I'm an ardent reader. I read to learn about many things including how to better manage my life and how to be a better writer. If I want to float around in other worlds to give myself a respite from my own, I read the fiction works that have won the awards. I believe that to be a better writer, one must read the finest literature to learn the rhythm of the writing, the vocabulary, and the crafting of the story.
At some point I realized that reading two or three books a week of someone else's writing was keeping me from writing my own. I scaled down my reading to one book a week and started writing humorous stories that were published. I'm in the process of recording an audio book of those stories.
Managing my grown-up life has been hard for me. As a child, I wanted so much to know and understand everything. It wasn't possible. Learning who I am has come slowly, through story--my own and others'.
Below are a few of the most important books I have ever read that influenced me. They inspired me to change my perspective, gain new awareness and form my beliefs, and they served as guides for living a better life. I could write a book about each of these books (and their authors) and what I learned from them. Instead, just know that these books are relevant, probably for your life, probably for right now, today.
Nancy Friday, My Mother/My Self: The Daughter's Search for Identity
Robin Norwood, Women Who Love Too Much: When You Keep Wishing and Hoping He'll Change (This book taught me how I manipulated others and why.)
Colette Dowling, The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence
Bart Ehrman, God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer
(Ehrman is a Biblical scholar, authority of New Testament in Greek, with Ph.D. from Princeton Univ. He chaired the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina.)
Al-Anon Family Group Head, Inc., One Day at a Time in Al-Anon
Joshua Cooper Ramo, The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It.
Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vols. I and II
(Jensen is called the poet and philosopher of the environmental movement)
Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Tomorrow I'll share my reading list of books that have instructed me and inspired me to write.
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