What’s On Your Shelf?

January 31, 2013

Do you have a favorite book (or books) that has impacted your life? A book you reread, one that remains on your shelf, or in your memory as a constant companion? I do. And so does Tiki Barber, Kirk Douglas, and Steve Forbes.

In an interesting book called Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book, edited by Anita Silvey, we hear firsthand from more than 100 interesting people the impact children’s books have had on their lives. Jay Leno tells us that Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton, is the first book he remembers reading, and he still has it. The line from the book, "The more people came, the faster Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne dug," made sense to him. He says he was always a show-off. The more of an audience he had, the more he’d act up.

I recently read Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell, and told my 25 year old son. I knew he had read it as a boy and thought he’d like to know I enjoyed it, too. He surprised me by telling me he has reread that book over and over and now wants to read it again. I plan to ask him if he sees a parallel theme in his own life as in the main character’s life. I certainly do.

What’s on your shelf?

Anna P.
Raytown Branch