warning: very long post ahead. if you make it to the end, you deserve some sort of medal.
this morning i had a hankering to make a list. (i know, what a surprise.) i was perusing my usual blogs, when what do i find but a list of books on deb's blog! it was fate! it was destiny! and now, i proceed to take a page from deb's book (heh heh) and make a list of
the fifteen books that have influenced my life.
1. are you my mother? a silly choice maybe, but it's the first book i can remember. i read it over and over. i believe i even learned to read with this book.
2. matilda i can remember reading matilda and thinking i wanted to be just like her, bringing cartloads of books home and devouring them. i've always wanted to be well-read more than anything. i'm nowhere near well-read yet, but i'll always have my beloved mr. dahl to thank for inspiring my voraciousness in the world of books.
3. harry potter sure, call me a nerd. or a dork. but the first harry potter book came out when i was 8 years old, so i grew up along with harry, ron, and hermione. it was the first series i got sucked into. the idea of a completely new and different world within our own fed my already wild imagination. i will always love harry.
4. ella enchanted oh, ella enchanted. i have read this book so many times, i have passages memorized. the corners of my book are worn, and there are sentences underlined in fat colored pencil by my 9 year-old self. it's such a lovely book. EVERY little girl needs to read it. i would buy a copy for all the girls in the world if i could.
5. the odyssey the first day of my AP english class in high school, my teacher assigned us this book. i was already terrified of being in that class (you should have seen the size of my textbook!) and even more terrified when she told us we had to read HOMER. the blind guy who lived like 8 million years ago. but i decided to tackle it head-on. and you know what happened? i understood it. i enjoyed it, even. and i realized that i can read those "hard" books. (i'm still working my way up to war & peace... i WILL get there!)
6. pride and prejudice duh.
7. the great gatsby after reading "the crucible" (i hated it) this book was a giant gust of fresh air. i've always been obsessed with the 1920's and the depression that followed. it's fascinating how quickly america rose and how hard we fell. this is such a beautiful, between-the-lines kind of a novel.
8. hamlet my first exposures to shakespeare were romeo & juliet and much ado about nothing. i loved both of them, but hamlet was an entirely different experience. i loved getting into the characters' heads, trying to understand their motives, and finishing the play feeling like i had a better grip on human nature.
9. the secret life of bees this is a special book. with every turn of the page, i fell more in love with those beautiful characters and their rich history.
10. gone with the wind this book was a huge accomplishment for me. have you seen the size of it?? it's very, very long. and it was excellent. i loved reading about the civil war, about scarlett and rhett, about the south. it's a beautiful story. and it prepared me to be able to read les mis. maybe. i'm scared of the 6,000 pages in les mis.
11. wuthering heights i was surprised to learn a lot of people hate this book. i read it in about two days. oh, how i fell in love with that english countryside. this is the book that solidified my resolve to move to england someday and leave america behind.
12. ex libris: confessions of a common reader my first exposure to the essay. i'm nuts for books about books, so i just loved this collection of essays about books. snappy and well-written. loved it.
13. essays of e.b. white so after ex libris, i went on to the essays of the lovely mr. white. everyone should read at least one of his essays. so lovely! he lived such an ideal life, both in the country and the city. and i love his charming writing style. his essays made me feel like i'd just had a wonderful conversation with an old friend. so cozy.
14. my name is asher lev this book. this book! it's incredible. the ending slammed me so hard, i was in an asher lev daze for days. it really, seriously influenced my life and how i look at it. such an excellent book.
15. to kill a mockingbird i read this in 9th grade, along with romeo & juliet. i can definitely credit my 9th grade english teacher with giving me my love of classic literature. who doesn't love to kill a mockingbird?
(the scriptures are a given. no, i did not forget them!)
i've been drawing like a madwoman lately.
