January 2026

The important, influential books in our lives.

By John Tuite
Posted: 06/03/2020

I hope you’re managing your “isolation” well.  The discussion for our June “Salon” is more challenging because it will take more preparation and reflection prior to our getting together.  It’s about literature, about a significant book in your life, a book that tells us something about yourself and who you’ve become.  Bring it with you if you can.  Show it to us.  Quote from it if you like.  But only take five minutes.

Last month we talked about how people, events, and circumstances contributed to making us who we became, how we see life, and what our core values became.  It led me to think a great deal about how literature, poetry, biography, and classics present us with models, describe the life struggles of heroes, portray the impact of cultures, adventures, wars, nature, and history on the development of individual lives.  The readings we did from our early school days even to now offer us choices to make in our lives, or give us self images to choose or reject, or prepare us with options in critical life alternatives.

So tell us about a book, a character, a saga, a poem, a hero that you read about that made a mark on you, Was it at a critical period of your life?  Did it affect the genre of literature you enjoy?  Do you still look for such character affirmation?  Does it say something about you? Make us think!
 
John Tuite