Becoming a book
I sent this essay out to friends and have been musing about books that I could become. There a variety of factors to consider while deciding about this - my first instinct is protective: which book would I least like to become extinct, which one saved me and now I must save it. The next consideration is more personal: which book could I imagine BECOMING, which is most like me, of my essence, my flavor.
I'm thinking of
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.
The Diaries of Anais Nin.
The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett.
I've gotten some great email on the subject. I am going to bring the essay to my bookclub and see if we can make a good reading list based on our inspirations. We are meeting on Friday to discuss the fabulous book Bel Canto by Anne Patchett.
Here is one from Rick Mead:
King John was not a good man,
He had his little ways.
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days!
And when he went out walking
The men he saw in town
Gave him a supercilious stare,
Or passed with noses in the air,
And bad King John stood dumbly there -
Blushing beneath his crown...
King John was not a good man,
And no good friends had he.
He stayed in every afternoon -
But no one came to tea!
Etc. I love this for its own sake, and because it was an all-time favorite of my mother. Funny... so many books have unique associations I would rather not (and would rather the rest of the world would not have to) part with. Favorite children's book: The Phantom Tollbooth. Greatest mock-romance novel: Cold Comfort Farm. Book which convinced me my partner can read me: The Botany of Desire. Favorite poem about death: "With you, a part of me has passed away" (Santana). Favorite "Thank God I read-it-once-and-loved-it-but-don't-ever-make-me-do-it-again!" book - ooooh, hard to tell - Swann's Way, Anna Karenina, or The Brothers Karamzov. Book that told me I am forever from the West and need never think of myself as an East Coast guy: My Antonia.
Perhaps you can help me choose? But my favorite would NOT be Farenheit 451!
And then from Nance Koike:
I really enjoyed this too! It is something that you or I could easily have dreamed up...... The book that keeps flashing in my mind is actually a science fiction book called Last and First Men by Olaf Stapleton. I think it was the first time my eyes were opened to the idea that humans were innately prone to self destruction and yet capable of rejuvenation. The story begins now and continues eons into the future. This was not some hokey science fiction book either, it was a masterly written piece by one of the early science fiction pros.
If I could sneak in a second choice, it would be Zorba the Greek. I completely identified with Zorba, and to this day still ask myself "Would Zorba do this or think this way?"!!
I sent this essay out to friends and have been musing about books that I could become. There a variety of factors to consider while deciding about this - my first instinct is protective: which book would I least like to become extinct, which one saved me and now I must save it. The next consideration is more personal: which book could I imagine BECOMING, which is most like me, of my essence, my flavor.
I'm thinking of
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.
The Diaries of Anais Nin.
The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett.
I've gotten some great email on the subject. I am going to bring the essay to my bookclub and see if we can make a good reading list based on our inspirations. We are meeting on Friday to discuss the fabulous book Bel Canto by Anne Patchett.
Here is one from Rick Mead:
King John was not a good man,
He had his little ways.
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days!
And when he went out walking
The men he saw in town
Gave him a supercilious stare,
Or passed with noses in the air,
And bad King John stood dumbly there -
Blushing beneath his crown...
King John was not a good man,
And no good friends had he.
He stayed in every afternoon -
But no one came to tea!
Etc. I love this for its own sake, and because it was an all-time favorite of my mother. Funny... so many books have unique associations I would rather not (and would rather the rest of the world would not have to) part with. Favorite children's book: The Phantom Tollbooth. Greatest mock-romance novel: Cold Comfort Farm. Book which convinced me my partner can read me: The Botany of Desire. Favorite poem about death: "With you, a part of me has passed away" (Santana). Favorite "Thank God I read-it-once-and-loved-it-but-don't-ever-make-me-do-it-again!" book - ooooh, hard to tell - Swann's Way, Anna Karenina, or The Brothers Karamzov. Book that told me I am forever from the West and need never think of myself as an East Coast guy: My Antonia.
Perhaps you can help me choose? But my favorite would NOT be Farenheit 451!
And then from Nance Koike:
I really enjoyed this too! It is something that you or I could easily have dreamed up...... The book that keeps flashing in my mind is actually a science fiction book called Last and First Men by Olaf Stapleton. I think it was the first time my eyes were opened to the idea that humans were innately prone to self destruction and yet capable of rejuvenation. The story begins now and continues eons into the future. This was not some hokey science fiction book either, it was a masterly written piece by one of the early science fiction pros.
If I could sneak in a second choice, it would be Zorba the Greek. I completely identified with Zorba, and to this day still ask myself "Would Zorba do this or think this way?"!!
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 16, 2002 at 8:52 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
» Post a Comment