“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” ~ Annie Dillard, from The Living

“Unsurprisingly, several children’s books appear in the top 20 on the list; as Adamic and Patel point out, we tend to read these books at a very impressionable age. Favorite books from those early years are likely to lodge themselves deeply in our memories.” ~ Claire Fallon, from “‘Harry Potter’ Tops Facebook’s ’10 Books That Stayed With You’ Meme And No One Is Surprised” (Huffington Post)

Thursday afternoon. Sunny with climbing temperatures, 87 degrees.

My goal is to clean today . . . but first . . . not.

Ah, to meme or not to meme . . .

The above graphic (click for larger) is taken from an article in The Atlantic based on a recent meme making the rounds on Facebook in which people have been asked to “List 10 books that have stayed with you in some way . . . Don’t take more than a few minutes, and don’t think too hard. They do not have to be the ‘right’ books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way.”

Another article (have forgotten writer, sorry), glibly stated that the addition of Harry Potter to so many lists proves that adults don’t really read books. Um, what? I read all of the Harry Potter books as a bona fide adult. At first, I had wanted to see what all of the commotion was about, the naysayers saying that it was demonic, and the supporters saying that it was a wonderful series. Of course, I agreed with the latter. Reading the series with my kids became a family rite of passage that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and truthfully, I miss the anticipation of the next release date, getting in the car with Brett early on a Saturday morning, hitting Krispy Kreme for hot donuts, and then making our way to the almost pristine cube of books placed immediately in the entrance. Good, good times.

“Indeed, if there is a backlash, I imagine it will be fuelled by accusations of elitism. Weirdly, reading is seen as a middle-class practice . . . This is one meme that has nothing to do with showing off. It’s a place to be honest about what brings you personal delight” ~ Daisy Buchanan, from “Facebook’s ‘Share 10 books’ meme shows that social media doesn’t have to be vicious or bullying” (The Telegraph)

I’ve been reading snarky comments from different people about how people are padding their lists, how most people haven’t read the things they claim to have read. Well . . . maybe. Who knows, but more importantly, who cares?

My point is (and yes, I have one) this: Does it really matter which books have stayed with people? Does it matter if they’ve padded their lists? Does it matter if childrens’ books and YA books appear frequently on peoples’ lists? No. These lists are proof of several key things:

1. People read. People of all ages read all kinds of things. How can that be perceived in any negative light?
2. Even if they haven’t read what’s on the list, they are thinking about things they want to read or things they think they should read. There’s nothing wrong with that.

1. The fact that childrens’ book show up on these lists is wonderful. Study after study show that children who are introduced to reading from very young ages will continue to read on their own. A groundbreaking study found that “having as few as 20 books in the home still has a significant impact on propelling a child to a higher level of education, and the more books you add, the greater the benefit” (from The National Literacy Trust).
2. The people who participated in this meme are proud of their reading, and they should be. So who cares what they read? Bear in mind that unfortunately, access to books, or the lack thereof, directly ties to a person’s success. According to The National Commission on Reading, “The single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school.”

I could go on and on as I am wont to do, but you get the point. All of those naysayers out there who are making fun of the lists need to shut it. Instead of criticizing, donate some books to a school, or donate some money to First Book, a wonderful organization that helps to connect books with children who don’t have any.

And my final point is this: In this society that places people on pedestals simply for being famous or for having a pretty face or for dunking a basketball or whatever, this meme is a refreshing change. Instead of reading about bullying on Facebook, or hearing about a group of teens who posted directions on how to kill someone (yes, this is true), we are being treated to something real in people’s lives, something that matters, something that adds to the world in which we live: Reading.

“But passionate readers believe books are for all people. Many of us have grown up feeling obscure and alone. Books were our friends when we had no human ones . . . the best literature educates by stealth. Books are there to make us more empathetic and kinder—and in times of emotional turmoil, they can comfort.” ~ Daisy Buchanan, from “Facebook’s ‘Share 10 books’ meme shows that social media doesn’t have to be vicious or bullying” (The Telegraph)

Listen, books saved me—not just once but time and again. Being an only child is lonely. I found friends among the pages. And when I hit my teens and began to suffer from clinical depression, books helped me to understand what was wrong, and they helped to comfort me. And when I lost my beautiful baby girl, books (not self-help books) helped me to escape from the pain.

I can go several weeks without reading a book, and then I can read six books in four days. It doesn’t matter. My to read stack has tripled in size this year, and I know that is mostly as a result of Corey’s new schedule.

Hey, I don’t need to go to bars or hang out with people who aren’t really my friends. I have my one true love, my kids, my dogs, and my books. It may not work for some people, but it works for me.

So even though I don’t do Facebook, I do do bookish memes, so here’s mine, off the top of my head, without any second thoughts, and I know that my list is longer than proposed, and I know that I have two lists, but whatever. So in no particular order, here are the books that have stayed with me, and by that I mean the books I have read over and over, the books from which I can quote, even the books that just thinking about make me pause and smile:

• The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje
• The Harry Potter Series, by JK Rowling (I’m cheating in counting these as one, so sue me)
• Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien (same here)
• The Little Prince, byAntoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë
• Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt
• Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden
• Rich in Love, by Josephine Humphries
• The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Things they Carried, by Tim O’Brien
• The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
• Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
• Sherlock Holmes (all the collected works), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Fault in our Stars, by John Green
• The Alchemist, by Paul Coehlo
• Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
• Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Richard III/Henry V, by William Shakespeare
• Hunt is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers
• The Shining, by Stephen King
• The Weight of Water, by Anita Shreve
• Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris
• A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
• Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
• Shogun, by James Clavell
• The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak
• Children of Men, P. D. James

” . . . reading novels as a child — implying literary engagement with life’s social, cultural and psychological complexities — can have a positive impact on personality development and social skills. A study published last year in Science found that reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or nonfiction, results in keener social perception and increased empathy” ~ Bret Stetka, from “Why Everyone Should Read Harry Potter” (Scientific American)

Here are my runners up. I will admit that I cheated for this list; I went to my Goodreads list of books and did a quick scan and was surprised by the titles I had forgotten. So again, in no particular order:

• Reflections in a Golden Eye, by Carson McCullers
• Cover her Face, by P. D. James
• Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
• The Bone Collector, by Jeffrey Deaver
• Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe
• Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
• Dune, by Frank Herbert

• The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
• Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey
• The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster
• 1984, by George Orwell
• Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin
• Murder Must Advertise (Lord Peter Wimsey), by Dorothy L. Sayers
• Mystic River, by Dennis LeHane
• A Child Called It, by Dave Peltzer
• Darkness Visible, by William Styron
• The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
• Heart of Darkness, by James Conrad
• Dubliners, by James Joyce
• The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
• The Velvet Room, ZK Snyder (has stayed with me since 7th grade)
• The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway
• In the Woods, Tana French
• Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O’Dell (has stayed with me since 6th grade)
• Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger (wish I could find my copy of this)

And yes, I have read all of these, even James Joyce.

More later. Peace.

Music by Zedd, featuring Foxes, “Clarity”

                   

The Pleasures of Reading

On his deathbed my father is reading
The memoirs of Casanova.
I’m watching the night fall,
A few windows being lit across the street.
In one of them a young woman is reading
Close to the glass.
She hasn’t looked up in a long while,
Even with the darkness coming.

While there’s still a bit of light,
I want her to lift her head,
So I can see her face
Which I have already imagined,
But her book must be full of suspense.
And besides, it’s so quiet,
Every time she turns a page,
I can hear my father turn one too,
As if they are reading the same book.

~ Charles Simic

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