Ok, Audrey - in answer to your challenge... 10 books that influenced my life. 1. Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld. I probably read and reread this book more than any other in my childhood. Its a wonderfully detailed and humorous portrait of life in ancient Rome, in which eight schoolboys solve a baffling mystery. I credit this book with much of my love of history. 2. S Is for Space by Ray Bradbury. Some of Bradburys best science fiction stories proved that living in this world is an amazing and magical thing. 3. The four volumes of the Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell. I first got a hold of these in my teens and read and reread them obsessively for years. If I have any skill at thinking at all, its because Orwell taught me how to do it. 4. My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber. Thurbers light, humorous, slightly melancholy writing has always been a model of perfect prose for me. 5. Reeling by Pauline Kael. Ive loved movies all my life, and Kaels brilliant essays and reviews deepened my understanding of film and also sparked my love of critical writing itself. 6. David Copperfield. The greatest reading experience of my life; it opened a whole universe up to me, the bottomless, infinite, inexhaustible world of Charles Dickens, a universe I will never tire of exploring. 7. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. A humane, quirky, paradoxical defense of the Christian faith that remains a rock for me to this day. 8. The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell. The life and words of my hero of heroes. Reading it made me a Johnsonian for life. 9. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I found the cynical-sweet, romantic view of 30s L.A. irresistible, and it was a doorway for me into the whole mystery genre. 10. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. The greatest work by our greatest living writer. I struggled with it as great books should be struggled with. Dark, violent, profound, and unexpectedly beautiful, its one of those rare books that can truly color the way you see the world. What say you, Todd, Marcus, and DeAnna?
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 19:27:54 +0000