At the end of my book club's lively discussion of The Storied Life of A,J, Fikry, I asked them a question that the author was asked in an interview: What three books have shaped your life? I broadened the question to influence rather than shaped and from different times in your life. That's a toughie for any reader! If you read a lot, it's a harrowing question - but intriguing.
One of the group offered almost immediately, Margaret Wise Brown's Color Kittens, citing that she thinks she was about three and the idea of mixing colors sparked to mixing all kinds of materials and coming up new -leading to a lifetime of creativity. I responded from her answer citing a book of poetry my mother first quoted to me and I later read for myself. I don't even know the title of the book because that's long gone from the raggedy book! Ginger something, I think. But that spawned my memories of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses the contents of which are permanently in my heart forever. And I would add Anne of Green Gables and Understood Betsy to that honored list. These books assured me that at its heart, the world is shining despite struggles along the way.
It gets harder as I contemplate young adult years but thanks to my childhood context of limited resources the gems really stood out as I wandered into high school reading. And those books were classics - I knew nothing of young adult literature, nothing about dragons, vampires, dystopia, aliens, etc. My loves were built on the solid soil of reality - with a dash of romance thrown in always! Jane Eyre found her way into my heart early - as did Rebecca (Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again....) These are books I read over and over again, suffused with pleasure at each reading. But I can't say they influenced my life, exactly.
So I'm still thinking and picking up samples to nibble on....and oh what a banquet from which to choose!
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