Sacramento Public Library discussion

Books.

We love to talk about them and what they mean to us. Sometimes a book entertains, sometimes it educates and informs or provokes deep thought. Other times books touch us very deeply for whatever reason. It isn't hyperbole to say books can change lives.

So we're wondering...what book has changed your life and why?

How green was my valley / Richard Llewellyn. I read this as a very young teenager and realized my life was nothing like that. From that moment on though I had a direction of where life could go and what it could be like with others.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Live in the now and tell your friends that you love and appreciate them. Also, without my parents, I would not be in the world today. For the past couple of years on my birthday, I bought a present for my mom and my dad because that's what Charlie did for his mom :)

Native Son by Richard Wright allowed me to see how blind I'd been to the hurt unconsciously caused to others by white privilege. The Daltons are so well-meaning as they attempt to help Bigger better his life but also so ignorant of the racism behind their actions and feelings. I never really understood the rage that builds up inside those who are oppressed. This novel is so raw and uncomfortable to read but still so important as we continue to navigate the challenges of understanding and remedying the systemic racism in our nation.

Honestly I don't know if a book has changed my life. I have always read and read and read. Each and every book means something to me or affects me in some way, even the terrible books. They all add to my knowledge, my experience, my life...

I can say that Jane Eyre forever changed the way I read because it turned me on to mystery, romance and the deliciousness of gothic suspense.

I can say that Gone With The Wind was the first book I ever missed meals for. I was utterly absorbed by it for a week.

I can say that The Grapes of Wrath was the first work of literature that I read for an assignment which truly moved me and made me think. (it made my classmates think too, which made it all even cooler)

I can also say that I vividly remember carrying my oversized illustrated library copy of Little House in the Big Woods around with me as a very young girl. Though I know I definitely read plenty of books before it, it remains the first book that I remember reading on my own and that makes it one of the most important books in my life.