One of my Facebook friends received a challenge today: "list ten books that have stayed with you." Her list inspired me to make one of my own; but as I considered which ten books to list, I realized that the ones that most "stayed with me" were the ones instrumental in making me who I am. So I decided to list them in chronological order according to when I first read them, and add a line explaining why each book was so important. The list traces a step-by-step personal development, each awakening building on the last.
1. The Wonders of Life on Earth (big, colorful, coffee-table book by the editors of Life Magazine) – Opened my eyes to what its title says; I daresay every life choice I have ever made has been influenced by it in some way.
2. The Swiss Family Robinson, by David Wyss – Opened my eyes to the possibility of other ways of living.
3. Stalking the Wild Asparagus, by Euell Gibbons – Opened my eyes to the bounty of nature in my own neighborhood.
4. Field Guide to the Birds, by Roger Tory Peterson – Opened my eyes to the great diversity of nature (I had no idea there were so many kinds).
5. Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson – Opened my eyes to the fact that nature is not infinite or invulnerable.
6. Extinct Birds, by Errol Fuller – Opened my eyes to the beauty that is already gone forever.
7. For Your Own Good, by Alice Miller – Opened my eyes to the deep soul wounds of the child I once was.
8. Living Poor with Style, by Ernest Callenbach – Opened my eyes to live a good life without pursuing prosperity.
9. The Barbarian Way, by Erwin Raphael McManus – Opened my eyes to the spiritual path not dictated by what others say I should believe.
10. Days of War, Nights of Love, by CrimethInc Collective – Opened my eyes to living radically; sometimes I want to quote passages from it the way Born-Again Christians quote the Bible.
Recently, I have had the uncanny experience of finding an author who thinks the same way I do; who has drawn all the same conclusions I have. That author is Barbara Kingsolver, and I have spent a delicious summer getting to know her books, one after another. But, while this offers the comfort of knowing I am not alone in the world, it has a downside: I am not challenged. The most important books in our lives are not the ones that affirm us, but the ones that require us to think about something we had not thought about, or something familiar from an unfamiliar viewpoint. Kingsolver can be that for many people, I am sure -- her views are far from mainstream. But once this summer of book bliss is over, I shall have to move on to other books, other authors. What will be the eleventh book to make me who I am?
