'Cause I'm A Copy-Cat

She was kind enough to actually take a suggestion of mine to heart and read my favorite book of all time. So, I'm going to copy her and give you all a list of books that have changed my life, or at least my eyes.

1. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I hardly remember the story (I read it first in 4th or 5th grade) but I remember the Dr. Seussian appeal of novel of pure fantasy and puns, and I firmly believe my obsession with language and creating stories began, or at least was greatly helped along, by this book.
2. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. Okay, totally a given, especially if you read my blog and remember this rather exuberant post on the reasons why I think it's probably the best thing on the planet. But seriously? A series about love and hate and losing and winning and life and death and right and wrong and loyalty and betrayal and knowing what it means to be a "self" and a "self" worth being, all at once? I tell you, there isn't a better recipe for growing up right if it doesn't have these books. (Not counting these books, of course.)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I plan on using this baby as my primary go-to parenting book when I'm raising my kids. Atticus, you're the best guy I've ever wished was real so I could meet.
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I feel like I've rambled about this someplace else in my archives, but I just couldn't find it for the moment, but I tell you it is my favorite book. Not only is it superbly written, not only is the plot pure story and entirely engrossing, not only is it deliciously long, but it taught me one of the most profound lessons I've ever learned: timshel. "Thou mayest." It's the crux, the fundamental point of the Great Plan, all rolled into one book.
5. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Because it is absolutely brilliant, left absolutely unfinished, and, as Vonnegut once said, contains "all you need to know." About God, about death, about guilt, about freedom, about religion, and about goodness. And because it reminds us that sometimes the craziest among us are the most self-aware. And because I fell in love with Ivan. And because sometimes I thought I was Alyosha, or Dmitri, and most especially Ivan.
6. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. That guy really got a lot of things right. It made me understand humanity, my own faith and the faith of those "not-of-our-faith" so much better. It boils down all of mankind to its bare minerals and shows you: "Look, dummy, here's the pattern of it all, I can't believe you were so blind you couldn't see it to begin with."
7. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. It taught me how to delight in everything, it ignited in me a long-dormant but still-going-strong adoration for biology, but most importantly, it taught me to see everything, and that the quest for "the tree with the lights in it" is not an unworthy one.
8. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Because it reminded me that God is everywhere, that traveling is both a selfish pursuit and isn't and both are okay, and that the way to God is as easy as sitting still for a moment and listening to the music of it all.
9. Persuasion/Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Because Persuasion kept me company in the wilderness of adolescence, and legitimized the mirage of fateful coincidences I wandered through for many years, and still return to when lonely. And Pride and Prejudice has slept beneath my bed and chased away the late-night monsters of melancholy borne on the pages of heavier books meant only for daytime reading thousands of times.
10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel. 1/3 an incredibly intelligent discourse on religion and God, 2/3 a brilliantly moving reminder of the fragility of life.

Sometimes, when I talk about books, I feel like those people who are blurbed on the backs of novels -- "Absolutely stellar" "Pages and pages of the purest prose" "Forces you to believe in a world so undeniably real" "A masterpiece" etc. -- that are really just the readers' way of trying to say in increasingly creative ways: "This is good. Read it."
And so, if my "absolutely stellar" "pure prose" doesn't convince you, just listen when I say that these are good. Read them.

Timshel -- Mumford & Sons