Books That Changed My World

mood: nostalgix
pandora/ipod: "right here right now" by jesus jones

I was inspired by the #booksthatchangedmyworld hash tag that's been flying around Twitter this week. (Yes, I'm totally derivative in that way.) And I decided to write a post about the books that changed my life. Because books are that important, that influential, that necessary to my existence. I owe them alot. I owe these books homage.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by Lucy Maud Montgomery

It might be cliche - and I could have gone with any number of books from my childhood: Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Alcott, Wilder - but this book was a huge influence in my life. Anne Shirley is smart and driven, yet a dreamer with an artistic soul. She's strong and soft at the same time. She's determined but she still retains a sense of what is important in life. And most of all she values her mind, her education, her drive to be the best. She doesn't apologize for her brain, doesn't apologize when she beats the boys. That was an important lesson for me to learn, an invaluable role model for a smart but frequently insecure girl like me to have. I wanted to BE Anne Shirley, and that's a pretty awesome goal, in my humble opinion, for a 10-year-old.

JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte

Less of an awesome goal would be finding a love like Mr. Rochester. Look, I won't pretend that Jane is an ideal heroine, that the byronic Edward Rochester was swoon-worthy on a Mr. Darcy type level, or that the novel, in all its dripping gothicness, is a flawless masterpiece. But JANE EYRE was the first "classic" adult novel I read. I'd gone through the Alcotts, the Montgomerys, most of Stevenson's "boy books" and other young adult classics like HEIDI and THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. But at age 13 I was craving something...more. Enter the Brontes.

I picked up JANE EYRE because it was on a list of "Random House Classic Titles" or some such thing on the back flap of KIDNAPPED. So I checked it out. Read it in like 3 days. Feel in love with 18th Century literature and basically read nothing but unless I was forced to (with the notable exception of Agatha Christie) for the next 15 years. So JANE EYRE was like my entry drug, and a glorious one at that.

THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath

CATCHER IN THE RYE is usually quoted as the influential coming-of-age story of choice, but the one that spoke to me as a 17-year-old girl chocked to the brim with daddy-issue angst and rampant sexuality was THE BELL JAR. I'm not sure how wise it is to admit that I identified with Plath's semi-autobiographical account of her struggles with depression, her sexual awakening and adapting to the big city. Thankfully, clinical depression is not one of the burdens I've ever had to bear, but the way Plath viewed the Barbie-doll glamour of New York, the way she struggled with her identity as an adventurous, jaded "city" girl and a pious good girl and most of all her experience losing her virginity... Well, this book opened my eyes to so many things - to fear, to fearlessness, to pain, to suffering, to joy, to acceptance. I think it should be required reading for every teenage girl.

JUNKY by William Burroughs and ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

There's something synonymous about "San Francisco" and "The Beat Generation." Growing up in the City by the Bay, you're indoctrinated at an early age by the spirit of the Beats - "Go! Go! GO!" I think my generation identified with the Beats, feeling some of that "Lost Generation"-ism reflected in films like PUMP UP THE VOLUME and REALITY BITES. We felt a disconnect, a bridging of the gap into a new century, the kind of blessed confusion that comes with having too many choices, too many opportunities.

JUNKY and ON THE ROAD - again semi-autobiographical accounts - spoke to me, inspired me in maybe not a wholly healthy kind of way. I did some really crazy stupid shit those last two years of high school, influenced in some way by not only my own grandiose sense of impenetrability, but also by the intoxicating GO! GO! GO! of the Beats. I think my innate intelligence and that childhood fear of the "permanent record" saved me from getting into any real trouble, but there was something freeing about that time. Something liberating. Something I took with me in life. Never be afraid. Never look back. Never regret. GO! GO! GO!

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL by Anthony Bourdain

Last but not least, this is the book that inspired me to write.

*RECORD SCRATCH*

Huh? Yeah, I know. Even stranger since my first book was a college-aged chick lit dark comedy romance. Because that's what Bourdain would TOTALLY WRITE IF HE HAD HIS WAY.

Heh. Somewhere in the world, a foodie just died.

Seriously, I read KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL at a difficult time in my life. I'd never really thought about writing a book, let alone a novel. But there was something in his style, his voice, his over-educated, intelligentsia snark that felt like...me. The narrative style propelled me forward and I found myself more entranced by the journey of this one man than by the purported expose of the restaurant industry. The characters were so well drawn, the anti-hero so compelling. It was non-fiction but it was a story. And I thought to myself "I could do this."

And I did. :)

In a weird twist of fate, I got to meet Mr. Bourdain last night. He had a speaking engagement at UCLA and someone very kindly bought me a ticket along with a VIP meet-and-greet pass. I got to meet someone who actually INSPIRED me to do something. And unlike the other foodies who wanted to discuss the best soup dumplings in Shanghai, or the skantily-clad groupies fawning over him, when I told Tony that he'd inspired me to write - and where it had gotten me so far - he stopped signing my book, looked me dead in the eye and said "I want to shake your hand. That's the greatest thing I've heard in awhile."

I'm still aflutter.

EEEEEEEP! (That's the sound of my head exploding.)
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Some writer friends are joining in the fun today. Check them out here:

Amy Bai
Debra Driza
Beth Williams