What books had an effect on your life?

The first book that I read that I truly enjoyed for its entertainment factor was Catcher in the Rye.  Of course, Holden Caufield didn’t really change my life, but I did discover that there were books out there that I could investigate and would give me some enjoyment.

I remember reading The Ugly American in Civics class in high school and being totally blown away by the realization that America was not the kind, giving land of the free, home of the brave that I took it for.

Before I get into books that changed my life, I need to thank someone whose impact regarding libraries changed my life.  My best friend, Emma, had the greatest mom.  Her name was Mabel and I adored her.  She took Emma and me to the library about every weekend that we weren’t in school.  I don’t remember Mabel reading anything but trash magazines but her caring enough to give us the chance to love reading is still within me.

I remember reading the Beany Malone series of mysteries for young adults.  I couldn’t wait to get to the library and get the next in the series.  That probably started me on my way of reading various series of books in the future.  After that I sauntered over to gothic novels starting with Jane Eyre and Withering Heights.

I think I took several years off reading novels because I was in school and had to read what I HAD to read.

After school I became obsessed with Irving Wallace novels.  He wrote a familiar pattern.  Introduce several characters, entwine a mystery into the mix and then connect all the characters with the mystery.  Some of my favorites were The Man, The Prize, and The Word.

Later in my life I became fascinated with Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear series.  I loved Ayla and her adventures.  I was enamored that she lived alone in the world and could survive, no not just survive, discover all these wonders around her.  The herbs, the weapons, and survival skills on acid. I myself, am a jellyfish and would not survive for twenty minutes alone in the wilderness.  I’d drive myself stupid with my mind racing about all the possibilities of things that could eat me, trip me and I’d break something and be even worse off, or just being alone and not knowing a single thing about survival.

One of the books that really knocked me for a loop was Atlas Shrugged.  I loved Dagney just because she was a kick-ass woman during this very difficult time in history.  But John Galt was my hero.  He wanted all the great minds in the world to go on strike and let the world know what it would be without them.

I know the book was written to enlighten people to try harder and to strive to make the world a better place, but at the time I first read it I was disillusioned with the world and thought John Galt was right and the world should get a re-boot.

These days I read what I want to read, and I believe I over-read my allotted estimation on Good Reads last year by several books.  I ended up reading over seventy.

In my thirties I had decided that I wanted to write a book to thank all those authors out there who had written the books I had read in my life.  I didn’t realize the task that I had taken on.  I wrote the beginning and I intended my hero to be a guardian angel of the heroine of the book.  I wrote the end of the book and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to tie the two sections together.  Then one night I had a dream, and in the dream I came up with the connection between the beginning and the end.

My first reader was a professor of English at a local college.  She was a dental patient of ours and I asked if she would read my book and give me a critique.  She did and she loved the book and the characters.  But she told me to get rid of the guardian angel bit and make his character a real person.  She also suggested that I not start my novel with a flash-back as she said this is a real no-no in literature.

I have now revised and rewritten this book over six times.  I keep telling myself to rewrite it again and bring it up to date.  It is a good story as I have been told by several people who have read the book, including the hubster.  Time will tell.

Go read a good book and enjoy yourself.  Life is short and there are so many good books still to read.

PS  Photo is of my first publication, a poem about gardening.

Peace be with you.