This particular article was a list from Ben Affleck. His list is a bit heavy on foreign policy type reads, but the article in general made me think. Which books have really and deeply affected me?
I'm just going to exclude all Scriptural texts from the list, albeit they are the most influential books in my life. Just assume that the Bible and the Book of Mormon have had the most impact in my personal life than anything else, but if read in the correct spirit that would be the outcome for anyone else too. So let's keep this list secular in nature, shall we? My list, by the way, is in no particular order or ranking.
In eighth grade homeroom, my teacher, Mrs. Alarcon, read aloud to our class To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I don't recall ever feeling so much as I did during that reading. What a powerful story. What a promise of justice and fairness. What an example of a well-read, well-respected, honorable father. I loved the relationship of Atticus and Scout. I still do.
A little later in my life I read the J.K. Rowling Harry Potter series and fell in love with the fantasy. It came along at the right time for me to renew a love of literature--even fantasy. I love that this woman has written a complete and total universe that I otherwise couldn't have visited. Plus, don't you wish you could just wave a wand and say "Scurgio" and the house would be clean? Sure! Who wouldn't?
Gap Creek by Robert Morgan was one of my favorite books from our RS book club. I know that the draw of this book was the strength of the heroine and the struggles she faces. The other draw was that this story was written by a man. Not to be sexist, but he really "got" this woman character. While I have never scalded a hog and made lard from its fat or birthed a baby on my kitchen floor without help, but I suspect this guy hasn't either. That is good storytelling.
During high school and college, I think I read almost all of his published works, but my first Shakespeare read was The Merchant of Venice, even before Romeo and Juliet. What drew me into his writing was the universality of themes. Vengeance? Mercy? Forgiveness? Who hasn't felt some of that? Plus, what a cool dad that names his daughter, Portia--yeah, well. But people are people, still.
And I can't leave this list without including Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read this as part of the required reading in freshman English at BYU. It was a mental block at first. then I began to see Lizzy Bennett as one of my friends, she would have been if she were a real person, you know. This book was so funny and witty and clever and man, did Jane just nail relationships?! This was years before I saw the 1995 A & E version with Colin Firth, I might add. Now I am a Jane Austen addict--and I am reading or listening or watching her characters and her words nearly all the time. And like Shakespeare, she is dealing with topics still relevant today and to me. Plus, I love British stuff in general. You can't get much more British than Jane Austen and Shakespeare.
What I love about reading is the escape and the examination you can achieve when reading a really good story. I can identify issues in characters and then see them reflected in my life. I can also explore solutions theoretically before I try in real life. Plus, when I am reading something worth my time, I get the feeling that my brain is not turning to mush, as I had previously feared.
Any reader favorites I should also have considered? Five books is a very short list, I know, but it is a good exercise to pare down the list to what I REALLY love. Feel free to drop a comment with your favorites. Let's compare. Plus I just finished Pope Joan yesterday, and need a few new suggestions. I'm headed to the library later today.
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