By Carole Reedy

“Books are not about passing time. They are about other lives, other worlds. Read to find out what other people are like.” So said the observational yet insightful, droll yet sharp English writer Alan Bennett.

Reading for pleasure is, in fact, enlightenment. The insight into other worlds helps us understand ourselves, our motives, and our ultimate search for a good life.

I spoke with a variety of readers who shared with me the books that changed a perception, an overall perspective, or that offered a new point of view.

Try to see the world with wonder, just as children do
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Our friend Dan Battista adores The Little Prince, which he taught in French to his senior high school students. He found the book important not only for learning a command of the language, but also in the life lessons imparted: the values of love and relationships, which prove in the long run to be more important than wealth or status.

Another one of his favorite quotes helped him feel more comfortable with death: that of seeing stars as a laughing presence of our loved ones. The little prince says: “In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of the stars, I shall be laughing.”

Dan tried to impart his love of the novel and its lessons to his students. Some of them “got it” and others didn’t. C’est la vie!

Declaring one’s own path
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

Because it couldn’t be stated better, here is a quote directly from ex Peace Corp volunteer and retired physical education teacher Martha Larson:

“Personally, the most influential book I discovered was The Feminine Mystique. It stiffened my backbone as a young woman who was deciding how to define herself and set boundaries. It affirmed my perception that I was being boxed in by societal expectations for women and girls. It made me want to declare my own path.

This was all new territory for me as a very naive young woman. Once my husband and I returned to the U.S. (from Venezuela Peace Corps duty) I was able to read Ms.Magazine. I was captivated by the short stories, articles, and poetry of women who were speaking to me in a very personal way. I felt someone was singing my tune. It was thrilling to me to imagine a more expansive way forward.”

Being different
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

Seattle resident, world traveler, and helper to all, Steve Clagett returned home from the Peace Corps to the realization of how different he was from his family (like Leland Stanford in the novel) and that he would need to make his own way in the world. He cut all financial ties and help from his family and worked his way through law school. Unsurprisingly, he became an attorney who worked on developing low-income housing.

Steve refers also to Robert Pirsig’s Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in his struggle to deal with being different. Both books present characters who break from a traditional mold to become distinct in themselves, people whose values and mores differ from the mainstream. So what changed for Steve? It was validation that we can choose to be different–even that it is our duty to maximize our uniqueness.

No correct interpretation
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

Nancy Gurrola, former history professor, tells us of her passion for this quartet of books when she was 16 years old. Today, they remain reader favorites:

“My reading level took an immediate jump up with a style of writing I’d never encountered (an intertwined plot developed from varying points of view), complex characters in what was to me an exotic setting, and erotic passages, which I’m sure I didn’t really understand at 16. My takeaway from the constellation of perspectives on the same narrative was that there is no ‘correct’ story or interpretation of history. No doubt that observation unconsciously helped me when I became a history professor.”

Professor Gurrola went on to tell me that she recently reread the quartet and did not find it as stimulating as she did at 16. However, I read the Quartet recently (for the first time) as a septuagenarian and found it challenging, stimulating, and oh so enchanting.

Society’s standards of beauty
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

In many Western cultures blonde hair and blue eyes have been (and still are) considered the most desirable appearance and, often, the standard of beauty.

The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s first novel, published in1970, tells the story of an 11-year-old African American girl during the Great Depression. Deemed “ugly” because of her dark skin and mannerisms, she longs for blue eyes—the symbol of whiteness and acceptance.

The impact of this discrimination and the isolation suffered by the girl was devastating to reader Camille, as well as to many of us as young adults in the 1970s.

Understanding a culture
Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins

“This riveting account of the Hindu-Muslim conflict gave me a front row seat to Hindu-Muslim relations in India, and the birth of Pakistan in 1947.” The reader here, Kathy Kaye, is a writer of fiction, well-known for her Warehouse Winery Mystery series (and her latest book, Interview with the Tarot Reader).

The books of Lapierre and Collins are a marvelous way to read and understand our world and history. Their writing is not turgid, as are many of the nonfiction accounts of the same story. Their approach involves the reader and speaks in a tone we readily understand. It feels as if you’re reading a novel partly because the people of the region–not just the battles and conflicts–are the focus.

