books = me(me)
Aug. 8th, 2007 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaVia Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and thence Jonquil:
Compile a short list of books specifically meant to help somebody understand you. These are not (necessarily) non-fiction books that catalogue your particular disorders or quirks, but books that especially resonate with you, that express a facet of you in book form.
This is off the top of my headachey head. I am sure I will forget something vital.
-Judith Martin, Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. This book taught me most of what I know about being an adult. How to think about other people and their needs, and how to treat them as I would like to be treated - with respect.
-Monroe Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson, Ferdinand. I aim to be more like Ferdinand - a peaceful soul, who knows himself and is true to himself - as well as like his mother, who "was a good mother, although she was a cow," and accepts Ferdinand the way he is, once she is satisfied that he is not lonely. Also, I adore Robert Lawson and his cork trees.
-James Lipton, An Exaltation of Larks. Words, extravagant words, with a touch of big nerdy. This is a facet of me I keep more hidden - unlike most of my friendslist I am not a writer and I think I come across more ascetic. Okay, the nerdy, not so hidden.
-Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden. Gardening is a practical exercise for me, but it's also as close as I come to spirituality. The earthiness and practicality of the Yorkshire folk, the rebirth of the garden in the spring and the emotional rebirth of the two sad children, both speak to me.
-Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night. This was the huge book of my early 20s - for me it was about how to be a woman and an intellectual both, a topic I wrestled with (sad to say, it still needed wrestling at the close of the 20th century.) Plus, you know, love of wit and piffle.
Compile a short list of books specifically meant to help somebody understand you. These are not (necessarily) non-fiction books that catalogue your particular disorders or quirks, but books that especially resonate with you, that express a facet of you in book form.
This is off the top of my headachey head. I am sure I will forget something vital.
-Judith Martin, Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. This book taught me most of what I know about being an adult. How to think about other people and their needs, and how to treat them as I would like to be treated - with respect.
-Monroe Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson, Ferdinand. I aim to be more like Ferdinand - a peaceful soul, who knows himself and is true to himself - as well as like his mother, who "was a good mother, although she was a cow," and accepts Ferdinand the way he is, once she is satisfied that he is not lonely. Also, I adore Robert Lawson and his cork trees.
-James Lipton, An Exaltation of Larks. Words, extravagant words, with a touch of big nerdy. This is a facet of me I keep more hidden - unlike most of my friendslist I am not a writer and I think I come across more ascetic. Okay, the nerdy, not so hidden.
-Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden. Gardening is a practical exercise for me, but it's also as close as I come to spirituality. The earthiness and practicality of the Yorkshire folk, the rebirth of the garden in the spring and the emotional rebirth of the two sad children, both speak to me.
-Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night. This was the huge book of my early 20s - for me it was about how to be a woman and an intellectual both, a topic I wrestled with (sad to say, it still needed wrestling at the close of the 20th century.) Plus, you know, love of wit and piffle.