I love to read. To be fair, I'm in school to become an English teacher, so it comes with the territory. Even so, there is just something about a book in my hand. Books are powerful and often timeless. As I've gotten older, there have been so many of these stories that have taught about so many parts the world and the people in that I would have never known otherwise. Among those that I have read, here are some that have burned in my memory far after I put them back on the shelf:
The Kite Runner
I had to read this book in high school in two days because of my horrible procrastination. Khaled Hosseini managed to shatter my heart in 48 hours through horrific pictures of Afghanistan and the lengths the protagonist goes to as he searches for his father's approval.
My Personal Favorite: "For you, a thousand times over."
Into the Wild
If you can get past the enormity of his decision, Chris McCandless has a pretty good point, and if he were around right now, I can almost guarantee you he would do it all over again. Krakauer highlights the power that the natural world can have and the hurt and contempt for the society that McCandless had to make him want to disappear.
My Personal Favorite: "It is not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong."
It's Kind of a Funny Story
I have depression and anxiety and have felt the weight of being ashamed for having it because I often feel like I don't really have a good enough reason to have them. Ned Vizzini took all that shame and pain and made it actually really hilarious. So many of the lines resonated with me in a way that I had never understood. I try to read it at least once a year as a reminder that there is humor in the worst of situations.
My Personal Favorite: “I don't owe people anything, and I don't have to talk to them any more than I feel I need to.”
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
David Sheff's honest account of his son's struggle with methamphetamine will reach into your chest and pull your heart right out with it. Between an almost irreparable tear in the relationship between Sheff and his son and the world that his son has fallen into, you'll be hurt, disgusted, bitter, and desperate for Nic to find his way home in a matter of 300 pages.
My Personal Favorite: “We deny the severity of our loved one's problem not because we are naive, but because we can't know.”
This is Where I Leave You
If you understand sarcasm, siblings, and family dysfunction, this book will go from a little depressing to an absolute riot as narrator Judd Foxman and family mourn the death of their father. And if you don't have time to read the book, they actually did a pretty good job with the movie as well.
My Personal favorite: “It would be a terrible mistake to go through life thinking that people are the sum total of what you see.”
The Things They Carried
If you ever thought one day that you wish you knew more about the Vietnam War, here it is. Beyond the war, beyond the protests, beyond the politics, you begin to understand more than just the ideology itself. Tim O'Brien can convince you in more ways than one that the Vietnam War was something that we should have stayed the hell away from. With such gruesome detail, you'll be left wondering if maybe we could have done more than a country full of stoned protesters to stop it.
My Personal Favorite: “They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity.”
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Have you ever read a book about the Dominican Republic? Me either, until I was assigned this novel for my fist literature class in college. After reading four pieces of pretty standard American literature, Brief Wondrous Life left me shell-shocked. Junot Diaz takes you deep into a culture most of us know nothing about, and makes you feel bad for laughing when he tells a dark story with dark humor and sharp wits. I don't think I'll ever want to read it again, but I know that I'll never forget the impact it had on me.
My Personal Favorite: “But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.”
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
You probably don't think so, but you know exactly what this book is. Remember 127 hours? The guy who literally had to cut off his own right arm to avoid death in the middle of nowhere in Utah? Well if you think the movie is devastating (which it is) then you need to read the book. Aron Ralston covers his five days at the bottom of Blue John Canyon with poignancy and regret, wondering if maybe he didn't live his life the way that he should have. There are some pretty stomach churning scenes (arm-amputations, very detailed descriptions of drinking urine). Regardless, his insight and memories of being stuck by himself bring light to the way we, as a culture, take so much for granted.
My Personal Favorite: “It's me. I chose this. I chose all of this — this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. I’ve been moving towards it my whole life.”
Franny and Zooey
J.D. Salinger's female answer to Catcher in the Rye, this book made much more sense to me and where I was at in my life when I read it. Franny's meltdown over the way she saw the world resonated with me in a way that I could have never expected. Both siblings tell stories that made me feel as though my feelings of loneliness were just a part of being an angsty young adult. Regardless, I really believe that anyone who read Salinger's writing would find a way to relate to it.
My Personal Favorite: “I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”
Keep in mind that these are all just my opinions and you might hate all of these books, but in some way or another, these words have changed the way I have understood the world and the people in it, so I hope that you might take the time to read maybe just one of these.
