I've been thinking a lot about maturity when it comes to reading--the idea that reading, like growing up, is a relentless push forward, a continuous search for something divine, something that finally reveals whatever truth we may be searching for at a particular point in our lives. Mood may be a large part of how we choose our favorite books--of how we discover those "life-changing" stories or poems--but, on a deeper level, I suspect that many of our favorite books are chosen not simply because of quality, but because they happened to coincide with a certain time in our lives.

It's one thing to remember reading a book, if for no other reason than because of its good or bad qualities, but quite another to remember it because it marked a turning point, either in our lives or in our reading experiences. Metaphors are highly personal, often inexplicable, and even primal. Reading as life--or as bookmarks for certain points in our lives--may not be as trite as it first seems. Memories can be cathartic, sometimes to the point of embarrassment, but dwelling on them can be a learning experience in itself. For the reader--or at least for me--that experience can be amplified by the presence of that one book that whispers, "I was written for you."

Comments

[Andi]

Right on. Those books that are "life changing" for me are often those that fall inexplicably in sync with whatever is playing out in my life at the time. Example: T.S. Elliot's "The Waste Land." My favorite poem and one that quite literally gave me the courage to leap headlong into graduate school--the best thing I've ever done.

Great post!

[Matthew Tiffany]

And the one book is...?

[verbivore]

This is lovely, Brandon, and I agree with you. Finding books that speak to me, even if its just at a certain moment of my life, definitely reinforces memory.