Introducing ‘The Books That Made Us’
Discover the books that shaped your favourite writers
"Once you've read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you." — Louis L'Amour
Everyone has, I think, 3-5 foundational books. Not necessarily our favourites, but the books that had the most lasting influence. The books that we read and reread and think about for years afterwards. The books that made us.
Last week, I posed this question on Notes and was soon captivated by the responses. Writers like
, , , , , , , , , , and shared the books that they felt helped define them.Two things struck me when reading through the replies.
I have so much more to read.
I would love to explore in more depth why these books in particular.
Books become formative for us partly because of the time in our lives when we read them. They seem to come along at just the right moment, exactly when we need them most.
So I was left wondering the context that led these writers - some of my favourites on
- to name these as their foundational books. What was going on in their lives at the time? What did these books say to leave such imprints on their psyches, ever after?I cast about for a forum that explored such questions, but I could find none. There are books clubs and desert-island-book concepts, but nothing that investigated this idea of defining books.
Hence today, I’m introducing The Books That Made Us.
Every post will be penned by a guest writer, each discussing a book that played a pivotal role in their life.
These aren't necessarily their favourite reads, but the ones that left a lasting mark, influencing who they are today. Through these stories, the hope is to celebrate the transformative power of literature and inspire readers to reflect on their own influences. And perhaps we'll each stumble upon new reads that, in time, we can say played a part in defining who we are.
If this sounds of interest, I invite you to subscribe and share this post.
I hope you join us.
What makes a book influential? That is a loaded question!
In the case of "Conagher", it was the sheer ordinariness of the main character. He wasn't anybody special, didn't have a superpower of any kind. He was just a man, with a code of ethics by which he lived, and he ended up having quite an impact on people just by being that man and living by that code.
I've found that to be a pretty powerful thought, the idea that we don't have to be supermen to make a difference, just men.
For me, the magic of a book (or any writing) is whether or not there's a thought that hangs around after I'm done. It might not even be the main thought in the book. It could be something offhand like Tyrion Lannister's advice to Jon Snow "wear who you are like armor".
If my own writing leaves people with some nugget of thought to chew on later, then I'm amply rewarded.
As I memoirist, I read mostly memoir. Here's a discussion of nearly 50 of the books that made me:
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/43-favorite-memoirs-youve-never-heard
My top five
1) The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier -- one of the first real adventure memoirs, and a memoir of a truly unique feat of solo ocean sailing, a life lived outside, and outside and beyond the norm. Moitessier could have won the 1968 Golden Globe race—and along the way he invented a new way to sail the roaring forties—but instead of finishing he chose to sail on, to a new life.
2) Siberian Education, by Nicolai Lilin -- another memoir that showed me that memoir doesn't have to be all true. Lilin called it memoir at first, but then realized that it made more sense to call it something like auto-fiction, a term he hadn't been familiar with when writing. Entirely true or not, it's a brilliant chronicle of life outside the law in Siberia, and the source of several pearls of wisdom that I call upon often.
3) Sexus, by Henry Miller -- another work of autobiographical semi-fiction that broke all boundaries, that was banned and celebrated simultaneously, and that showed me personally that it would be possible to write how I wanted to write. Not that I write like Miller, but he showed me the way.
4) I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays by Tim Kreider -- the book of memoir, in the form of autobiographical essays about ex girlfriends, that I was about to write, but didn't have to, because Tim did. Brilliant.
5) Practical Jung: Nuts and Bolts of Jungian Psychotherapy by Harry A. Wilmer -- the book that cracked Jungian psychology open for me, and, along with that, much of the lens through which I see the world.