Books

While I included some music that has inspired me throughout my life, I also wanted to include some books of particular interest to me past the ones I had already discussed in my narrative. Books have been important thing to me since I was about 8 years old. I love how books challenge you; they take you into their world and make you consider your own. They are not only a great way to learn but a great way to distress as well. It is so easy to fall into the trap of scrolling on TikTok for an hour, or watching a million Instagram reels, but reading gives you so much more, and I personally just feel so good when I am reading because I feel like I am bettering myself.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck: I am currently about halfway through this book, and I can tell it is one of the best I have ever read. The book has not only been enjoyable to read but I feel like has changed the way I look at life entirely. Steinbeck portrays life as something special and shows it through the simplest of things. You could read 30 pages of someone tilling a farm and it will somehow be your favorite chapter of the book. I also appreciate Steinbeck’s portrayal of imperfect people who are just simply trying to move through life. This connects to my central thesis of continuing on your journey in the toughest of times and being able to find joy in it all.

Gone South by Robert Mccammon: I am always amazed at how fast I devoured this book. Mccammon shows you how fun literacy can be which is another point I really want to make with this project. I feel like the current pursuit of literacy is surrounded by too much pressure and fearmongering. You should engage in literacy to have fun, and to stimulate your brain at the same time, it is going to be harder to convince people to get on the literacy train if it always seems like a matter of life and death. Sometimes, you read a book just for fun, that is completely acceptable and a wonderful use of your time.

The Ritual by Adam Nevill: While I appreciate the movie adaptation and its downright commitment to horror, in my opinion, the novel provides so much more emotional depth to the characters. While the book is partly about evading a huge monster, it is also about a fractured friendship among the group. Sometimes people just inevitably grow apart, and the book captures this so well. It made me consider my own life, while sometimes I felt alone in the experience of losing friends to time, literacy showed me that was clearly not the case. Interacting with literacy can often help you confront problems in your own life.

The Stand by Stephen King: This is my favorite book of all time. One of the experiences that made me fall in love with reading. I feel in the over 1100 pages of this book, there is nothing dull. The characterization is out of this universe, and King truly immerses you in the world he creates. Like I had mentioned, the page count is immense, but it taught me a valuable lesson. The journey of literacy is a long and seemingly never-ending journey. It also taught me that you do not necessarily have to interact with the “classics” of literature to gain better literacy skills, you should engage in what it is fun for you.