The Books That Built Ryan
1. Everyday by David Levithan
Everyday takes the number one spot on the list of books that shape who I am because of how much emotional connection I have with many of the book's concepts. I read this book within a year of coming out to my parents, and the normalization of queer love within this work helped me to embrace who I am and showed the importance of love triumphing any obstacle in its path. My favorite part about this work is how the main character has no given gender, as they are someone who wakes up in a different body everyday; they simply go by the name "A". Additionally, this work connects to a rare mental health condition I suffer from known as depersonalization, an anxiety illness where I feel as though the world around me and everything I'm seeing is not real and is not happening, as though I am stuck in a dream. Everyday is one of the few things that helps me through such an uncomfortable and frightening condition as it connects and deals with feelings unreality and the desensitization that you are not within your own body. Similar to how Satrapi writes The Complete Persepolis to present the reality of life in Iran, Levithan writes this work to contribute to portray the reality of LGBT people. At the end of the day, they too are humans and want what everyone else desires in life: Love, prosperity, and happiness.
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2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
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3. On the Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou
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4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Perks of Being a Wallflower helped shape who I am today by teaching me to be comfortable with who I am, and helped me cope and learn how to realize that your perception of you is not reality. This work helped me come to peace with the idea that my inner demons, while a part of me, are something that everyone has and everyone can overcome. As a reader, it helped to shape the stories I like to read and the genre I prefer to go after, which is stories that involve realistic fiction and observe the lives of regular human beings and the struggles we all go through. I also have an emotional connection and have found solace in Charlie, the main character. My bright vibrant outside personality often conceals whatever emotions or struggles I go through, and the somber, oftentimes depressing mindset of Charlie offers a cathartic healing and safe place for those emotions
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5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby was another book that helped me in my ability to analyze literature, but more specifically shaped my appreciation for the art form of literature as it brought the 1920's to life. Through the entirety of my time reading, I have always had a hard time visualizing a story as it appears on words on a page, yet the vivid description offered by Fitzgerald helped me to better obtain a grasp on visualization. I distinctly remember how much depth he was able to give one of the main characters, Jordan Baker, with just a few sentences. This work also developed me as a reader as it shaped my love for works with very deep, complex, and vivid characters that contain such a personality despite the fact that they are fictional. It helps me to build an appreciation as to the talents of authors as this is not an easy thing to do. It also helped shape my love for many decades within the 20th century, as it created a passion for many works of art and styles of the time.
I really love the books you included in your bookshelf, and the way you explained your connection and growth through them. I wholeheartedly agree with your statement, that through literature we are better able to understand and accept the true version of ourselves. Your post was eloquently written, and it was a pleasure to read it.
ReplyDeleteI love that you included books I've never heard of before. I think it speaks volumes about a person to read a wide variety of literature, and I'm always seeking to broaden my horizons and expand my own bookshelf. I'll definitley check out On the Pulse of Morning and Their Eyes Were Watching God
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent list of works. The Great Gatsby is one of those novels that can't be ruined by being mandatory assigned reading for so many years of school. I just love it. I love that you included Angelou. For me, I felt I really transformed as a reader when I introduced non-novels to my reading lists. I couldn't really enjoy poetry or essays until a few years after high school, but they really help focus my attention on the power of a turn of phrase, a word, rather than the intrigue of a plot.
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