What curious impact has a work of fiction had on your life?

[Kareni]

When I was a young teen, I read and loved the book The Cheerleader by Ruth Doan MacDougall.  The story was about a girl named Snowy growing up in the fifties. 

 

I was thinking recently of two messages that the book left with me.  The first is that college is a place where you can make life long friends.  And, the second, that good housekeepers wash the butter dish everytime a stick is finished!

 

I did make good friends in college who I still treasure some thirty years later.  And, yes, I make a point of washing the butter dish everytime a stick is finished.

 

 

What curious impact has a work of fiction had on your life?

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[fraidycat]

I honestly couldn't say. As an avid reader, I'm sure I've assimilated lots if little "lessons" into my life. As an avid forgetter and all-round non-detail person, I can't tell you where I've learned what, nor even what books I've read!!

[Onceuponatime]

I've learned a lot about surviving adversity and extricating myself from bad situations, but I've never had a chance to practice those skills. :)

 

I remember the first time I was amazed and enthralled by a piece of information in a work of fiction. It was reading the book Cold River as a teen. There I learned about "rabbit starvation," the fact that you could die of malnutrition if your diet was not varied enough when you lived off the land. I shared this news with my family at the dinner table and they looked at me like I had gone temporarily mad. I've  never forgotten. Someday, when I am stuck in a survival situation, I will make sure I don't subsist on rabbits alone. Lots of grubs and a wild turkey or two, along with a variety of nuts, berries, and leaves, should do the trick.

[Chris in VA]

I've learned a lot about surviving adversity and extricating myself from bad situations, but I've never had a chance to practice those skills. :)

 

I remember the first time I was amazed and enthralled by a piece of information in a work of fiction. It was reading the book Cold River as a teen. There I learned about "rabbit starvation," the fact that you could die of malnutrition if your diet was not varied enough when you lived off the land. I shared this news with my family at the dinner table and they looked at me like I had gone temporarily mad. I've  never forgotten. Someday, when I am stuck in a survival situation, I will make sure I don't subsist on rabbits alone. Lots of grubs and a wild turkey or two, along with a variety of nuts, berries, and leaves, should do the trick.

 

That's interesting to me--I remember a book about Sacajawea (a fictional account based on fact) where she and her traveling companions were fat-starved. They were eating only fish, and I guess were depleted of the fat-soluable vitamins. I think of that when I'm defatting the hamburger I'm browning! lol (Not like it's a problem here...)

 

[creekland]

The three that are coming to mind this morning are the Grapes of Wrath, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Les Miserables.

 

All three taught me that humans can get into bad situations through no fault of their own, so keep an open mind.  Lesson two was that there truly are nasty people out there, so beware.  Lesson three was that there are both good and bad in life - try for the good - try to help others through the bad.

 

I like to think I've put my lessons into practice.

[ChristyB in TN]

I have found that anytime I read fiction by an author from anywhere outside the US, I grow a little and even change my perspective a lot. I try to read one from this category often.

 

Mohsin Hamid's Reluctant Fundamentalist didn't really change my life but it gave me a welcome perspective and a way to understand religious extremism and even terrorists just a little. I read Moth Smoke years ago and it had a big impact on the empathy I feel for Pakistan's population.

 

I just finished Adichie's Americanah. It was simply wonderful. Now I can feel that I have insight into the life of an African immigrant, even though I know I don't really. Her description of Nigeria and being a schoolgirl there was timely in that I have found that I now agonize for those kidnapped girls in Nigeria. I finished the book while on vacation 2 weeks ago. One of my son's friends was with us at the beach house for the week and he asked to read it next. He is African American and I am anxious to hear his thoughts and if it has impacted him at all.

[Kareni]

Bumping this for new viewers.

 

 

[gardenmom5]

back when I was about 14 I read a mindless piece of sci-fi that had one character cogitating upon what his enemies did NOT say - and how important it was to listen to what is NOT being said as much as what is being said.  I've heard some answers to questions that were nothing but bs - but those who wanted to hear something only heard what they wanted to hear.  I had learned to listen to what wasn't being said - so I wasn't fooled.

[MyThreeSons]

 

What curious impact has a work of fiction had on your life?

 

 

 

When I was in high school, I read a book where the lead male character was named Bradford. I fell in love with him, and determined that I would name my firstborn son Bradford. However, when the baby arrived, my husband and I looked at him and decided he wasn't a Bradford, so we named him Joseph instead, LOL. We didn't entertain the idea of Bradford for the other two boys.

Edited June 4, 2014 by MyThreeSons

[stephanier.1765]

For me, it was Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. As a child, the way the uncle educated Rose broadened my own horizons with the books I read. Then as an adult, it helped to color the way I educated my own children.

