Impactful Reads

List three books that have 

had an impact on you. Why?

 

1) Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

 

This is the first book about gay men I ever bought or read. Though I’ve always found it a sad book, it instilled in me a love of gay literature. I could probably name similar books. The first (sort of) gay book I tried to read, I checked out of the public library. It was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and once I figured out it was about a gay man, I quickly returned it hoping no one would see if I checked out a book with gay people in it. Of course, that was stupid for two reasons. First, this was back when you signed the little card pasted in the book cover when you checked out the book, and second, half the patrons of the library had already checked out and read the book. So, my signature was just one of many. I doubt anyone would have thought anything of it, but when you’re a closeted teenager who is scared to death of someone thinking he’s gay, you often don’t think rationally. So, when I was in college, I went to Barnes and Noble and bought Giovanni’s Room and was careful no one knew what I was reading.

 

2) The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

 

Since I first took a class on World War I in undergrad, I have been fascinated by the war. It made me a firm believer in pacifism. I remember reading the first chapter of Guns of August, which describes the funeral of King Edward VII of Great Britain. Reading that, more than anything else I’ve ever read (with the possible exception of Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence), made me feel like I was standing on the side of the street watching the funeral procession. The description of the long line of dignitaries is so wonderfully descriptive. Tuchman’s writing convinced me that history can tell a wonderful story. History didn’t have to be boring and dry.

 

3) Acqua Alta by Donna Leon

 

This one might seem like an odd one, but it introduced me to Leon's main protagonist of Commissario Guido Brunetti. The Commissario style of interrogation taught me a very valuable lesson when conducting oral histories. Brunetti would ask a question and then sit there until he got an answer. His belief was that people want to fill the silence, and you just have to wait them out. Oral history is a lot like that. It's not like radio or television where you don’t want dead air; that’s fine in an oral history. Silence can sometimes tell you more than the answer, but people will always try to fill the void, so you sit quietly until they do.

What would be your answer?

 

 

*WordPress has prompts for blog posts, and I haven’t been inspired enough to use one until the question above.