20 Books that Made Me, Part 2

Hey my blueberries! (And a fist bump to you if that phrase rings a bell!) Hope you’re all refreshed and relieved and ready for more. So without further a dally, here’s the rest of the list…

20 Books that Made Me, Part 1

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about why I’m drawn to certain story lines and certain genres for writing, and I think the answer can soundly be found in the books I’ve read. But it’s not just the books I’ve read, because I’ve read many, many books, and not all of them have influenced me and affected me to the same extent. The more I thought about it, I found it was possible to pinpoint those texts that have actually helped to form my thinking, not just about writing, but about my life, the universe and everything around me. None of them I’ve found to be the ‘answer’ to any of the big questions, it’s all just different perspectives and opinion, but they’ve helped me to develop and review my thought processes through connection and reflection. The result of all of this thinking is the list below, 20 books that have helped to create the writer, and more interestingly, the person that I am. I was going to list only 10, but I found that number to be far too limiting, mainly because to give a clearer idea of how and why these texts affected me, it made sense to put them in chronological order of when I read them, so that you get an overview of how my thinking developed as I grew.

Not all of the books listed below also make it into my favourites list, although many of them do. But sometimes a book can affect me in a significant manner and it’s not one I could bring myself to read again, or that I even enjoyed reading in the first place, but in reading it, it became a catalyst that helped me to move forward, or inspired me, or humbled me. The text became important because of the meaning I ascribed to it. I’m sure we all have books which have done that for us. So here I go with my list (please forgive the fact that I have included plays in the list, as I read them also as texts and in some cases studied them as such, they were too important and relevant for me not to include)

Deep breath, and here we go…