You Are What You Read?

The most recent issue of Newsweek, dated July 13, 2009, contains an article, on page 44, titled "What to Read Now. And Why." It lists 50 books that "we...need, in a world with precious little time to read (and think)...to...open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways."

I will not, most likely, be reading all 50 of these books (which consists of fiction and non-fiction alike), and I would bet that neither will you. However, it is a list to look through, to ponder, and to make a list from of which books would be the ones to "simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways." This, of course, means that no two of us will probably have the same lists. We are all individuals and what we read, watch, and talk about reflects that individuality. It has been said that you are what you read. Do you believe it? I do. Perhaps we are not exactly what we read (of course, I am not a 30 year old vampire queen), but with a bit more digging we can see what it is that we are doing with our reading. Learning, sympathizing, escaping, breaking emotional walls. Then, from deriving what the reader's goal is, we can see more clearly who they are. Thus, perhaps, you are what you read. 

My List for Helping to See Myself in New and Surprising Ways:

Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

Walking with the Wind by John Lewis

I didn't include links to these books, or even the reasons why I am choosing them, for a very simple reason. These are my choices. I cannot recommend them to you because I haven't read them, and the books that you need to read from the magazine's list might, in fact, be very different from mine.  But, dear reader, won't you please share when you find out what they are?

xo,

The Coconut Librarian

P.S. On page 56 there is a list of the best books ever... maybe a book challenge of it's own?

Comments

[Frank Marcopolos]

Interesting. Here's the URL to the Newsweek article, BTW:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/204300

My list would include Underworld by Delillo, and American Pastoral by Roth.