Influential

not undecided recently shared a list of the top ten books that have influenced her view of the world.  I thought I'd try my own hand at the exercise, although I tend to read more for pleasure than anything else.  I hope you'll try it, too.  Consequently, if you're looking for more intellectual answers, not undecided's post has many many links that will take you to some indirect recommendations.  This one was really hard for me, because I first had to ask myself: What is my view of the world?  Of course I still don't have a concrete answer.  I apologize, my answers start to get a little lax towards the end.  I'm pretty sleepy.  But here they are, in a possibly particular order:

1. The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway.  This was one of the first books assigned during my Lost Generation course in college.  I'm not sure if the book so much as the class opened up my eyes to the expatriates and their carpe diem world view, but the book actually turned out to be the first vehicle for my feminist leanings.  I'll never forget the gender-neutral namesake of Brett Ashley, or her subtle, masculine mannerisms and actions.  The book also introduced me to Hemingway's more radical writing style -- using dialogue more often than narrative to tell a story.  It was cool to see his style adopted by the more modern writers I'd been used to reading.  There is even a third influence in this book for me.  It brought history much closer for me.  I felt like I could have been there myself while I read this book, in the salons on the Left Bank, having tea with Sylvia Beach and Gertrude Stein.  And with the war in Iraq being reported on more and more at the time, the sentiment of Hemingway's novel definitely transcended the decades, still making relevant points after all that time.
2. The Vagina Monlogues, Ensler.  This play showed me womanhood. Period.  I'd never fully understood the beauty of women, the power of women, the multifaceted-ness of women, until I saw this performed, and then read it shortly afterward.  I can't even describe the cultural importance this play has for me.  It's so empowering, and changed my view to help me believe in myself even more.
3. The Lost, Mendelsohn.  This book showed me a much darker side of history, and of human nature.  It also showed me the perseverance we are capable of as human beings, and taught me to appreciate the present.  It taught me that there is no such thing as no legacy.
4. The Bible.  It's corny, it's overdone, it's cliche, but how could I not?  I grew up in a Catholic household, I went to church every Sunday until I was seventeen (by choice or by force), and the only non-Catholic school I've ever attended was my kindergarten.  This book has had an enormous impact on me, whether or not I was resisting it at any point in my life.  As a child, I viewed it as a place for answers...sometimes even magical ones, if I played the game correctly. (Did you ever do that, where you ask a burning question to God, flip open the Bible, and whatever verse your eyes land on, that's your answer?)  These stories pervaded my education every single year of my life.  I've drawn on them for symbolism in my own writing, I've rejected them as the absolute truth, I've accepted most as myth, I've relied upon them for morals, I've debated their immorality, I've let them act as a comfort, I've kept their more uncomfortable teachings at bay, I've proclaimed the work unfinished, and I've even found through them a pathway to education and even feminism.  How. Could. I. Not.
5. Blonde, Oates.  My obsession with Marilyn Monroe began with this book.  How could I understand what I do about pop culture without learning a thing or two about this icon?  Although this book is a novel, I eventually learned from Marilyn (and Oates, who writes beautifully) the value of art, compassion, gentility, and identity in places even like the silver screen.  So much changed after Marilyn.  Maybe even because of her.  She's certainly made an impression on me.
6. Dead Man Walking, Prejan; Forgiving the Dead Man Walking, Morris.  I'm combining these two books because they both taught me to love social justice, even though Prejan's book wasn't what I was expecting (lots of legal jargon), and Morris' account seemed to go on a bit too long.  However, both addressed the U.S. court system and its flaws, and made me a more firm proponent of civil and human rights.  It was hard to think of a failing system up until I'd read these books.
7. The Sense of Structure, Gopen.  Where do I begin with this masterpiece?  Almost a textbook, this guide to language and writing is my literary bible.  After reading it, I had gained such a focused perspective on my own writing style.  It taught me how I could better hone my craft to make my readers understand the feelings behind my words.  There is so much good stuff in this book.  Who could have fathomed writing from the reader's perspective?
8. A Light in the Attic, Silverstein.  This book introduced me to poetry, and kept the lighthearted side of me alive while I was growing up.  It showed me that poetry is not always dark and sinister and depressing, like it was rumored to be around my classrooms.  Poetry shaped a lot of who I am as a person, symbolic poetry especially.  I think it was good for me to keep the rhythm to my life, and to find it in my subject matter.
9. The Bhagavad Gita. Another religious text that expanded my cultural view.  I loved how it connected to so many things I'd already been taught, and made me feel so close to the rest of humankind.  In studying the Gita, I ended up studying so many other wonderful philosophers.  It truly expanded my reach into so many other areas.
10. The Outsiders, Hinton.  Classic themes of the search for identity, gallantry, and social divisiveness.  It's got it all.  "Nothing gold can stay."

Sorry, Guys

I know, it's been what, 4 days?  Five days?  I know I missed at least one Teaser in there.  Who's counting anymore.  I feel like ass.

