My Book List

Without thinking too hard about it, think of 15 books in the next 15 minutes or so that have impacted your life. They are the ones that stuck with you through the years. Maybe you can quote them, maybe not. Maybe you pick them up and reread, maybe not. The point is, they stick with you for some reason. I have one on my list that sticks because it helped me understand what kind of a reader I am, and what kind of books/characters I don't like.

• The Outsiders, SE Hinton
• Mere Christianity, CS Lewis
  
• The Book of Mormon
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
  
• Fahrenheit 454, Ray Bradbury
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• Jonathon Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach
  
• The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
  
• Peter Rabbit series, Beatrix Potter
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
• A Child Called It, Dave Peltzer
• Flag of Our Fathers, James Bradley
  
• Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
• Dr. Seuss, most anything for different reasons
• I Learn to Read and Write the Way I Learn to Talk, Marlene Barron
  

Thank you to the Jensens for the reminder that reading really is a part of who you are. "Reading becomes part of who you are in a way that nothing else can", Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail.

I thought about adding some parenting books and self-help books to the list, but I just couldn't. That kind of therapy, while shapes who a person is for some people, just isn't me. I know plenty of people that would scream how wrong I am, but too bad. Those aren't the books that stick out in my mind and I can't recall the names of them. Only one, Confronting The Myth of Self-Esteem, is in my memory bank and that's because it basically gave me confirmation that what the world sees as self-esteem is a bunch of crap. It didn't shape me, just boosted my self-esteem. A-ha!

Your turn. I look forward to seeing other people's lists.