[Rebecca in KY]

I was encamped with the Anne of Green Gables series--read all 8 over and over. I've recently been re-reading them and am amazed at the many positive moral lessons laced throughout them that I absorbed. For example, Anne is heartbroken when Davy lies to her and explains how very terrible it is to tell a "falsehood." There's another section that talks about how important it is to live the very best and purest life possible while going through your teen years because by the time you're 20, the bent of your character will be set. As I read these books now, I realize just how much I assimilated and emulated as a teen.

[Denise in Florida]

When I was in college (back in the 70s) I read two books that greatly changed my rather limited understanding of the universe. :)  

 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou - I was thinking about this book again last week when I heard she had passed.

Stranger in a Strange Land - Heilein - wow, talk about learning to question 'why' in terms of culture and religion

 

For sheer enjoyment of the flexible use of language..all the books in the inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy  :001_smile:

 

 

[Happy]

Little Women taught me that a guy and a gal can be best friends.

 

Gone with the Wind taught me if the guy doesn't love you, move on, for pity's sake.

 

 

[applethyme]

Harry Potter series and Agnes and the Hitman have gotten me through some tough life moments.  When the going gets really tough and I need a break I just open one of those books and escape for a while.  Its like visiting old friends.  An hour or two and I'm recharged and ready to go.

[Guest]

I adored Gone with the Wind when I was younger.  I have read it more than 25 times.  The first 10 readings, I wanted to be like Scarlett.  Then I saw that Melanie was the better person, and I changed my mind.  I wanted and still want to be like Melanie.  But I have more sympathy for Scarlett again, too.  

 

Lots of books come to  mind when I think about impacts, but that is the one that I read the most...I stick with that.  

[Aiden]

In Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series ... one aspect of the Aiel people's morality really stuck with me: Do what you have to do, and then willingly accept the consequences. The most extreme example in the book was the Aiel man who killed a man who had frivolously applied sacred tattoos to himself; the tattoos represented that the man had gone through a very serious rite of passage and was deserving of great respect, but the man had not done that. According to Aiel law, the man should die--but they were not in Aiel lands; they were in a place where the man was not condemned to death for that action, and where anyone who killed him for that was subject to the death penalty. So the Aiel man killed the man whom he believed he was morally obligated to kill, then reported for his own execution without ever having been constrained. He could have run away, but he didn't--he did what he felt that he had to do, and then he accepted the consequences. The books are full of examples of Aiel people accepting the consequences of their actions, not raging or whining or trying to get out of it, but simply accepting, "I did that. This is the consequence of that. I believe strongly enough in that to be willing to accept this."

 

It really struck the right balance for me, someone who feels a strong need to follow the rules, but at the same time, a strong need to do the thing I believe is morally correct even if it violates a rule. I used to just obey rules blindly, but now if it's something I question, I really think it through: Is this something I have to do? Is my need to do this strong enough that I will accept the consequences willingly? If yes to both, I do it and then accept the consequences. If I'm not willing to accept the consequences, I don't do it.

[Desert Strawberry]

I am reading All-of-a-Kind Family to my children. This is the book that inspired me to have a big family. Mama is so kind and gentle with her girls. They live on little money, but they make it work. The sisters are so close. 

I have similarly aged children, though mine are all boys. They relate to the girls, are similar in personality, and have the same close bonds. It's fun to see my children enjoy the stories.

 

Maya Angelou also inspired me to find the inner strength that I didn't believe I had. Her story was harder than mine, but she did not crumble. She did not succumb to the failure I found inescapable. She gave me so much encouragement that I never received from anyone else. I feel like I had a personal relationship with her. I'm sure many of us feel that way.

[Tohru]

C.S Lewis's Till We Have Faces.  The first half of the book is a little slow, but the second half of the book is jaw dropping.  Everything we perceive or assume or judge about another person is probably wrong.

[Guest]

Not long after my baby girl died, I read the book "Because of Winn Dixie." What struck me about that book is: everybody has their own private pain. Each character has their sorrowful back-story, including characters who first seem "bad" or scary. The pet shop guy who had been to prison; the girl in her class with the "pinched expression," the strange woman other kids call a witch. Each has a reason in their past; each has suffered.

[Guest]

Wuthering Heights: that moment when I realized that I was not my ex-boyfriend's Cathy, I was his Isabella was when he no longer had any power over me.

 

Tale of Desperaux: that moment when I realized that I have always been Miggery Sow to my family of origin and I no longer cared what they thought of me or who they wanted me to be instead of myself or that they think my life is worth less than a red tablecloth.

[freeindeed]

As a preteen, The Outsiders, especially as it quoted the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay." I read that book over and over and cried each time I did. I cried not only because of character deaths, but also because I could feel the truth of lost innocence and of how quick and fleeting our youthful years are. It really helped me to appreciate each moment of my life at an age where most kids feel invincible or think they will be young forever.