Books that Stayed with Me for Days, Months, Years

My junior high English teacher Edward Winchester posted a question to me asking what are the top ten books that had an impact on me. (Why yes I’m FB friends with my junior high teacher, aren’t you?)

These were the ten that came to mind immediately. I do realize they’re a bit all over the place and some are particularly violent + dark. But these books resonated within me for a long time and affected my thoughts on humanity, religion, love, and all the other complicated stuff that make up a life.

Douglas Coupland – Life After God
Raymond Carver – Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet
Craig Thompson – Blankets
Art Spiegelman – Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Banana Yoshimoto – Kitchen
Mark Salzman – The Soloist
Caleb Carr – The Alienist
Chuck Palahniuk – Haunted
Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Book 1 of the Millennium Trilogy

If you haven’t read any of these books I would highly recommend them.

Caleb, Chuck, and Stieg’s books are super violent and weird. So if you’re not into that, don’t venture there.

If you’re dealing with a broken heart, Raymond will make you feel right at home. He won’t make you happy. That’s not going to happen. But you will feel less alone. Same goes with Craig. Blankets is a huge graphic novel and will just rip your heart apart.

The “happy” books I have on my list are by by Banana, Mark, and Rainer.
Beautiful. Thoughtful.

Art’s book is a graphic novel about the Holocaust….so yeah that ain’t happy either. Powerful powerful stuff there.

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