For the books that have changed me, I chose a short variety of books and series and authors that have helped shape me as a person. Ones that have challenged me as a reader and a thinker and a person. Ones that have helped me get through tough times, ones that I turn to when I have nothing I want to read at the moment. These are essential to my life, and for the school appropriate ones, they will definitely be in my classroom library and will be added to my overall annotated library at some point.
Books that have Changed Me
- Alanna (and most things Tamora Pierce)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (Pivotal book for me as a reader)
- North and South by Jane Austen
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Divergent
- The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness
- A Little Princess by Francis Hodge Burnett
- Pamela by Samuel Richardson
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- As I Lay Dying
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Outlander
- Canterbury Tales
- Frankenstein
- Dracula
- Girl, Interrupted
- The Great Gatsby
- The Historian
This list is an exemplar of fiction that runs the gamut from YA to "classics," to Popular Fiction, Modern Fiction, Historical Fiction, and just some outright fun books to read. This is a list I would like to continue expanding that I'd like to have in the classroom to show students and have one that is more along the lines Books that have Changed Me (from a pluralistic classroom standpoint) with butcher paper and markers so they can add books to it as they discover them. It brings together a reading community and creates that safe space for it to exist in.
Similarly, I know that a lot of students never read the assigned reading, especially whole texts. I think on this level I can share with them that I too have not finished books.
Books I Couldn't Finish
- Baudolino by Umberto Eco
- Book of John Mandeville
- The Bostonians by Henry James
- Chalktown: A Novel by Melinda Hayes
- Cold Mountain by Charles Frazer
- Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue by Neale Donald Walsch
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Great Expectations
- Holy Blood, Holy Grail
- House of Leaves
I would instead make a list of BOOKS TO RE-VISIT because, at the time, they were things I was not ready to deal with, or they were too heavy, or the language too complex. Any number of things affect whether a book is readable at that time. For me, these are some, and I would challenge myself and my students to pick one a year to pick back up and try reading again.
Lastly, are a few characters that I cannot stand from books. I wish I had an explanation for why, but I could talk about and we could class discuss characters we dislike and how it helped us read the book. A few for me are below.
Fictional Characters I Cannot Stand
- Bella from the Twilight Series
- Ender from Ender’s Game
- Ethan Frome
- Evelina from Evelina by Frances Burney
- Marlow from Heart of Darkness
