A Good Book

I peek in on only a few other blogs, musingsonaperfectlyaveragelife.blogspot.com and Skywritings at lighthawks.blogspot.com where I just finished reading a post on reading (how appropriate). She is way more eloquent than I could be, sez who, sez me, but one does reflect on THE books of one's life, especially those books read when young, and the role reading has played in shaping a person.

I can vividly remember being about twelve and my mother telling me that books were not a substitute for life. I thought, no, but they'll do for now and, in the meantime, they'll help me figure out the life I want.

They have. I learned how people are supposed to behave, not that they always do behave in books as in life, but how they are supposed to behave, a standard by which to measure my own behavior. I found role models in characters who were flawed, but often still did the right thing. I learned about foods beyond meatloaf and places beyond Galien, Michigan. I learned that I was not alone.

Gone Away Lake
Five Run Away Together
Watership Down
Magic Elizabeth
A Christmas Carol
Nicholas Nickleby
Bleak House
The Captains and the Kings
Airs Above the Ground
The Hidden Staircase
Jane Eyre
The Great Time Machine Hoax

Forget nuture vrs nature. Books shaped me.