The other day I promised to post the 15 books (read by myself), that will always stick with me.
Thinking of books that left lasting impressions, a tornado comes to mind. A whirlwind of printed matters of all sizes and design, whirling around me, the reader.
I/ the eye of the storm, the dreamer, ascending and descending a literary Tower of Babel; a mind boggling building created of hard covers and paperback novels, of fairy tales and mysteries, of chapter books and Russian classics, of dead and alive poets, of poetry anthologies, published plays and even film scenarios.
Memories of titles a whirlwind of letters, strung words, printed materials, begging for attention, leaving me breathless, stranded outside an unknown house, along a dry river bed, in a country I never visited but on those travels triggered by words grabbed from the mind of the author, planted firmly on paper, black on white.
Covers, plot lines, memorable characters fly by, voices calling out: Mention, me, me, me!
Here goes, 15 titles, Dutch, Austrian, English (with an accent, posh, foreign, immigrant, artistic) and American. And this my friends, is only the beginning.
Sans Famille - (Alleen op de wereld, Nobody's Boy) by Hector Malot
Scheepsmaat Woeltje by Klaas Norel
Het achterhuis - (Diary of ) by Anne Frank - Take a look inside the hiding place.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Reigen (Hands Out - a play) by Arthur Schnitzler
De Ondergang - Jacques Presser
Timebends - Arthur Miller
Diaries by Anaïs Nin
Plexus, Sexus, Nexus by Henry Miller
Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Gaglow by Esther Freud
The Clothes On Their Backs by Linda Grant
What does this list tell you about me? What does your list say about you? Care to share?
Please do!
This work by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
2 comments:
Hi Judith. What a great post. Lots of fun and really gets me thinking. So, here goes:
1. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - by Jonah Lehrer
2. Tolkien's Lord of the Ring series
(does that count as one or three? I'll see as I continue.)
3. Dealing With Dragons by Patricia Wrede - kids book series I loved on its own and with my kids.
4.The Last of the Just (don't remember author)
5. Les Miserable. Victor Hugo
6. Ivanhoe. Sir Walter Scott
7. I Kill Giants. Joe Kelly - incredible graphic novel my son told me to read and LOVED - not what you think!
8. Frankenstein. Mary Shelley
9. Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte
10. Goodnight Opus. Berkely Breathed. Another children's book but a huge influence on me as a writer, educator and parent.
11. American Gods. Neil Gaimon
12. Anansi Boys. Neil Gaimon
13. Dune. By Frank Herbert
14. Marjorie Morningstar (don't recall author).
15. On Writing. Stephen King (again, from my son, and while the first half wasn't great, the second more than made up for it).
Lots of fun. I am sort of all over the place, but that has actually served me well.
What langauges do you speak? Were you writing/ reading Dutch?
Talk to you soon and hope you visit my blog soon too. I am stepping into the realm of graphic novels as educational tools and so far, while somewhat apprehensive, am enjoying the journey.
Hope you visit again soon.
Meryl Jaffe
www.departingthetext.blogspot.com
Hi Meryl,
Thank you for stopping by again! I love it when visitors leave a comment.Interesting list, some familiar and dear authors, some new ones. Stephen King's book on writing is indeed worth one's while. Anansi Boys makes me think of Suriname's storytelling spider spinning tales. How fun that you added Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, that almost made it to my first list, definitely belongs with my favorites, as is Tolkien's series indeed. And so we continue...
Post a Comment