Formative books
Since Linda mentioned it a couple days ago, I've been thinking about formative books. Not necessarily favourites, but the ones that have the biggest impact on shaping the reader. I've been considering how I have been shaped by the things I've read. A book becomes you, stays with you your entire life, even after you've forgotten its contents.
I learned to read on the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe. I understood the concepts of murder, vengeance, madness, and betrayal, well before I understood what family or love were all about. But that wasn't its real impact on me. When I read "The Bells," I could, for the first time, I could HEAR written words in my mind. The cadence of that poem still gives me the chills every time I read it.
Earth Abides was the first science fiction I ever read. In the third grade, I couldn't fully appreciate its greatness, but the concept of our world without human society as we know it? Totally grabbed me. Primed me from a young age to think about how people interact and what social structure is about.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was next. I hated it. I'm pretty sure if I read it again as an adult, I would enjoy it, but at age 8, I thought it sucked.
That soured me on science fiction for a while. Until fifth grade, when my dad read the Hitchhiker's Guide omnibus. He would not stop laughing, so as soon as he finished it, I picked it up and read it. That was when I discovered the Beeb-- my dad found the original radio show AND the tv series, which we both devoured together. And then I knew, the English do great things besides import tea.
Then in sixth grade, I found Elizabeth Boyer's "The Troll's Grindstone" in my school library. I picked it up because I loved the cover art. I had never read fantasy before, only classics, science fiction, and horror. I was hooked! Read the whole series in a few days. I went to my English teacher, Mrs. Friest, who thought I should read more age-appropriate material. I asked her about the books I'd just read and asked her where I could find more like it. She handed me David Eddings' first Sparhawk book, The Diamond Throne.
That was when I learned I have no patience, because book two hadn't been written. But I learned a valuable skill then-- how an impatient reader bides time between releases. Reading more shit! By the time I plowed through the Belgariad, the Lord of the Rings boxed set that had been gathering dust on my shelf for years, Yolen's Pit Dragon trilogy, and some Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels, the second Sparhawk book had come out. Go me!
In seventh grade, my English teacher Mrs Sasaki suggested the Anne McCaffrey books. I read some crap about a psychic dragon princess and hated it. Sasaki then suggested Rawn, which I likewise hated. I then decided all female fantasy authors sucked (nevermind that my first introduction to fantasy was a female author, or how much I loved Yolen). Hey, "formative" doesn't mean I liked it.
When I was fourteen or so, I picked up Annette Curtis Klause's "The Silver Kiss." my own hormones were stirring for the first time, and I developed an unhealthy affinity for paranormal romance which persists to this day.
I will expand this list later. It is now lunchtime!
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