort of how I thought about this question, rather than books that I really liked/enjoyed/appreciated."That reminded of something else that was really part of my formative years: Harlequin romances and "bodice rippers." My older sister was in lots of those clubs that sent things like 8-track tapes and books, and there were literally chests full of Harlequins and other romances in the house. If I think about it, one that really got me interested in the history of the Middle Ages was this one:
The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss
PLEASE read the description! I remember it fondly.
I have a list of 50 books that have changed the way I think. From that list, these are my favorites:The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini;
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver;
What is the What by Dave Eggers;
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi;
And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer;
The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? by Padgett Powell;
Witness by Whittaker Chambers;
Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities: Autobiography and Cities by Kazim Ali;
and Stranger from Abroad: Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, Friendship and Forgiveness by Daniel Maier-Katkin.
Mike wrote: "Although I have an abiding love for Southern literature, some might be surprised at the library of my life, for while it contains,Southern lit, the top volumes did not originate in the South.East..."
Mike, I have to say that reading East of Eden helped make me into a more humane human being. Cal Trask is probably one of the most excellent characters I've read.
In the middle of The Hotel New Hampshire now, and hope to read more of those you mentioned sometime.
Jessie wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Jessie, I agree in that I like A Prayer for Owen Meany best among John Irving's novels I've read, but Garp had a larger personal impact on me, in terms of what it was able to teach me..."I've never read a harlequin romance, but a friend of mine loves them and likes Medieval history, too. I may pass this title along to her.
Mod
I'm always so happy to find a lover of East of Eden. The critics were not kind to Steinbeck for the most part. But I have read East of Eden more times than I can recall. It is the book that I have recommended it more than any other book and given it as a gift as often. Samuel Hamilton is probably my favorite character. And you are right. This is the book that has the ability to give the gift of humanity. I've given it to many young lawyers. *ahem* Graduation from law school puts some folks at an elevated height equivalent to Yertle the Turtle. *GRIN* They need to remember the little turtle named Mack at the bottom of the stack. Steinbeck accomplishes that page after page.
Mike
Mike wrote: "I'm always so happy to find a lover of East of Eden."I haven't read it--yet. But for years I've come across *incredible* quotes from it. It's on the "to read" list, but just haven't gotten up the gumption to go there. I don't know if my mind is tainted by the movie versions I've seen or what.
I'm sad, embarrassed to say I have yet to read any Steinbeck. I have more than one on my list and now have to get there.
Mike, I really enjoy Steinbeck and East of Eden is one of my favorite books as well as Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. I read The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men every year. Anyhow, I agree that it is such a powerful novel. I really enjoy Steinbeck's prose.
Mod
I haven't read it--yet. But for years I've come across *incredible* quotes from it. It's on the "to read" list, but just haven'..."
I think your point of being tainted by the movie versions is very valid. The James Dean version covered such a small part of the book. The Jane Seymour version was more faithful to the book, but, well, it was the Jane Seymour version. The book has never received the screen treatment it deserved, but you'd be in the theatre for about a day if it did.
Gumption? Heck. You've got it. I encourage you to read it. It takes a bit of patience getting into it as Steinbeck sets the place, but then you find yourself on a roll. Go for it!
Mike
Mod
Yes, I remembered you were a Steinbeck admirer, too. I think one of the greats that is often overlooked is In Dubious Battle, and I'm particularly fond of his anthology of short stories, The Long Valley.
Mod
http://timshel.org/timshel.php"
That's one of my favorite passages. Here's another that will wet your whistle for East of Eden:
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/glad/g...
For short, I always called it, "A child may ask." Steinbeck originally published it as an essay prior to the publication of Eden. It ended up word for word in the novel. Powerful stuff.
Mike
Mod
There's no need to be sad or embarrassed. If we were to compare shelves right now, I assure you I would be grief stricken at what I hadn't hit yet on your shelves. It always comes down to time. Old as Methuselah takes on a very positive connotation when it comes down to everything we would like to read.
Mike
Mike wrote: "Sue wrote: "I'm sad, embarrassed to say I have yet to read any Steinbeck. I have more than one on my list and now have to get there."There's no need to be sad or embarrassed. If we were to compa..."
Now if I live somewhere near as long as my mother (102) and read as long as she did (probably meaningfully til 100), I have some good reading years ahead and a huge list of books I'd like to try. Steinbeck will be there.
