When I sit outside in the yard with Tobias, it can get frustrating for him, because rather than engage in conversation, I will often space out, usually because I'm looking at birds ( most recently, Western Tanagers! ), but not always. Sometimes I just space out.
On Saturday, in an attempt to break my bird-watching reverie, Tobias said we were going to take turns listing off books that have been influential in our lives. We began, and it soon became clear that "influential" meant totally different things to each of us. Also, he assumed that we would list them in chronological order, whereas I assumed no such thing.
Here is his list
The Lord of the Rings
Foundation
L'Etranger
Rusty Brown
The Long Goodbye
The Wind-up Bird Chronicles
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Grapes of Wrath
A Pattern Language
Here is my list
The Artist's Way
The Bible
The Art of Mindful Living
Animal Vegetable Miracle
Persepolis
Eat Pray Love
Home Comforts
The Left Hand of Darkness
Art Objects & Oranges Aren't the Only Fruit
The Architecture of Happiness
The Screwtape Letters
How to Cook a Wolf
Dead Souls
Pale Fire
Notice that the majority of mine are non-fiction, and the majority of his are fiction. As it turns out, this is because what he really meant was to list books that were influential in our appreciation of literature. What I meant was books that were influential in other aspects of life, books that changed my outlook completely on something other than reading.
The fiction choices I made were what I came up with when I tried to follow his criteria. Dead Souls and Pale Fire taught me that books by Russians can be funny, and Persepolis was my introduction to graphica.
Everything else changed my life in some other way.
Incidentally, we asked Rara for her list and she just named one book: The Wanderer by Sharon Creech. Not surprisingly, it is one of the most recent books she has read.
"No Harry Potter?" I asked, incredulous.
"Oh yes, of course Harry Potter. I just forgot."
That is funny, since she reads ( and rereads, and rereads, and rereads ) Harry Potter for around 4-5 hours every week. So I guess it's not influential on her life, it is her life.
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