8, 15, and 30 please!
Thank you!!!
8. what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?
Dolly Parton, Hozier, Freddie Mercury
AKA - 90% of every playlist I make
15. five most influential books over your lifetime.
1. Les Misérables: I first read LM unabridged in 8th grade and it changed my life. It’s such a powerful book of love and hope, set in an era of oppression and evil. I read it (or at least, most of it) about once a year because I can’t help but see our world today in it. The Bishop passages in Tome I were completely revolutionary to my perception of power, faith, and social inequity.
2. The Hobbit: When I was a child, I had severe insomnia. It took me 3-4 hours to fall asleep each night. My dad (a fellow insomniac) would patiently sit in a chair by my bed every single night and read the Hobbit. Chapter-by-chapter, until the book was finished and he would start over again.
It introduced me to my love of reading and fantasy, and is a wonderful memory I have of my childhood and dad. When I turned 6 and was old enough to graduate from picture books, The Hobbit is the first chapter book I read by myself (because I’d memorized most of it haha).
3. Jane Eyre: This was THE book that got me into classic literature. In 6th grade, the last Harry Potter book had been released and I was looking for a new genre. The librarian recommended Jane Eyre, and I fell in love. It spoke to my preteen anxieties and flightiness, and had such passionate and funny moments. This book was the first time I realized literature could be GOOD.
4. The Life of Pi: This is one of those books that TRIES to change your life if you let it. It’s such a complicated and heavily metaphorical examination of faith and human experience. It made me love academic literature enough to get a degree in it
5. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: This is a bit of a cheat, because I watched and fell in love with the movie first. But this book was right there when I needed it. I grew up in an extremely traditional, conservative, religious environment - my only exposure to lgbt experiences was news of murders and oppression. Reading this book (+ seeing the movie) was the first time being gay in the south wasn’t framed as a sin or horrible tragedy - it was normal and sweet. I cannot express enough how much this book comforted me, I think I cried a week straight after reading it in 7th grade.
1. pick one of your favorite quotes.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
