Reading has been an important activity in my life. Growing up, we didn't have many books in the house. My Mom read romance novels and we had a set of Funk and Wagnall encyclopedias, but my family didn't buy books. Thankfully, we went to the New Cumberland Public Library every week. It was a magical place, I loved the smell of books and delighted in pulling random selections from the shelves. I was also fascinated by all the names on the check-out card and the knowledge that we had all held and read the same book. It was a community of strangers bound by a singular object and it made me feel like I was part of something bigger than myself. Books nourished my soul and fed my desire to know the world outside my sleepy little town.
As a young person I loved fiction, the Nancy Drew series, Misty of Chincoteague, and the Narnia books were my favorites. Later there was a Stephen King phase and lots of books about teenage girl witches. I still remember some advice from a Christie Brinkley beauty guide I checked out of the library; to stay slim, eat jello and cotton balls (it fills you up and keeps you from cheating on your diet!) I soaked up all the books we had to read for school and especially loved To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scarlet Letter.
As an adult, I read books for creative inspiration as much as pleasure. I have a growing collection and a husband with an extensive library (I often joke that I married him for his books.) It was difficult to choose just five, but all the books on my list have had a significant influence on my life and work.
The Stream of Life by Clarice Lispector
The Stream of Life is a living text. Reading this book is an experience built out of words. I can't really talk about this book, because it only exists while one is inside of it. It is brilliant and astounding!
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
I read The Heart is A Lonely Hunter when I was in graduate school and I was deeply affected by McCullers exploration of human suffering. I identified with Mick, the teenage girl who felt the sadness in the world around her. Her introspective monologues, expressed her longing for connection; a desire to be part of something or someone else. All of the characters enact a painful inability to communicate and illuminate the gaps that exist in every relationship.
by Jerome Rothenberg
Technicians of the Sacred is my bible! I found a copy my sister had left behind at my parent's house. She was an English major and it was required reading for one of her classes. Rothenberg collected poems from around the globe and organized them under the categories; Origins & Namings, Visions & Spells, Death & Defeat and Book of Events I and II. I have read this book countless times, but find something new and amazing every time I open it. Many of the writings are raw and erotic, and speak of human rituals which have been suppressed by modern culture. When I am feeling hopeless about where to go next with my work, this book always helps me find my way.
On Longing by Susan Stewart
In this book, literary critic Susan Stewart discusses nostalgia. She sees nostalgia not as a sentimental fancy, but rather as a desire for a history which never really existed. Stewart explores the fabrication of meaning and memory through eighteenth-century novels, souvenirs, collections, and miniature and gigantic objects. This book sent me down so many paths in my work and I'm sure I will return to it again and again.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
This is the most terrifying and tragic book I've ever read. It is the story of Antoinette Cosway (later renamed Bertha Mason), who was the mad woman in the attic in Jane Eyre. On reading Jane Eyre, I was struck by her haunting presence; she is so pivotal, yet so hidden in the narrative. Rhys gives Bertha her own story, though it is one that the reader knows will end in utter devastation.
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