Last night, Bob and I were having one of our typical scintillating conversations over dinner rehashing the day and he mentioned an NPR segment he heard, called "Books That Changed My Life." Naturally, this segued to books that changed ours. Here's mine...and I invite you to share yours.
Ever try to figure out how your political philosophy was formed? To some degree, I trace mine back to reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" when I was around 12 years old. My older sister had been assigned to read it for school and, because I devoured books at the time, I jumped right on it.
Not being a very "girly girl" type, I totally related to Scout and her desire to wear overalls, go barefoot, ask inappropriate questions, and chase after an older sibling. And because I related so much to her, I was in awe of Atticus Finch and the important lessons he taught his children regarding tolerance of those who were different from the Finches: from the Ewell family, to Calpernia, to Tom Robinson...and of course Boo Radley. I think this had a tremendous influence on me.
Honorable mentions (for different reasons) include: Little Women (what girl didn't want to be Jo?); The Women's Room (one of the first novels about the women's movement); Small Changes (the first time I read a book that was about becoming gay - not that there's anything wrong with that); M*A*S*H (before the movie or the TV series, there was the book - a total hoot and my first anti-war novel); and "A Prayer for Owen Meaney," my favorite John Irving novel (though I love all his books).
And you?
3 comments:
Can't think of one, wish I could.
oh, but TKAM is one of my favorites too, have read it many times. And I also love a prayer for Owen Meany as well. One of my all time favorites is Lord of the Rings. Hard to say that with a straight face after all the movie hype, but one of my favorite sisters gave it to me when I was 13.
Bob
I don't read as much as you guys, but I have read Owen Meany, To Kill a Mockingbird and now that I think about it, I think I read MASH too, many, many, many years ago.
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