10 Books

I've been putting this off for a while, especially since I promised hijac that I'd do it a few Fridays previously. So, here goes my list of 10 books that have some bearing on the person I am:

1. The Little Prince, Antoine de St. Exupery : The first book I remember receiving from my father, and remained a keepsake to remember him by for the next 13 years when I didn't see him as both him and my mother were on fraught terms. Now, its a reminder of how the most important things in life are sometimes invisible to the eye.

2. Larousse Gastronomique : Because I love food, and this has almost everything you need to know about food, preparation techniques, and recipies. Truly food porn at its best.

3. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami : Tales that involve the metaphysical and ethereal have always appealed to me, perhaps because so much is rooted in the real world, but yet has a plausible escape hatch to enter the realm of the unknown. Hauntingly told, it also explains a lot about the heritage I bear and the mentality of the Japanese people.

4. The Life and Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee : For making me realise how lucky I truly am to be born into the life that I have.

5. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden : Not so much for the depiction of life as a geisha, more for the bitchy repartée between the rivals.

6. Every Woman Deserves An Adventure, Yvonne Roberts : Probably the first bit of chick lit I ever read, and to date reminds me that it can be well written, and funny. Also because I desperately wanted my mother to be liberally sexual like the heroine instead of fighting for the divorce that never happened.

7. Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin : If you've read my previous posts, you'll understand why. Although I'm the gay man who suffered the anguish instead.

8. Farewell My Concubine, Lillian Lee : Another part of my heritage, and the love/suffering dynamic played out beautifully.

9. Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson : For reminding me that at times we shouldn't be so cynical and to remember what life was before we hit puberty, and to enjoy the simple pleasures.

10. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, Oliver Sachs : This is the only book I vaguely even understand out of the years I spent doing my degree in.

So, that was my list of 10 books. I'm sure some will change over time, but nos 1-3 will be hard to shift.