Some essentials and a little autobiography...

Hello,
Today I was helping a patron find a copy of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and I got to thinking. This title, which I have not picked up for at least 10 years, had been a book that upon reading it had changed my view of the world. Those of us who are readers, especially us that are extreme, know that there are at least three types of books. (Now I know this is a major simplification, but just bear with me here.) There are "disposable" reads, such as romances or mysteries. These books give us comfort in their formulas and reaffirm to us that the world will be okay. Miss Marple always finds the killer. Love will always conquer all. Then there are "spinach" reads. You read the books because you feel as if you should. Sometimes "spinach" reads can surprise you. This happened to me with Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. I never expected to love it as much as I do when I picked it up. Same goes for Willa Cather. However you will never convince me that anyone reads Ethan From by choice. Ever.
And then there are books that are "life changing." These books are essential to our lives and inform are sensibilities. Sometimes I forget my phone number, but I remember the circumstances under which I picked up the following titles:
1. 1984 by George Orwell
I was coming home for the first time from college for Thanksgiving. I'd been away from home for the first extended period in my life and I was a bit homesick. While preparing for the trip I'd taken a spin through the massive school library. It was completely on a whim that I picked up 1984, figuring I needed something to read. Boy did I ever. For the trip home I jumped on a Greyhound at 7 am. The trip took 9 hours; that's almost triple what it takes in a car. Flipping open the book I was transported into the world of a totalitarian state. The fact that Winston Smith's only salvation is through insanity blew my mind. I am still captured by the mind-bendedness of the idea that "He who controls the past controls the future" and "He who controls the present controls the past." Finished the book on the trip back and have feared the government control of information ever since.

2. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I picked up the book again on a whim. It was a part of a "Banned Books" display and I thought I would give it a try. I have always been a sucker for time travel stories but I found myself caught up in Billy Pilgrim's dilemma. He is a man lost in time. He is unable to stop the horrible events of his life. The horrors of Dresden, as the author experienced them first hand, made clear to me the futility of war. Vonnegut tells us here that there is no "right" war. Even World War II, for all it's nostalgia, was a horror to Vonnegut. He was nearly killed by his own country! I read the book in the space of 3 crazy days.

3. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Now I picked this up because I had heard about the movie. The movie is famous now because it had a lot of up and coming actors (like some guy named Tom Cruise). I had heard about it in relation to Francis Ford Coppola who I already worshiped because of The Godfather. BTW I'm also a major Cinephile, but that's for elsewhere. I picked up the book at the old library on the second floor (it's gone now) where they kept YA books in spinner racks. This always required a bit of a search because the books were not typically in order. I finally found a copy with some stylish 60s greasers on the front and a sticker touting a television series. (Indeed there was a short lived television series, unfortunately I never saw it) It was this book that taught me the real differences between economic classes. Ponyboy is smart, yet he comes from the poor side of town and is jumped by upper class Socs. At the time that I read this I didn't know that in a few years I would see the effects of economic difference. I went from a lower class elementary school to an upper class middle school. Lest I say the experience was humbling. Girls like Cherry Valance would not have been friends with me either. Again I retreated back to The Outsiders and it's optimistic ending.

Have a great morning! Book Slave.