Some of my favorite books from the past, those that really stick out, are The Winthrop Woman and Katherine by Anya Seton, The Source by James Michener, Light in August by william Faulkner, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon by Kaye Gibbons, and The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. Also The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke.I'm sure there are more, but these are off the top of my head.
Now since I've joined Goodreads, my favorites have been The Children's Book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Among Others, The Book Thief, A Fine Balance, The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty., The Complete Maus, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, No One Sleeps in Alexandria, Native Guard (poetry of Natasha Tretheway), and Pocketful of Names.
I know I've run on a bit and in some ways this is a nonsensical list. It's pure emotion and of the moment, reacting to Everitt's plea. These are some of the books that have made my heart move over these many years. They cover a few continents, novels, poetry, fantasy, memoir. All the things I read.
Always a voracious reader, there are lots of books I have loved, but thinking of books that helped define me was a real challenge. I reserve the right to add, but here's my list -Harriet the Spy
The Catcher in the Rye
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret The Defense Never Rests
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Lekachmacher Family
Goops and How to Be Them: A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants Inculcating Many Juvenile Virtues
The Stinky Cheese Man: And Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!
Dear Mr. Henshaw
The World According to Garp
Freedom
Columbine
The Summer of the Swans
Still Alice
Flowers for Algernon
Trinity
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
The Great Santini
The Pushcart War
The Trumpet of the Swan
The Yearling
My World And Welcome To It
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
The Diary of a Young Girl
Sophie's Choice
Maurice
Old Yeller
Tales of the City
Last Days of Summer
Fahrenheit 451
Little Women
Nine Stories
Lad: A Dog
The Executioner's Song
In Cold Blood
A Wrinkle in Time
She's Come Undone
The Handmaid's Tale
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Summer of My German Soldier
Kathy wrote: "Always a voracious reader, there are lots of books I have loved, but thinking of books that helped define me was a real challenge. I reserve the right to add, but here's my list -..."
A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorites, too, and my kids (and I) *adored* Stinky Cheese Man!
Jessie wrote: A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorites, too ......"And Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret!
Mod
Kathy, excellent list! I can't believe I forgot to put Fahrenheit 451 on my list. One of my favorites.
Also, I loved Nine Stories by Salinger. Very underrated. Too bad this collection isn't as widely known as The Catcher in the Rye.
Diane - Lad, A Dog is on my list because when I was 13 I had the a horrible case of the flu for a week. My Dad came in from work everyday and would sit with me and read aloud until I fell asleep. Because of my high fever, I couldn't remember what he had read the night before, so my Dad read me the first 20 or so pages of Lad, A Dog (his favorite book as a child) seven nights in a row. My Dad has been gone a long time now and that remains one of my clearest and most precious memories of him.
Kathy wrote: "Harriet the Spy...Trumpet of the Swan"I should have included both of these - my mom read us Trumpet of the Swan when I was little and did funny voices, too; and for about 3 years, Harriet was my inspiration.
Mod
I love this story. When I was 8 or 9 I had red measles. The doctor, yes, they made house calls in those days, was horrified to find me reading a book, sunlight streaming into the room. He informed my family I could lose my sight and had the windows covered. My mother and grandparents would sit on the floor with a flashlight and read to me at all hours of the day until I fell asleep at night. My grandmother's reading choices were westerns by Zane Grey. My grandfather read me Davy Crockett: His Own Story: His Own Story. My mother read me Landmark histories. So I share those kinds of precious memories.
Mike
I love this topic and feel like I could write an entire book on it, talking about which books have defined my life and how. But I'll give it a go.The Secret Language and Bridge to Terabithia - growing up in the woods, with a single best friend - these books were our Bible of imagination. We turned my woods into our own enchanted world, and created our own secret language that was based on Nordstrom's. We shared a dream journal and a language dictionary, and wrote stories set in our land. (I'm sure Chronicles of Narnia and The Secret Garden also figure into this.)
Wind in the Wheat- this book touched something deep in me when I was a music major. It isn't as relevant to me now, but I'll never take it off my shelf.
Dead Man Walking - Reading this book marked a turning point in my life, where I stopped assuming my parents' politics were my own, and I started to think for myself.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly and The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America gave me the confidence to drop out of a PhD program and pursue another direction for a while... this just opened up my life in ways I would never have imagined.
