Impactful Books

Mary Budde, WATG Treasurer
As the expression goes, if I had a nickel for everytime my parents told me there was nothing I couldn’t learn if I could read, well, I’d be rich.  Up through elementary school, my mom and I would go to the public library after school on Thursdays and check out our reading for the coming week.  I was fortunate to grow up close to a large neighborhood library, in which there was never a shortage of books that piqued my interest.  As an adult, I count reading as one of my treasured daily pleasures.  

There is a natural progression of listening, to reading, to writing throughout childhood, although reading and writing are intertwined.  Reading to a child in infancy and beyond has repeatedly been shown to benefit children in many ways; in addition, it’s very enjoyable for the adult doing the reading.  I would argue it is just as enjoyable to read a favorite book to an elderly person who can no longer do so themselves.  

We all have books that, for one reason or another, are our favorites.  Maybe they are associated with a particular person or memory, or were just plain enjoyable.  The Books That Changed My Life: Reflections by 100 Authors, Actors, Musicians, and Other Remarkable People is a collection of short essays of the contributors’ selections, and explanations of the books which impacted them.  

Most of the books the contributors cite were read up to early adulthood, although there are a few exceptions.  Some are ones you might expect: The Odyssey, Animal Farm, Pride and Prejudice and Slaughterhouse-Five.  Others are less traditional: Green Eggs and Ham, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pinocchio, and the Nancy Drew series.  However, there are a number of common themes in the essays as to the reasoning for the selections.  How many of these apply when you think of books that made an impact on you? 

• A number of the books were associated with positive childhood memories, such as a parent or grandparent who would “play” all the parts in a fairy tale or children’s story.
• Many people were awoken to their passion by a book, whether it was a love of classic literature, a career path, or the drive to be an advocate for a cause important to them.  
• In several cases, it was the process associated with reading the book that made the great impact.  It may have been the first book a person truly critically analyzed or was encouraged to write in or otherwise annotate.  (For this reason, The Great Gatsby is my most influential book.)
• A handful of the cited books showed the contributors how BIG ideas can be, expanding the limits of their own ideas on nature, politics, spirituality, art and science, and encouraging them to pursue what is possible.  The founder and CEO of GoodReads, Otis Chandler, has read the Dune series five or six times over the years, as a reminder to not limit his own imagination.

Think about your own selections and how they influenced you.  How can you help your children find theirs from the past and present?  Has your child read your most impactful book?  Form your own family book club to explore books together.  It will be an enjoyable and meaningful journey.  

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The Books That Changed My Life: Reflections by 100 Authors, Actors, Musicians, and Other Remarkable People
By Bethanne Patrick. Regan Arts. (March 29, 2016)
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