Even when you know the history and results, the stories of Lapierre and Collins are always spellbinding and gripping. The characterizations meld with the action for an unputdownable reading experience.

Different worlds, same time
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Avid reader Phyllis Kopriva, who chose this book, lives her dedication to the written word: she once belonged to four bookclubs, each of which met monthly.

This was the first book that made her aware of just how singular our place is in the world. Others grew up in very different worlds and thrived as well, just differently. And it wasn’t merely a distinct time period, such as in the classics. This was a completely different world, happening parallel to her lived existence.

Reading this Angelou classic, Phyllis understood for the first time that great writing is what brings us into these worlds, allowing us to fully grasp a new perception of them.

Respect and sharing
My Antonia by Willa Cather

The reader of this book is a former physician who at 92 years old still reads voraciously. After decades of reading, the novel that stands out in his mind is My Antonia. “It taught me a lot about respect and sharing.”

It’s interesting that although his profession is one filled with respect and sharing that he still learned more and found reinforcement for his beliefs through novels. The doctor’s favorite books, though, are those of the always-memorable Brontë sisters.

No place like home
North Woods by Daniel Mason

This popular novel helped reader Julie Sanchez in reflecting on the many histories of a home. She has been attached to the history of her homes in Denver since childhood, as well as her current residences in Cuernavaca and Oaxaca, Mexico, finding fascinating the continuing history of a home. She comments, “Think of what your home was in 1890! It does give one pause to reflect.”

Transfiguring the contexts of understanding culture
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Although published in 1992, Quinn’s still popular tale of a philosophic Socratic discourse between a gorilla and human is the basis for this novel that changed plant ecologist Laura Warman’s way of thinking about our planet. She looked anew at the narratives that western civilizations tell us and that we use to base our relationships with each other and the planet.

“The book stuck with me for many years, and had the same impact when I re-read it. I have fond memories of an international scientific conference in Sweden, where I met a group of fast friends and ended up discussing this book late into the night in a progression of drinking establishments in GamlaStan in Stockholm.”

Quinn looks at the failure of human civilization, going so far as suggesting how to correct it. His theory is based on the tenet that we belong to the planet, not vice versa.

Possibilities and perseverance
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird

This is a story of a woman who often fell ill in her native Scotland, and subsequently became a world traveler and writer.

The account tells the tale of her travels alone, astride a horse in a divided skirt, in 19th century United States. She rode from California to Colorado, where she spent the winter in an isolated cabin.

Her experience changed Betty Warman’s perception of the “old west” and what was possible for women at that time. Betty, a former museum graphic designer in Mexico City, was raised on a ranch in Arizona in an era that was certainly wilder than it currently is. She has delighted in all of Isabella Bird’s books and adventures.

Another way of viewing racism and civil rights
The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Journalist, editor, and constant gardener Heidi Hough discovered, in this autobiography, a philosophy that altered her thinking about the civil rights era.

“Reading The Autobiography of Malcom X shifted my worldview to an alternate way of thinking about racism and civil rights. The book was a distinct counterweight to Dr Martin Luther King’s approach of nonviolent resistance.

King’s notion of racial justice was based broadly on integration, non-violent protest, and civil disobedience. King was a peacemaker who built coalitions with white activists.

Reading Malcom X opened my eyes to a courageous and authentic counterpoint that outlined a way to freedom and equality that was initially based on black pride and “any means necessary,” including violence. Malcolm X’s autobiography tells the story of a human rights activist whose alliance with the Nation of Islam shifts with time and disillusionment, but whose philosophical devotion to racial justice was unwavering. Decades later, these approaches still resonate in the effort to secure reproductive rights for women in the United States.

Impact of the written word
Remembrances of Things Past by Marcel Proust

This from yours truly:

“Now I can die” was my first thought upon finishing Proust’s seven-volume masterpiece Remembrances of Things Past. I really meant to say “What can I possibly read after this life-changing tome?”

In my 74 years of reading, I have yet to encounter such sublime beauty in the written word as that found in these seven novels. That is the root of my recommendation. I appreciated other significant factors, such as embracing the power of memory, as well as mindfulness and reflection, but his sharing of secluded feelings with such elegance was the most memorable to me.

I read it at 40, and I hope to have another read during this lifetime.