We're about at the point where we realize that we're only 1/3 of the way to the end and who's idea was this anyway? What if I just picked the same book for every day for the rest of the challenge? Character that most resembles me? Harold and the Purple Crayon. Longest book I've ever read? Harold and the Purple Crayon. (I actually hate Harold and the Purple Crayon even though I love both crayons and the color purple. I just hate Harold.)
Day 10: A Book That Changed Your Life
Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean
While my views did change on certain things as I got older and moved away from my small town in Illinois, the death penalty was difficult for me to let go. It wasn't until I read Dead Man Walking that I understood. The book is also about bravery and learning to do the right thing. You never really think about that, but you can learn to be brave.
Liz
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Just kidding.
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
I don't know that I have a particular book that changed my life, but I did have a class. I'd always been a big reader and it was just sort of a given that I'd major in English when I got to college. However, once there, I spent two years reading the works of masters that I should appreciate but which I didn't really enjoy. I didn't care about Beowulf, and I actively loathed the 18th Century essayists. I took the classes I was supposed to take in order to prepare for the comprehensive literature exam I'd have to pass in order to graduate with that major, but only in my junior year did I take a class that spoke to my love of a good story, engaging characters, and some dark and twisted atmosphere. Contemporary Gothic Lit with Dr. Helene Meyers reminded me that reading can be both entertaining and a worthy scholarly pursuit, and Rebecca was the first book on the syllabus. Other books included The Collector by John Fowles, The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, Dirty Weekend by Helen Zahavi, and American Appetites by Joyce Carol Oates. It was a novel a week for a semester of darkness, disturbed people, and for me, a rediscovered love of reading. That class is one of the reasons I was crazy enough to seek the book business after graduation.
Again, for me, it has to be the Bible, right? Besides that, Gianna's is actually up there. But this is what I should have saved Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship for. That book made me re-evaluate whether I had ever been a Christian. It still does.
ReplyDelete