Mihow

On Books

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Mihow
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Sarah B. wrote about the fact that she’s rereading a book she read when she was in her teens. At the time, it changed her life. While she hasn’t mentioned which book, it has me thinking about the books that affect me (before the age of 18).

BOOKS THAT CHANGED ME:

  • The Stranger by Albert Camus
  • Several of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories.
  • Then Again, Maybe I Won’t (heh) By Judy Blume
  • Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss.
  • The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
  • A Reckoning by May Sarton

BOOKS THAT DID NOT BUT I WAS TOLD WOULD:

  • On the Road by Jack Kerouac
  • Demien by Herman Hesse

That’s off the top of my head. I am sure there are more. (Should I be worried that two Dr. Seuss books came to mind immediately?)

Comments

24 responses to “On Books”

  1. jon Avatar
    jon

    a few years ago, i re-read ‘catcher in the rye’

    i remember reading it in hs, and being ‘taught’ from the viewpoint that he’s a badass, and he’s real, and he’s an odd protagonist

    then i read it after college, and saw him to be the most superficial, silver spooned, dissatisfied little brat of a rich prep-school kid—more so than any of those types of people that i went to school with. and that he’s so miserable because in essence, he is everything that he hates.

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  2. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    I get the impression I might dislike that book a second time around.

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  3. Amanda B. Avatar
    Amanda B.

    Heck no sister. Seuss rules.

    I loved “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Silverstein, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I’ve read those books like a gazillion times.

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  4. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    My bookclub read Catcher a couple summers ago and loved it. Yes Holden is a child of privilege, a ne’er do well grappling with his own “phoniness” as well as that of those around him. If I were a teacher again, I’d teach Catcher alongside Hamlet and the Wizard of Oz (the movie).

    The books that changed/influenced me as a teen were “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, “Absalom, Asalom!” and “Leaves of Grass.”

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  5. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Maybe I will reread it, then. I am curious. You know, I haven’t ever read Fear and Loathing? Weird. :/

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  6. virginia Avatar
    virginia

    i second your opinion of on the road. just never happened for me. keep waiting to meet someone who will open my eyes to something I may have missed there… anyone?

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  7. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    I read “On The Road” one summer in high school and it did nothing for me. Frankly, Dean Moriarty (based on Neal Cassady) sounded like a horny prick, and Karlo Marx (based on Allen Ginsberg) just didn’t seem like a guy I wanted to hang around, either. Later on I read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” (while backpacking through Europe) and realized that THAT is what I thought “On the Road” should have been.

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  8. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    damn … all my books are so “male.” i would never be able to get a job in academia. thank god i got outta that racket.

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  9. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    damn … all my books are so “male.”
    ha ha ha
    I think you should (re)read The Fountainhead—get some estrogen already. (Toby Joe LOVES Ms. Rand.)

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  10. tobyjoe Avatar
    tobyjoe

    Yeah, I’m your typical Rand fan, for sure!

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  11. Tom Cruise Avatar
    Tom Cruise

    “Dianetics” changed my life!

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  12. Katie Holmes Avatar
    Katie Holmes

    Yeah, it changed my life too.

    [Did I say that right, Tom?]

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  13. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Katie, Tom is a homosexual.

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  14. ?? Avatar
    ??

    “The Happy Hooker” was an eye opening read at the tender age of 16. And on the less pornographic end,”The Giving Tree” still is powerful to me.

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  15. robhow Avatar
    robhow

    To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee

    Amazing that it is the only book she has ever written.

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  16. greg Avatar
    greg

    i bounce from “the story of the eye” back and forth to “the giving tree”…..it’s so important to give and to receive….at least in my book.

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  17. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Ah story of the eye. That’s a doozie. Incidentally, I bet those two books haven’t ever lived in the same sentence before now. We’ve hit a new ground.

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  18. greg Avatar
    greg

    they’re living together under my bathroom sink as we speak…hehehehehe

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  19. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    *silently wonders why both are in the bathroom.

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  20. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Sex with priests and eggs = good pooping material? Or are you that dirty. Don’t answer that. I already know, sir Gregory.

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  21. Diedre Avatar
    Diedre

    “The Story of the Eye” for a while there I thought I was the only one to have read that….thank God I’m not alone.

    But my fav – Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins.

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  22. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    i had to read that book for a class in college. That and the Accursed Share, Volume 1. Insane, I tell ya. That class was rough but interesting to say the least.

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  23. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    Don’t tell, but mine is Babysitters Club #18: Stacey’s Mistake.

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  24. calvo Avatar
    calvo

    ooh, I’m late to the party, but I have to chime in about on the road as well. another that I thought I’d like but never really got into was zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

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