Recently
I was challenged to list the ten books that have influenced me in some way, or
at least have stuck with me over the years. If you know me at all, that task is
a daunting one. Often my students ask me which, of all the thousands (perhaps
tens of thousands) of books I have read, is my favorite. I usually reply that I
don’t have one; naming one single book as my favorite would be like choosing
one of my children and setting him or her on a pedestal above the rest. I can’t
do it. However, I have decided to attempt this list of ten books.
I
thought that I would start by shooting from the hip—just listing books that
came to me off the cuff. That list came to about three dozen books, and that
was before I went back to Goodreads.com to see if I had missed anything. (Of
course, I had. I ended up with 56.) And so I had to set a few parameters, to narrow my list.
1.
I excluded all religious books. Yes, I am a
practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon),
and religious scripture and text had made a big impact in my life, but I
figured that at least half of my list would be dominated by religious tomes
like The Book of Mormon. And so I
decided to eliminate them from my list of ten. Perhaps, I’ll create another
separate list of strictly religious texts for another time.
2.
The next eliminating element involved series. I
decided to cut all series out of my list and depend solely on works that stood
independently. This includes items like The
Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, even
though it is technically not part of a series; it is still connected to the world
of Middle Earth and the story of The One Ring. If I could only choose one book
from a series, I’d end up cutting my wrists instead of items from my list.
Maybe I’ll do an influential series list later, too.
3.
The third part of purging dealt with
professional reading. Although they have shaped my occupation, works by Kelly
Gallagher, Penny Kittle, Deborah Dean, and others were cut to the scrapheap, because,
like some of the other rounds of reduction, they might be a little too
particular. As I look at shelves in my classroom as I type this, I can hardly
decide which have been the top influences in my teaching career, let alone my
life. Again, it sounds like this might be another list, although this one might
have to be broken down by subjects as well: teaching writing, reading,
classroom management, leadership.
4.
I also eliminated poetry.
So where does
this leave me? Well, it left me with 17 titles that I felt had influenced my
life
and stuck with me.
But before I reveal the top ten,
here are the honorable mentions (in alphabetical order by title): Beowulf, Bronx Masquerade
by Nikki Grimes, Harris and Me by
Gary Paulsen, Hope Was Here by Joan
Bauer, Maniac Magee by Jerry
Spinelli, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
by David Lubar and (believe it or not) Walden
by Henry David Thoreau. Quite an eclectic mix, I think. It sort of represents
the motley patchwork that makes up my life, though. I wish there were room to
share all the stories behind all of these. Some of these, though, I have
already written about; others I have not. Perhaps I will later.
So
here is the list in alphabetical order by title. I offer no explanations at
this time. Deal with it.
1.
Choosing
Up Sides by John H. Ritter
2.
The Chosen
by Chaim Potok
3.
Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury
4.
Guys Write
for Guys Read ed. Jon Scieszka
5.
Lord of
the Flies by William Golding
6.
The House
on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
7.
Swiss
Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
8.
To Kill a
Mockingbird by Harper Lee
9.
Trouble
by Gary D. Schmidt
10.
Where the
Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
As I look over this list, I regret
that I can’t include many (MANY) more, but I suppose that’s just something I’ll have
to live with. The good news is that there are many more books to read before I
sleep.
If you want to see my Goodreads stuff, and we're not already friends (on the site), please send a request. More than likely I'll honor your request. Heh heh.