I've been up late and running around all week, hand-sewing stripes on an over-sized orange sweatshirt, so my boyfriend and I can be completely without-a-doubt secured to win the prize for the greatest Halloween costume of 2009: none other than Calvin and Hobbes.  A boy and his tiger.  Of course, since I know how to thread a needle, I am going as Hobbes.

(And I just wrote "sewing" as "sweing" three times in a row.)

So now all the pressure is getting to me and I have come down with some variation of swine flu, or maybe it's just the common cold.  I am taking Zicam and drinking tea.  I bought some soup.  I will not miss Halloween.  However, I still need to sew (count 4 for "swe") all the stripes onto the back of my costume.  I have till 6pm EDT tomorrow, right?  Right.  Stickin' to it.

Anyhow, I decided to catch up on my blog reading while I sip ginseng tea from this gigantic mug, and found a link at Turtlehead leading me back to a link at Kate...Tells Stories with a pretty sweet bookish meme all about "stories that stick."  You see, Kate is an author, who just finished a book called The Dread Crew, and you even have a chance to win a copy of her new book if you fill out the meme!  Of course I totally filled out the meme.

Holy crap, and I just hit Publish Post without even being ready to Publish Post.  Ok, one meme and I am going to bed.

Without further ado..."Stories That Stick":

1) You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one vehicle from any book or film to accompany you. Or just one of the three. It's up to you. What do you choose?

Companion: I would pick Charlotte from Charlotte's Web, because she is sensible, smart, has lots of common sense, and is kind and encouraging.  However, she is a spider, and will probably not live for more than a year.  So I choose Jill from Katharine Kerr's Deverry Series...she is all those things, plus she is human.  And she has magic.

Tool:  Probably Harry Potter's wand.  (Turtlehead: How about I filled out my own answers before I read yours...we are so in sync. ;) )

Vehicle:  Elphaba's broom.  Why not Harry Potter's broom?  Who can say.  Or maybe I would borrow Rhodry Maelwaedd's dragon for awhile.

2) You can escape to the insides of any book. Where do you go, and why?

I'm pretty much a wimp, so I don't think I'd go anywhere too ridiculous or dangerous.  In fact, I think I'd like to hang out near Elizabeth Gilbert's stomping grounds in Eat, Pray, Love.  Italy, India, Indonesia.  Sounds like a vacation to me!  Oh man, or in Ramona Quimby's house.  I always wondered what her parents said when she wasn't around.

3) You can bring one literary character into your current life. Who do you choose, and why?

Tough.  I'd choose Brett Ashley from The Sun Also Rises.  She's strong, and I think I'd love listening to her stories.

4) __The Outsiders__ is my go-to book. I could read that book fifty-seven times in a row without a break for food or a pee and not be remotely bored. In fact I've already done that but it wasn't fifty-seven times. It was sixty-four.

5) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most enviable?

Enviable, huh?  I have to say I did envy Claudia Kishi from The Baby-sitter's Club series.  She was beautiful, smart (although she did have trouble in school), cool, had some great fashion taste, and she was artsy.  Everything I wanted to be growing up.  My favorite book in the series was Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph.  It was such a great plot, and that's where I learned the word "facade."

6) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most frightening?

Who was scary?  I don't know if any character in a book or movie ever really frightened me as a kid.  Everything always worked out in the end, like I could predict it would.  If it didn't work out, it would at least resolve.  Certain scenes were scary, maybe.  What happened was that I got a lot of nightmares as I got older and started reading more sophisticated, real stuff...like D.M. Thomas's The White Hotel.  That book gave me the worst case of the creeps.

7) Every time I read _America's Women_, I see something in it that I haven't seen before.

8)  It is imperative that ____The BFG_____ be made into a movie. Now. I am already picketing Hollywood for this-but if they cast ____Robin Williams_____ as __the BFG___, I will not be happy. I will, however, be appeased if they cast __James Cromwell___.

9) __The Devil Wears Prada__ is a book that should never be made (or should have never been made) into a film.

Ok, this is only half true.  I thought the book was spectacular, and I was so excited to see the movie after I finished it.  The visuals were so good, it seemed perfect for the big screen.  But the movie just...sucked.  The book was worlds away.  So much was left out of the film...and it was the first book I read that actually seemed like it was also MADE for film.  I realize they were shooting for 90 minutes, but it could have been executed so differently...and better.

10) After all these years, the __refugee boat__ scene in the book/movie ___Children of the River__ still manages to give me the queebs.

11) After all these years, the ___last sentence where you finally see the frame story___ scene in the book/movie ___The Outsiders___ still manages to give me a thrill.  (sorry to use this book twice, but I LOVE it.)

12) If I could corner the author ___K.A. Applegate___, here's what I'd say to them one minute or less about their book, __the Animorphs Series__:

"Your books got me so interested in fantasy and science fiction writing.  I laughed, I cried, so thank you so much for introducing me to a genre I never knew I could love."

13) The coolest non-fiction book I've ever read is __To Full Term__. Every time I flip through it, it makes me want to __either jump up and down (seriously) or just sit down and read it cover to cover.  It makes me want to recommend it___.


And there you have it!  My version of the Stories That Stick meme.  Have fun filling in your own!