My "First Chapters" in reading

 The inspiration for this post came from my English 2250 textbook, actually. One of our assignments was to complete what the textbook called an "Autobiographical Cannon." That meant we were to go through the history of our reading career and highlight the works of literature that influenced us the most. These are the books I chose to talk about in my assignment, and so naturally I wanted to share them here! These books are a huge part of why I started reading, and why I read so voraciously as I do. (By the way, voracious is such a fun word and I think it's my favorite.) 

I'm curious to know, what would your "autobiographical cannon" consist of? What sort of books would be included? Drop it down in the comments! 

The “When I Was Small” Collection

Usborne Children’s Classics: Greek Myths

This is the first fiction book I remember reading by myself. In my house, between the old upright grand piano and the couch, is a shelf filled with picture books. At least, it was filled with picture books before the only inhabitants of the house grew too old for picture books. Snuggled into the very middle was a stout blue book I read from every day. It was a book of Greek myths, compiled by Usborne. I still have that copy of the book. Out of curiosity one day, I went online to see if I could find another copy of the book. It doesn’t exist anymore, at least not on Amazon, eBay, Barnes & Nobles, Thrift Books, etc. You get the picture. I knew my Greek myths forward and backward before Rick Riordan began drafting Percy Jackson. I loved the story of Persephone the best, though I still don’t know why. I’m not usually one for damsel-in-distress type books. I was fascinated by the story of Pandora’s Box, and couldn’t wrap my mind around why a woman would be so foolish as to open a box, when it unleashed such horrors on her world. I loved reading about Heracles slaying the beasts, and about Jason and the golden fleece. I wanted to be a hero in my own right, and reading these myths gave my imagination a playing field. It also jumpstarted my love of all things mythological, from all parts of the world.

The Fairy Collection by Shirley Barber

I vividly remember receiving this book. It was Christmas, midday, and we’d just finished eating our Christmas brunch at my grandma’s house. It was time to open presents from the cousins, aunts  and uncles, and I was excited. My aunts always gave me something good. But the present I did not expect that year came from my great-grandpa Dubois. It was a picture book filled with fairy stories. In my sophisticated first-grade brain, I initially thought myself much too old for books like this, but after the rest of the presents were opened (I don’t remember anything else I got that day, by the way) I hid behind the couch and opened that book for the first time. The illustrations were absolutely breathtaking. There was a CD included, which I listened to over and over again when we got home. The stories were of fairies, and mermaids, and unicorns. There were poems, too, which I hadn’t really read before then. I had never seen something so beautiful in my life, and there’s not a singular book I’ve ever read that is so deeply ingrained into my memory. I can still picture the illustrations and hear the narrator’s voice from the CD if I think about it.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Another vivid memory: driving to the Utah State Fair in the back of my grandma’s sedan, a stack of library books on the seat beside me. I loved this book best and had it renewed as many times as I could before someone else requested it and I had to check it back in. My favorite tales were of Snow White and Rose Red, the boy who turns into a deer, and the brothers who turn into swans. The servant girl wrapped in furs captured my attention every single time, and for the first time I realized that the world of fairy tales was bigger than Disney’s Cinderella. There was a whole Europe of fairy tales for me to find, and the beginning of that quest began in a dog-eared white library book in the back of a gold sedan.

The “Middle Grade” Collection

Percy Jackson

It was a pretty natural jump from the classic Greek myths to Percy Jackson. My nerdy little heart was very pleased with what I found. Rick Riordan had certainly done his research, and I flew through the Lightning Thief one Thursday afternoon on my Grandma’s front porch while my mom visited inside. It was one of the first series I’d read in entirety, and one of the only middle-grade series I frequently go back and re-read. I talked about Percy Jackson to anyone who would listen, and eagerly awaited the day when I would go to Camp Half-Blood. Most kids in fifth grade waited for their Hogwarts letter; I waited for a Minotaur and an orange t-shirt. I figured I was strong enough to go on a quest. I’d survived most of the fifth grade, hadn’t I?

Ranger’s Apprentice

I’ll admit, I started reading Ranger’s Apprentice because the boy who sat in front of me in my fifth-grade class, had them in his desk. This boy was, at that time, the most handsome boy I’d ever seen, and thus it was necessary for a potential girlfriend such as myself to be educated in his favorite books. What started as a ploy to win the heart of a prince ended up being the start of one of my favorite fantasy adventures. The Ranger’s Apprentice series was inspired by bedtime stories the author would create for his son and is a perfect introduction to high fantasy for any middle grader. One of my favorite things about this series was the women. There were strong, gutsy, diplomatic women who weren’t expected to be “like a man” to win a fight. For the first time, the little stories I would write on the back of my math tests deviated from mythology and fairy tales to stories of my own, in worlds I created in my own head.

The Books of Bayern

These books were recommended to me by my fifth-grade teacher (fifth grade was a great year for me, apparently) when she noticed that I was lonely and didn’t have a lot of friends on the playground. This meant that I identified instantly with the main character, Ani. Ani is driven from her homeland and sent to marry the prince of the neighboring kingdom, only to be betrayed by those she thought were her friends. She is befriended by the nobodies of this new kingdom and eventually rises to reclaim her throne from the treacherous servants. It was a triumphant series about finding friends in unlikely places and staying true to yourself, even if you were alone and couldn’t trust anyone. That was a message I particularly needed during this year of my life, and The Books of Bayern is a series I have reread at least a dozen times in the years since.

The Truth About Sparrows

The Truth About Sparrows is a little-known book about a girl in the Great Depression who must move with her family to a shrimp-harvesting town in Texas in order to earn money. She’s unhappy and has to juggle staying best friends with the girl she left behind in her hometown with making new friends in Texas. There is also prejudice against people with disabilities, people who act a little differently from us, and people who are in more difficult situations than we are. It was a very palatable way to discuss real-world problems with a sixth-grader, and I found myself changing as I read it. I know there are views and opinions I still carry with me to this day that were inspired by this book.

Harry Potter

There’s not a lot I need to say about Harry Potter, because my story is very similar to a lot of children's’, but I really did devour these books. It all came about because I had pneumonia and couldn’t leave my house for a week. I was too sick to do pretty much anything but read, and so what did I do? Read Harry Potter in a week. I have a very embarrassing collection of Harry Potter fanfiction stories that will never see the light of day again from that time in my life, but the stories give me a great escape every time I read them at any period in my life.

There are obviously so many books that have changed my life, including YA, high fantasy, etc. But these are the early ones that shaped me and helped me, and the ones I wanted to highlight. Besides, if I wrote a post on all the books that have changed my life ever, you would be reading this for at least another week. The incredible thing about books and stories is how much they change and influence us, and the people we become as a result. I’m so grateful for the circumstances in which I discovered and thrived as a result of these stories.