Social media can be #sofrustrating.
So, yeah, I got “tagged” by a friend on Facebook to list “Ten Books that Have Stayed With Me in Some Way“ (a Rather Vague distinction if ever there was one), and I was so excited because a) I got to write a Top Ten List, and b) it was about books, so I wrote it exactly as the instructions indicated: fast, and without thinking about it. Here’s the instructions, as given to me:
Rules: don’t take more than 5 minutes and don’t think too hard. They don’t have to be the “right” books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way. Then tag 10 friends including me, so I can see your book choices.
As soon as I’d posted my list, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the books I’d forgotten. Thank God and Al Gore for the Interwebs: at least I can correct this grievous error by blogging.
Necessary mathematical caveat: as with all such Top-Ten Lists which appear on rodalena.com, “ten” is an interesting concept, not an exact amount.
Top Ten List of Books that Have Affected Me In Some Way
1. The Bible
The foundational book, of course. It taught me about love and hate, morality and beauty, the power of words, and the truth of stories.
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” –I John 4:7
2. Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein
My first glimpse into the wonderful world of poetry.
“And all the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.” –Shel Silverstein
3. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
I remember being given this book in my tenth grade English class, opening it, and inhaling it. I think I read it at least three times that year. If you haven’t read this book as an adult, do: its beauties are seen from a different vantage point.
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – Atticus Finch
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” –Scout Finch.
4. Red Sails to Capri, by Ann Weil
This is the book that taught me how to teach my kids.
“People are afraid of anything they don’t understand. When they understand, when they know the truth, they can do something about it.”
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling
The whole series affected me really, but this one so beautifully illustrates that assuming the worst about someone or something without really making an effort to understand it is often to make a serious mistake:
“After all this time?”
“Always…”
6. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
This book is generally considered to be the first great novel written about 9/11, but that is a completely inadequate description. This is a book about a boy trying to understand his terrifying new world.
“We stopped laughing, I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: “Do you like me?” –Oskar Schell
“Nothing beautiful is true.” –Oskar Schell
7. My Bright Abyss, by Christian Wiman
For people of faith, or people trying to hold onto a small sliver of faith, this book is a treasure.
“Faith in God is, in its deepest sense, faith in life-which means that even the staunches life of faith is a life of great change. It follows that if you believe at fifty what you believed at fifteen, then you have not lived-or have denied the reality of your life.”
8. The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
Some characters stick with you. Some stories pierce. This book did both.
“…a part of me would say, ‘God is trying to tell you something, you dumb […].’ And another part of me would say, ‘God doesn’t talk to punks from Puerto Rico,’ you know?”
“If you can’t be serious, be quiet.” This shut up Emilio for days.
“The sparrow still falls.”
9. Aimless Love, by Billy Collins
Billy solidifies himself as my favorite poet with this latest collection:
“But earlier this week on a wooded path,
I thought the swans afloat on the reservoir
were the true geniuses,
the ones who had figured out how to fly,
how to be both beautiful and brutal,
and how to mate for life.”
10. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
I have entire chunks of this masterpiece memorized, though I never actually intended to memorize any of it. Gus and Call’s story is not just a western; it’s not just a buddy-story; it’s not just Americana. It’s a human story. I read it once a year, and it grows better with age.
“It ain’t dyin’ Im talkin’ about. It’s livin’.”
“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” -John Green, in The Fault in Our Stars
Okay, so that’s the the list I posted on the fly. It’s Obviously Incomplete. Here’s the rest (this list is also hopefully incomplete, as I hope some books I’ll read in the future will also affect me):
11. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
I wept like a child at the end of this book; I read it during the worst turmoil of my divorce. (See my complete review here.)
“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you.”
12. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Charlie made me remember how hard growing up is, and how priceless one’s dear friends are.
“We are all infinite.”
13. On Writing, by Stephen King
As I am attempting to become a writer, this book has helped me in untold ways, mainly because of the following two quotes:
“Words have weight.”
“The adverb is not your friend.”
14. Five Days at Memorial, by Sheri Fink
This book is a necessary grief: it hurt to read it. I had to set it down frequently and read or do something funny and light to get through it. We just have no concept of the horror that went on, or the bravery of and the sacrifices made by so many people during Katrina.
“Emergencies are crucibles that contain and reveal the daily, slower-burning problems of medicine and beyond—our vulnerabilities; our trouble grappling with uncertainty, how we die, how we prioritize and divide what is most precious and vital and limited; even our biases and blindnesses.”
15. Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
Introverts need this book. Extroverts need this book. It helped me understand myself and the ways in which I interact with the world so much better.
“The highly sensitive tend to be philosophical or spiritual in their orientation, rather than material of hedonistic. They dislike small talk. They often describe themselves as creative or intuitive. They dream vividly, and can often recall their dreams the next day. They love music, nature, art, and physical beauty. They feel exceptionally strong emotions-sometimes acute bouts of joy, but also sorrow, melancholy, and fear.
Highly sensitive people also process information about their environments-both physical and emotional-unusually deeply. They tend to notice subtleties others miss-another person’s shift in mood, say, or a lightbulb burning a touch too brightly.”
16. House of Leaves, by Mark C. Danielewski
This book is scary. Not Freddy Krueger scary, or Friday the 13th scary, but Really Terrifying: it’s a decent into madness, complete with hallucinations, creepy brilliant poetry, and the inability to tell when the events in the story are actually occurring, or when the reader is trapped in the narrator’s broken mind.
“Little solace comes
to those who grieve
when thoughts keep drifting
and walls keep shifting
and this great blue world of ours
seems a house of leaves
moments before the wind.”
17. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
One of the goals of my life is to become a woman with the strength of character of Skeeter, Minnie and Abileen. My full review is here.
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”
18. I am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai
This is the face of bravery. And the power of words and education. My full review is here.
“Let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons.”
So, dear readers, what’s on your Top Ten Lists?