Quick, off the top of your head, name your five favorite books.
If you are a reader, it’s not as easy a task as it seems.
Not long ago, my daughter-in-law asked me that very question. I felt a rush as I spoke - Little Women, of course to start my list. Then, I named Maeve Binchy’s The Lilac Bus; John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, my favorite to teach; Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, the favorite book of the student who gave me my copy, and my favorite college text, Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God. In searching my mind for the Lawrence title, I mentioned Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture. So then there were six.
Two days later, I came across this quote. “Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to lose.” Neil Gaiman (September 2017 Writer’s Digest).
Since then, titles keep bumping each other in my mind. I could have also named the Pulitzer Prize winning book set in Georgia, Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Pafford Miller, cousin to my mother-in-law. Or, A Gift from the African Heart, by my mentor Elizabeth Bowne. Or, A Taste of Blackberries by my friend, Doris Buchanan Smith.
Then, there is Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit, which I only learned of after an aunt and uncle gave our daughter a copy for her ninth birthday. It’s become our favorite gift to give a new baby. How could I forget one son’s fascination, as a child, with The Encyclopedia Brittanica, before Internet, my favorite resource?
I read Little Women every year from the time I received it as a gift on my eleventh birthday until college reading demanded too much of my time. I’ve read it several times as an adult. And I developed new appreciation for it after recently reading three related books. In Little Woman in Blue, author Jeannine Atkins tells the fictionalized biography of Alcott’s sister May, dubbed Amy in Little Women. I’ve added, as a new devotional book to my daily reading, Susan Bailey’s Louisa May Alcott: Illuminated by The Message. And, I chanced to read Alcott’s first novel, The Inheritance, written when she was 17. Although it displays the author’s rich command of language, it reads much like the romanticized fiction long popular with teens of many generations.
The Lilac Bus, best illustrates Binchy’s ability to bring a group of people with only one obvious commonality - a group of commuters take a lilac bus to Dublin every Monday to work and return to their small town on the same bus every Friday evening. The author then shows multiple connections between the passengers.
Because A Separate Peace is one of the best crafted novels I’ve ever read, I loved teaching the layers of the novel to freshmen. Also, its message that every action has a consequence is a good lesson for those starting high school.
However with further thought, I would have instead named Myths and their Meanings by Max J. Herzberg. I still have my copy which I had to buy for my own high school English class. I selected this book to teach the then state-required subject of mythology for ninth graders. For me, these simple stories introduce students to words, concepts, ideas that the Western world has embraced in so many ways - from naming the planets and constellations to naming everyday products.
I loved those Mondays when students rushed into the classroom and demanded that I see this movie or that television show because of its allusions to mythology. I loved the fact that a former student sent me, from Italy, a set of postcards displaying great art inspired by mythology with the brief message, “I cannot escape it.” Occasionally, a former student will bring to my attention some new use of a mythological term. Studying mythology in depth is like learning a new language.
Teachers always appreciate gifts students give. When one shares some object, especially a book, that means much to him/her, it takes on special meaning for those of us who teach. Who cannot appreciate The Giving Tree. It truly is one of those children’s books written for adults.
I do not know how many times I’ve read my little volume of The Practice of the Presence of God nor how many times I’ve recommended it. One of my favorite lines: “One need not cry out very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think."
And Pausch’s Last Lecture, composed from his thoughts, lectures and speeches after he had been diagnosed with a incurable disease, speaks volumes to us all. He writes, “The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. ” Or, “Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”
After asking this thought provoking question about five books, our son and daughter-in-law, assisted by our other children, their spouses and our seven grandchildren, created a spectacular birthday celebration for me around the six books. All of the
hors d’oeuvres reflected food either referred to in each of the books or popular at the time of the story. Even the elegant birthday cake resembled an iced stack of these books.
The family held this celebration almost a month early because now that my birthday has come, three grandchildren are already back in their college, and the two youngest, in high school. The two oldest are working.
Everyone who hears about the party questions why didn’t I name Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird as a favorite. I certainly enjoyed teaching this book and many freshmen left my class announcing it was their favorite. For some, it was the first book written for adults that they had ever read. Also, a number of seniors would return each spring before AP exams and check out a copy to reread the book. They knew that they could reference it in their answers to thought provoking questions. Such reactions to a book makes my heart glad. But with so many favorites, it just didn’t come to mind first.
Why books? Anna Quindlen explains, “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are home.” In Mockingbird, Scout says, “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
In reflecting on this ever growing list of books, I return to Pausch’s statements, hoping that my family realizes how very appreciative I am that they wanted to spend time with me in celebration. I am truly grateful.
Quick now, is your original list of five favorite books still the same right now as it was when you began to read this column? Probably not. If you love reading, selecting a limited number of favorites and sticking to that list is almost impossible. And that inability to narrow the list is good.
2017
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