Books that inspired you

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Okay, you started, now I get to play! I honestly have to say I don't think I would have survived my childhood without books. Most inspiring? Biggest impact? Here are a few off of the top of my head:

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. Eric Hoffer was a stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s who wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. True Believer is a study of fanaticism and what personal failings lead people to willingly offer up their lives and the lives of others for a cause. An English teacher gave me this book when I was 15 after reading an essay I had written about the differences between my father’s and my views on patriotism. Right time, right mind frame, I don’t know, but no other book has ever hit me so hard.

A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. I read this when I was 12 because my much-adored older sister read it and loved it. I read every book she did and most of them were full of concepts that went over my head. Not this one. It’s about a man who’s ready to leave America because he’s disgusted by his country, when a friend of his suggests he gets to know his country before making that decision. So he decided to walk his way to its heart. Acceptance, and freedom and beauty in the ordinary.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. After reading this one I swore I would never, ever forget how magical the simpler things in life are.

To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. I’m having a really hard time describing why this book was so important to me… is it odd to have learned your morals from books? My family is a bit racist (not violent or anything, but it’s there) and I’ve always wondered why I was different, why I hated that side of them… reading books like this, and The Bluest Eye and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, as a young teen ingrained something in me that says it is completely wrong to judge by race, by gender, etc. It gave me insight into cultures that seemed so different, but when it came down to it, weren’t.

A Slipping Down Life by Anne Tyler. This book was my introduction to Anne Tyler’s writing and while it’s a really good book its true impact is that her books don’t have neat and tidy endings and this was a first for me when I read it in 1986. It frustrated me, her books would hook me, string me a long and leave me hanging at the end… I almost always threw her books against the wall when I finished reading them because of this, but eventually, I accepted it. And in accepting it, I accepted that life isn’t going to be wrapped up all neat and tidy and topped with a bow.

The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood. I read this book a year after I rather dramatically ended a relationship that was leading towards wedded blight. I have never identified with a character as much as I did with the main character of this book and I don’t think I ever will again (I also have to add that I am glad I am no longer this character). The guys I have convinced to read this book don’t find it funny, but this book will always make me laugh (oh my, the under the bed scene). Besides being funny, it also has a very powerful message about calling yourself back to you.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I was 13 when I read this and decided censorship was bad, very bad and that nothing would ever stop me from reading what I wanted to read…

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. “Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours.” Do I have to say anything else about it? Well, there’s also “Everything on this list may be wrong.” which helped form my philosophy that every thing I believe in may be wrong, I chose to believe it because I feel its right for me, but I can’t prove that it’s right for you.

I am currently reading Atlas Shrugged and I’ve read other books people have mentioned: the bible (read it at age 13), Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance (27), Tao of Pooh (29), Jane Eyre, Tale of Two Cities, Shakespeare (all in high school), The Autobiography of Malcolm X (32), and while they were all good, I haven’t yet noticed their influence on my life. Some books I read that I resented having to read at the time but that I should go back and re-read are Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an age of Anxiety by Alan W. Watts.

Heidi

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"Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity." -Eric Hoffer