In an instant your life can change. There might be a terrible accident. Or a medical diagnosis. A portal into a parallel universe opened in your closet?
Or, what if you read a book that grabbed you, turned you upside down and shook you, causing the scales of culture to be shed from your eyes, letting you see the world with fresh clear eyes and ideas. A book that changed your worldview.
Most folks surely have one or more such books. I will try to list mine here. There are many important books that are not on my list. That doesn't mean that I haven't read any or all. It just means that they aren't on this list of books that rocked my world.
The list follows in the approximate order of my reading, starting with the county library Bookmobile parked in front of Cope Elementary School, continuing through college, and adulthood.
"The Lighthouse at the End of the World" by Jules Verne
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway
"The Bear" by William Faulkner
"The Alexandria Quartet" by Lawrence Durrell
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The Hunt for Red October" by Tom Clancy
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig
"A Bright Shining Lie" by Neil Sheehan
"The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community" by David C. Korten
"Death Comes for the Archbishop" by Willa Cather
"The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" by Louise Erdrich
"The Member of the Wedding" by Carson McCullers
Each of these books shook me—shook my views—about love, human kindness, sexuality. The Sheehan and Korten books gave my world view a much needed adjustment.
Things happen. What is next? I am reading "The Dawn of Everything."
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If you would like to see my collection of Carolina Lowcountry memories—"Magnolia Elegy: Place In the Edisto Fork," you can view the book trailer here, and see the book page here on the publisher's website. The book is also available from Amazon, B&N, and your independent local bookseller.
