Ryan's Virtual Bookshelf

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

       

Their Eyes Were Watching God holds a lot of significance in the reader - and the person - I am today. Before I read this book I couldn't seem to grasp the fundamentals of how to analyze literature, with no motivation to do so consequently. However, this work provided an important breakthrough. It seemed like the words in every sentence were beautifully sewn together to create a piece that represents the meaning of love and the black community during the 20th century. Every sentence I read it seemed like she was directly speaking to me through indirect metaphors, themes, and motifs that softly caught my attention. Finally, I understood the transcendence behind literature and its analyzation, something I found myself to be quite good at. Alongside this was her effortless ability to create awe-inspiring passages that speaks to her talent for carefully cherry picking the precise words that flow. I now thought that literature and the ability for art to hold double meaning through its story and presentation was mind-altering and eye-opening. Additionally, the Harlem Renaissance is one of my favorite art movements. With the work of Langston Hughes and other black artists at the time, Hurston was part of a movement that defined what it meant to be proud of one's blackness. This idea speaks to my embrace of equality for all genders, ethnicities, races, and sexualities. Additionally, she is from my hometown in a borough of Melbourne Florida, and spoke at a predecessor high school that I went to in the 1950's, which I think to be really fascinating since she wrote one of my favorite works.

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3. On the Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou 

On the Pulse of Morning as well as other poems by Maya Angelou is a significant piece which has come to shape my love and appreciation for poetry. The first time I came across this poem it was played over a commercial that coincided with the poem's theme of triumph in the face of defeat and disparity. By the end, and on Angelou's delivery of the last line, I had chills running down my spine. The voice she envelops this piece with through its recital brings such warmth, comfort, and reassurance. In many times I look to this poem to remind myself of those powerful, wonderful, beautiful words: "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived. But if faced with courage, need not be lived again." I turn to this poem for a revival and renewal of my spirit, reminiscent of the pulse of a new morning. In many ways this poem has taught me to keep moving and persevere in the face of adversity. It especially helped me to coin my favorite types of poems, which are ones that have more of a literal and direct meaning toward life, that speak truths through beautiful language.

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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.

Caleb's Virtual Bookshelf

Caleb's Virtual Bookshelf

Great Expectations

At first, the winding nature of Great Expectations and the length of it bored me. Due to this, I put it down for a month or two and then went back to it. Again, it initially bored me, but this time I read further and slowly became increasingly immersed in the twisting story. The main thing that captured my attention was the mystery as to who Pip's benefactor was. Initially, like Pip, I had assumed that his benefactor was Miss Havisham. I was surprised to find out that it was a convict by the name of Magwitch who had found his fortune in the colonies. This book taught me patience due to the initial boring investment of time that led to a fascinating story. It also taught me to not trust assumptions because they could always be proven wrong, like Pip's assumption/expectation as to who his benefactor was. Akin to other books that we read in class (Gulliver's Travels), this book serves to critique society, specifically the justice system of the English.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a piece of literature about a young African American woman named Janie and the struggles that she finds throughout he life with regard to relationships and racial discrimination. I found this book to be powerful because it not only addressed racial discrimination and its evils (which I had seen addressed in other books before); it also demonstrated how this racial discrimination affected every facet of Janie's life, whether it be her relationships, her perception to others, or her economic status. Thus, this book allowed for me to have a greater appreciation of how minorities are affected by discrimination. Like other books that we read in class (Beloved), this book serves as a commentary on racial discrimination and how powerful of an effect it can have on a person's life.

All the King's Men

All The King's Men is a novel that changed my fundamental understanding of politicians and politics in general. The story is told from Jack Burden's perspective. He serves as a political advisor to Willie Stark, a politician who eventually become the governor of an unnamed state. By providing the perspective of a political advisor (Jack), the politician (Willie) can be foiled uniquely in a way that juxtaposes with the way that the public perceives him. This book taught me that there is a large and sometimes dark underbelly to politics that the public does not know about. I learned that this underbelly should be recognized and that we should be aware of it at all times. Like with other books that we read in this class (Dante's Inferno with the Guelphs and the Ghibellines), one of the purposes of this book is to serve as a political commentary. 

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a book that has influenced my views upon the extent to which a government should be able to play a role in our lives. In the story, a dystopian society revolves around the concept of quick and fleeting pleasure and has firefighters that burn books instead of putting out fires. The main character, Guy Montag, is one such firefighter who ends up reading the forbidden books. Not only did this book make me question how much power a government have, it also made me question the value of quick and fleeting pleasures. I discovered through this masterpiece that long-term pleasures are the only truly valuable ones. Like other works that we have read in class (Gulliver's Travels), this work is a commentary upon Western society, where short-term pleasures are typically valued more than long-term ones.

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a book that has taught me to value my basic human freedoms and liberties and to not take them for granted. In the story, Offred is forced to serve as a fertile concubine after her basic freedoms are slowly stripped from her following a coup in the United States. This strikes to home for me because I live in the United States, where these basic human freedoms are currently guaranteed. It is unimaginable to think about my personal freedoms being striped from me and this book gives me a sense of horror in that aspect. Like other works that we have read in class (Persepolis), this work highlights and attacks the basic human nature of taking our rights and privileges for granted.