**In 11 days I will be 50 years old**I wish I could say that I spend all my spare time reading, as befits a librarian, after all, but I don't. I used to read a lot more, when I was younger and still had an attention span. I'm much more likely these days to finish a book about web design, or a crappy teenage novel. I went through a stage when I read Star Trek novels all the time; they were easy, I already knew the characters, and they provided brief distraction.
So I don't read a lot now, but I used to. My undergraduate major was English, and I went through Hemingway and Steinbeck, among others, until there were no more. And Shakespeare, of course, but that's a story for another day.
Sometimes you read a book that changes your life, or shows you another way of looking at things, or stays with you forever. So here's my brief list of the books I can think of at the moment that everyone should read. You can believe this, because I'm a librarian, and I know.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Although also a wonderful movie, you should read the book. It's a short, quick read and it will change your life. It is about finding the joy in life and looking for it and recognizing it when you see it and it is incredibly life-affirming. Read it.
The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
He was famous as a scholar, but he wrote three books for children; the other two are better known: Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. He wrote this one last, and it was made into a crappy cartoon movie. The book was magical for me. I read it when it came out, when I was still in high school, and it was the first book I read that made me see the craft and the work that the writer put into it. It was as if I could see him weaving magic into his words. It changed my perspective of myself as a writer.
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
I love children's books in general, and I think I love this one best (except possibly for the next book, below.) It's not deep, it's not life-changing, it's just the way things are for people from time to time. Even in Australia. I can't believe that anyone wouldn't feel that this book is real and true and delightful.
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
He's my favorite children's author/illustrator because he lets you see just what weird stuff went through his child's mind. I also love Where the Wild Things Are, but Night Kitchen is my favorite. When I first realized that I loved children's books and didn't have to be embarrassed to own them, this was the first hardcover picture book I bought. I was 18.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
If I read it again now (and I've read it at least a half dozen times, but not recently) I'm sure it would seem incredibly politically incorrect, but no less wonderful. It may be set during the civil war, but it's not about black people or white people or slavery or war, it's about two unbelievably compelling and self-absorbed people and it's just the best read ever. And what did she ever see in Ashley anyway?
More, perhaps, at another time.
