You can't be judgmental when someone publishes a list like this--he is asking you to judge him and assumes that he comes off well. I'm always curious what is going through someone's mind when they write such a list. Did these books really change his life? Or are they just his absolute favorites, the type of book he returns to time and time again? Because those are the books that I was thinking about when pondering this question. But I cannot serious say that Pride and Prejudice changed my life, except that I re-read it a lot and will annoyingly refer to "fine eyes" and truths universally known. So what are the books that really impacted the way I thought about myself and the outside world?
Not surprisingly, I refer back to adolescence and childhood for the most part. (I am far too crusty and opinionated now to allow a book to change my thought processes.)
* Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (series): Ah, protestant work ethic and the pioneer DIY spirit. And the detail of Mary's buttons and Laura's bonnets. This book is why I need therapy once a week.
* The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I still want a plot of earth all to my own. I think I liked
Mary best when she was bossing around Colin and making him jealous about Dickon. But I liked the three of them together, a secret, motley crew of agriculturally-minded weirdos. This book is why I got into punk.* Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation ed. Barbara Findlen: This was the first feminist book I ever had. It given to me by my Republican uncle, who disagreed with my taste but wanted to get me a gift I would appreciate--in other words, trusting a young woman to make her own decision, an act I wish his political brethren would imitate. I considered myself a feminist before (duh, I put the book on my christmas wish list), but I had little exposure to a feminist community or women who were active in feminist activism. I learned about the multiple oppressions that face women from a variety of backgrounds, about teen motherhood, about feminist reasons NOT to have a (medical) abortion, about issues that never faced me in my sheltered, white, suburban life. This book is why I'm still excited to be a feminist.
* Fear of Flying by Erica Jong: I must have been 16 or 17 when I read this, so it's somewhat surprising that it impacted me as much as it did. After all, I wasn't married, didn't have any sexual experience, didn't find farting and dirty toes sexy. And yet, I constantly struggled with the idea of being an independent, intelligent young woman and being sexually and romantically fulfilled. I didn't know how to do it. It seemed like relationships at that age demanded that you be a clingy girlfriend, withholding or "giving up" sex as part of a complex system of power and control, not pleasure. I can't say that Fear of Flying showed me how to have a healthy relationship (because...no), but it did let me know that I was not a freak for wanting a healthy balance between intelligence and sex. This book is why I own a vibrator (or 3). It's also why I'm fascinated by book covers that undermine the content of the book (I still have the infamous body bag/naked torso cover pictured).Okay, judge away. I just hope my grandmother never finds this post...
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