One of the first books that I ever read myself was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. This book was a collection of short, silly poems about a handful of zany creatures created by Dr. Seuss. Before I was able to read this book myself, my mother would read it to me, and I would look at the pictures and I always admired how these creatures had no connection with the real world and existed solely on the page. When I was eventually able to read the book myself, I really enjoyed the fact that many of the words used in this book were of made up by the author. As a child, I admired the author’s creativity and they fact that the but not many other people, which was something that I really admired at a young age. This book inspired me to do the same and in a sense, be fearless on the page.
When I was in elementary school, my mother read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll to me over the course of several nights as a bedtime story. This book follows a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole and finds herself in the the magical land of Wonderland and embarks on a grand adventure with many unique and quirky characters. I believe that this was the first time a story existed completely in my imagination, rather than in pictures or on a screen. It was the first time a reading experience managed to transport me to a new location though rich storytelling. I found myself wanting to be Alice and to experience my version of Wonderland first hand. I found this concept to be fascinating and I wanted to try it out for myself. I wrote a number of stories based on “Wonderland” and it was my first experience with using text that I read as inspiration for the things I wrote.
I read Paper Towns by John Green when I was about thirteen years old and in middle school. It follows the story of Quentin Jacobsen, a teenaged boy who is in love with the mysterious Margo Roth Spiegelman, who suddenly disappears one night. Quentin goes on a cross-country field trip trying to find Margo and learns a lot about her and a lot about himself on the way. This was the first time I read a book that was not written for children or set in a fantasy or science fiction world, but a world more like our own. I really enjoyed how relatable the characters were to me and how funny John Green’s writing was. After reading this book, I realised that it was possible to write a story that was grounded in real world affairs with characters that were much like myself and the people that I knew, and it to still be a funny and interesting read.
I read The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald when I was a sophomore in high school for my english class and it was a very important read to me. It follows the story of Nick Carraway, young man who moves to New York City from Minnesota, where he meets his neighbor Jay Gatsby, a wealthy but mysterious businessman and takes place during the roaring 1920’s. This was the first time I read a book that was considered to be piece of Classic Literature. I was exposed to the world of literary metaphors and symbolism for the first time. I loved playing detective and trying to figure out what the author really meant with his writing. After reading this book, I tried to make an effort to analyze the text while I was reading to determine the author’s true meaning.
I read the The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger when I was about sixteen years old. This book follows the story of Holden Caulfield, a teenaged boy who was expelled from his upstate boarding school and his trip back to his home in New York City. On his way back home, he checks into a hotel and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. I didn’t enjoy this book the first time that I read it. I really disliked the pretentious narrator and the overall plot of the novel. I reread the novel about a year later and I found myself really enjoying it. I found the content of the novel to much more relatable to that point in my life, rather to when I was younger. I had a better understanding of the themes discussed and the different metaphors that the author portrays. After reading this book, I was encouraged to try rereading more of the books that I read when I was younger and to see I could benefit from them more now that I am older.
When I was seventeen years old, I checked out Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe from my local library. This book follows the story of the leader of a Nigerian tribe during the start of colonization in Africa and the shift between the traditional African way of life to the European imperialism. I really enjoyed this book because it was the first time I read a book that took place in an African country. Before reading this book, most of the books that I had read took place in the United States or in Europe and I did not know very much about African culture. I also enjoyed the fact that I will never know what it is like to be an African tribesman or what it’s like to live in a small village, but there was still something that I could take away from this book and lessons that I could learn. This book was a gateway into exploring things that I was unfamiliar about and to seek out diverse reading materials.
I read Beauty Queens by Libba Bray when I was almost eighteen years old. This novel follows a group of girls, who on their way to a national televised beauty pageant, get into a plane crash and are stranded on a deserted island. This novel gave offered me a window on how women are viewed in society, how much the media shapes the public, and how the perception of beauty is relative from person to person, and culture to culture. This book also made me aware of the overall lack of diversity, in terms of race. in much of the mainstream media. It also brought to my attention just how much media we consume and how much we believe even if the views are one sided. This book made me overall aware of the world we are living in and made me think about a topic that I would not have given much thought to before.
During my freshman year of college, I took a Non-Western literature class in which The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie was required reading. It follows the story of two Indian actors, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, who Without a doubt, this was the hardest book I have ever read. The text itself was dense, the plot was very difficult to follow, and multiple times during the novel, the author would use the same name for multiple different characters. The book itself was extremely controversial in terms of religion, immigration, racism, as well as many other prevalent themes. While reading this book, I realised that if tried to read this book with an idea of what I thought was happening or what I thought was supposed to happen, I would have a very difficult time getting thru it. It also exposed me to the genre of Magical realism which was something that I unfamiliar with.
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