Packing (9.23.14)

Today I started digging into the packing up of All The Things. (There was a little panic involved. Because reasons. Actually, because there are only seven days left in the month and any negotiation about our current living situation has been curtailed.)


Some of the things I started packing was my small collection of books. And looking at the things I have held onto made me think about what an impact those books have had on me. Books that make me sigh or smile or ache when I find them in the big tubby in the closet. (I grew up in a house with a shit-ton of books, but current living situation doesn't allow me to collect without limits and even those I can keep are in storage conditions.)


There was/is a meme going around about the 10 books you've read that stuck with you.
This is not that.
Because reasons. (Ahem. No one tagged me and I don't know how many books are going to be on this list or even if I can tell you why.)


But here are some of what I have chosen to keep. In no particular order.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I actually have three Bradbury books - Something Wicked, From the Dust Returned and Somewhere A Band is Playing. I've read a lot more of his short stories and novels, but these are the three I love so much that they have to stay in my collection.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It is an amazing book in which everything and absolutely nothing happens in the space of 24 hours. 

The Trial Begins by Abram Tertz/Andrei Sinyavsky. I do not remember exactly how I found this book, but the short novel that makes up the first half is lovely and surreal. 

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. Classic. I love the style of it. It's also the only one of his novels I've actually read. 

Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith/Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger. Another book I love for the style of the words on the page. 

Julius Ceaser by William Shakespeare. Because Shakespeare. 

Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney. It's pretty fantastic. I read Heaney in college for a class. Also read some other translations of Beowulf before, but this one is just fantastic. 

The Children of Men by P.D. James. This one makes me hurt to read it, but I love it anyway. 

There are others, but these are the ones that I dust off before putting them in a new box and promise myself I'll read them again soon. Soon.