Cloud Atlas - I was finally done with grad school and hadn't read for fun in a few years. An online friend recommended this book to me, and it reignited my reading life in the most amazing ways. His gentle push has redefined who I am.
Mod
The Secret Language and Bridge to Terabithia - g..."
I loved your reading journey, particularly how
Dead Man Walkingled to your development of your own political thought.
For me, I suppose it was Johnny Got His Gun, and Sherston's Progresswhich I read during the Vietnam War. My grandfather took me to the Selective Service to be assured I did my duty to get my draft card. I had the good fortune that as my lottery number was rising to the top of the call, the War finally came to an end.
Mike
Mike wrote: " I had the good fortune that as my lottery number was rising to the top of the call, the War finally came to an end. ..."Good fortune indeed.
Jenny wrote: "Bridge to Terabithia"This is my all-time most precious book read in childhood post-picture books. It captures so much of what it meant to be a kid who was kind of an outsider, but also very adventurous, and also the mysterious worlds we ventured into that were just beyond reality.
I'm about to read Cloud Atlas soon. Hopefully that will be a good one, too.
Oh, I love this idea. Let's see, the books that defined my life, starting, I suppose, from kid-hood. The ones I read and re-read obsessively. E. B. White's Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, of course. They made me proud to be a good reader. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Johnny Tremain. The Alice books. A Separate Peace. Wind In the Willows. 101 Dalmations. To Kill a Mockingbird. The Hobbit & LOTR. These stayed my friends as I grew.
Garp hit me in my early twenties and I remember re-reading my copy until I could recite passages. It seemed to me Irving had the strangest, richest imagination to come up with Ellen Jamesiens and The Pension Grillparzer. I still believe life is a combination of sorrow and lunacy with an awful lot of laughs.
My Husband courted me with Heinlein's Time Enough for Love. Smart man. I gave him my first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird and he neglected it until the book was ruined. I nearly broke off the engagement. Anne Rivers Siddon's John Chancellor Makes Me Cry helped clear the early marriage problems. I give copies of that one out like Gideon's Bible.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's Cross Creak let me know I wasn't the only outlander in love with the South and Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides taught me how to forgive the people who loved and hurt me at the same time. Both of those books imprinted themselves on my soul. I owe so much to these authors.
My list would not be complete without David Copperfield and Jane Eyre. They are the staunchest friends and companions I've ever known. Jane's spiritual dimension grows with every re-reading and David Copperfield was the only book I could bear to hold on the day my father died. There is something on those pages that holds and rocks me as a grandmother holds and rocks a beloved child. If some fool decides not to cremate my corpse, I hope they will at least put copies of those two volumes in my casket when the time comes,. I couldn't face eternity without them.
I love this question, there are many books that have accompanied me in my life some even influenced me to a point that I changed course.I may have to add some more later but here are the ones that come to mind straight away.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Far from the Madding Crowd
The Great Gatsby
Le Grand Meaulnes
Don Quijote de la Mancha I
Madame Bovary
Anna Karenina
Sons and Lovers
Nana
Nada
Angelique, the Road to Versailles
Gone with the Wind
A Lesson Before Dying
*Children of Pride Changed my study course
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Years
The Magic Mountain
The Remains of the Day
And Quiet Flows the Don
Nada
The Secret Garden
The Green Mile and Dead Man Walking
These are not in any chronological order or order of importance
I speak three languages so I count myself as very lucky to have read the French and Spanish in original
Mod
I ve stopped there for now and for fear of overloading the pages ;) We have all had fun this afternoon, as a family , drawing up lists a great way of spendîng an afternoon
The following books were early influences:The Hardy Boys series
To Kill a Mockingbird
Inherit the Wind
The Stranger
Billy Budd
Robert Frost collection
A Streetcar Named Desire
Walden
Heart of Darkness
In Cold Blood
Hemingway's short stories
The Catcher in the Rye
The Portable Faulkner
Ironweed
On the Southern Literary Trail
Books mentioned in this topic
Far From the Madding Crowd (other topics)The Secret Garden (other topics)
To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)
The Great Gatsby (other topics)
Le Grand Meaulnes (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Zane Grey (other topics)Dave Eggers (other topics)
Helen Hooven Santmyer (other topics)
Ursula Hegi (other topics)
Khaled Hosseini (other topics)
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