I will always thank my mom for instilling in me a love of reading, from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys to Sartre and Kant. At the risk of sounding kinda shallow, however, the books I’ve loved and turn back to time after time are not on the Sartre end of the reading scale. The first book I remember reading outside good old Nancy was a YA offering called When Sara Smiled (Kathleen Robinson). That book has stayed with me all these years because it had a smidgen of romance and was about a girl about my age, plus, it led into other growing up type books like Then Came November (Nan Gilbert) and Minnow Vail (Winifred Cover). But another reason Sara stayed with me is because of the contrast between the early 1960s and the cultural change that smashed into all of us just a few years later was so extreme. The teens in those books had problems, sure, but those problems paled in comparison to drugs, free love, and rebellion that went far beyond rock and roll.
Eventually books like When Sara Smiled led to my favorite book of all time, Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pasternak) that taught me through beautiful prose and imagery about another cultural revolution. Let’s face it. There are too many wonderful books to pick just one! 😉
Thanks!
Dee
Naval Maneuvers coming soon from Black Velvet Seductions
This has been an interesting blog hop, especially considering that most participating authors don’t list the seriously influential books one might expect.
Hi, Holly.
I asked my mom this question and she immediately answered that her prayer book was her most influential. Of course the Bible came to mind, too, but I took the question to mean which books influenced my interest and occupied my time most as I changed from a girl to young woman and then to an older woman. Is that what you mean?
Hard to pick just one book, eh? I can dream big and hope that one of my books will influence someone to write, though most likely because they think “Even I can write a book better than this one!”
LOL! Ed, I doubt anyone will say that about your books. But I think your hope of inspiring someone to write is a good one!
I read every Nancy Drew book and went on to books like Lord of the Rings, but I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never read Dr. Zhivago. I didn’t list a single book that has influenced me, either. Every book I read touches me in some way.
Robin, see, I’m embarrassed because I didn’t read The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings trilogy until I was an adult. Hubby and I drove a tractor trailer and there were long periods of waiting that allowed me to read all kinds of great things.
Wasn’t Nancy Drew great, though??
This turned out to be an interesting topic, and I love the variety of the posts and how so many of us related the books we chose to our writing careers.
And you’re right about the cultural changes. The kids that grew up in the 50’s and early ’60’s were kind of the last innocent generation. I never read Dr. Zhivago, but I loved the movie and that gorgeous musical score.
Hi, Linda! The thing is, we never realized how innocent our time was in the 50s and early 60s. We just bebopped along like we knew what we were doing. 😉 I guess every generation does that, huh?
I hope you try Dr. Z. The movie followed the book really well but as we know, there’s nothing quite like the written word. ;))