I have many memories of reading and writing when I was a kid. So, it’s actually kind of hard to put those thoughts into perspective, especially when I think about the most important books of my life. Without a doubt, the stories that come to mind have impacted me as a reader, writer, and a teacher. They are numerous. I know I could try to explain them, but there are just so many stories that changed me. In this post, I would like to discuss my literacy journey. It started when I was very young. But, by reflecting on it, I hope it inspires you to think about your experiences as well.

Library Books, Essays, AR Reading

I can remember going to my local library often when I was a kid. Occasionally, my mom would have us write book reports in exchange for takeout dinner. Consequently, my siblings and I would comb through the stacks at the library seeking interesting topics. I wrote a report about Bengal tigers once. But, it was here that we found a million interesting books (like Choose Your Own Adventure books by R.L. Stine), and where we learned that silence and reading were two comforting allies.

In elementary school, I also had a ton of Accelerated Reader points. The gold standard for myself and many of my peers. These points were extremely important to us because you collected them like coins. All you had to do was pass a short quiz on a book. The more points, the more prizes you could win. Myself and two other students won top prizes for the year. The prize? Going with our principle, Mr. Katzinger, to lunch and the local library. It’s a great memory for me, and it’s important for my literacy journey.

Read-a-Longs and Read-a-Thons

Another memory I have is from earlier in my life, roughly around third grade. My school would host a read-a-long (or a read-a-thon, I don’t remember which), where students would spend a good chunk of the day–if not the entire day– reading. We would lay around the school reading books and immersing ourselves in literature. As a bonus, we were allowed a sleeping bag, snacks, and a drink.

For me, the consummate teacher’s pet, I ended up putting my sleeping bag underneath the teacher’s desk. My teacher, Ms. Knoblauch, was elsewhere in the room. There I read Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel Matilda front to back, cover to cover. It was such a pleasant experience and that book holds a precious place in my heart. I can remember the quiet solitude, and the rain pattering on the window. The energy was out of the school, as each child experienced the written word in their own way in silent contemplation. Dahl’s Matilda had all of the ingredients to lull me into a safe place, including a precocious, avid-reader protagonist and an evil principal.

There was also the love of an endearing teacher, Miss Honey. It was only a year later I would meet the kindest, sweetest teacher in my entire life, who was very similar in many ways. She was a literacy advocate through and through.

Childhood Memories of Reading and Writing

My literacy journey continues: in my early teens I sat at my parents’ kitchen table (sat on the kitchen table), and I had my legs up on a chair while my mom washed the dishes after dinner. She asked me to read a few stories, which was a frequent tradition when she was preoccupied with other matters, and so I read her two tales from two separate collections, exchanging each book on my lap when the first story ended.

One of which was Stephen King’s short story “Suffer the Little Children” from his 1993 collection of short stories Nightmares & Dreamscapes. This is an excellent collection, and in it, a third-grade teacher (much like a similar character from his story “Here There Be Tygers”) begins to suspect that her students are actually shapeshifting monster. It’s about a monstrous takeover or it’s about a teacher’s slow descent into madness. Either way, it’s one of my mom’s favorites, and I found it especially unsettling–but I did love it.

The second story was Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story “The Black Cat.” This was in one of our many Poe collections. I didn’t quite understand Poe at the time and felt the story was too real. In fact, I thought it was from the perspective of the author himself. The admission of gouging out the cat’s eye with a penknife left me startled, as I thought it was an admission of guilt. Little did I know that the story is simply a genius-level conjuration of a literary giant.

These stories greatly infected my taste for horror, and I sought it out everywhere and in every form, from books to short stories, and from television to film.

Reflecting on My Literacy Journey

I think about these moments in my literacy journey often. Now that I am a teacher, I try to have a positive impact on my students. I also have a young daughter who is as precocious as I ever was. So, I can only think about how there are these exact moments with students in middle school and first-year college that shape their entire outlook on literacy. There are moments when you are a young kid in third grade that will forever impact you for the rest of your life. Even though I went through the same experiences, I guess I’m just glad I had a good book to help me along.

Books and poems have an amazing way of transforming our lives. A simple line can convince us to change our fate. As such, everybody has a book, an author, or a story that pushed them into the literary world. The following shortlist is a collection of the books, stories, and poems that represent 7 life-changing writings and poems from famous authors.

“The Good Hours” by Robert Frost

What is there not to say about this poem as it relates to life-changing verse? It’s exceptionally relatable (maybe more so for writers), as it tells the tale of a late-evening stroll through town. “I had for my winter evening walk — / No one at all with whom to talk,” Frost states. And while this sounds forlorn, you can’t help but wonder if the author wants it this way. “And I thought I had the folk within: / I had the sound of a violin;” he continues, but then surmises: “I turned and repented, but coming back / I saw no window but that was black.”

Certainly, there is a feeling about wanting to be alone. Yet, the reality of actually experiencing it when it happens is much darker. There is also sadness in that feeling. Nevertheless, I would say this is a piece of life-changing writing. In the end, it makes you think about craving loneliness only to want to repent once it is upon you.

“1292” by Emily Dickinson

Also known as “In this short life that only lasts an hour,” Dickinson’s poem is brief; just two short lines:

“In this short Life that only lasts an hour
How much – how little – is within our power“

It’s a truly resonant poem, and reminds us that life is both fleeting and out of our grasp. It’s actually quite comforting in that you sidestep the nihilism inherent in the oftentimes existential questions and topics that Dickinson both writes about and poses. But with it comes the knowledge that Dickinson is both brilliant and exacting in her meaning. That’s why I consider this life-changing writing.

“Jet” by Tony Hoagland

There are many moments that feel singularly yours when you are growing up. Sometimes it’s a moment in time, or it’s an entire year. When I think about growing up and being a young man, I think about hanging out with my brothers and drinking cheap beer at our parent’s house in the middle of a farm town.

Upon reflecting on those days, I suffer from heartache. This is mostly due to the loss of innocence and love. It is also due to the realization that I can never go back to a time when I felt a sort of happiness I would never feel again. Tony Hoagland’s poem “Jet” is a perfect example of putting shared experience in verse and capturing not one moment, but many. It is apart of the quintessential life-changing writings by making us think about the lives we once had.

Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

An instant classic, Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way comes popped years ago on a dark fall night. Bradbury’s tale about the things we want in life is an atmospheric, brooding story of losing one’s youth while also remembering what it’s like to be young (or forgetting that you ever were).

The carnival that rolls into town and scares the bejesus out of our heroes is frightening as all get out. There are also thrilling moments that simply can’t be forgotten, from carousel rides to strange weather vane salesmen. Meanwhile, the characters in the book are wonderful, and the setting smacks of fall. Every time I pick it off the shelf, I can smell aging leaves and early-morning cold. And, I’m not going to lie, that’s a great feeling.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor

There is one story that I can point to that rocked my literary world after I first read it, and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is that story. I remember reading it for a literature course in college. I immediately read the analysis section afterward. The author for that edition pointed out that O’Connor’s story had layers and could be interpreted in many ways.

One way to read it, the way in which I stand by to this day, is that it’s a story about the difference between espousing morality and actually living by it. The dichotomy of grandma and The Misfit spans lightyears, but the realization that The Misfit actually lives by what he says, thus making him more moral, is truly unsettling. In the end, grandma found her good man, but she didn’t really understand the definition.

“Lady,’ The Misfit said, looking beyond her far into the wood, ‘there never was a body that give the undertaker a tip.”

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five was one of my first difficult reads in that it challenged my notions of structure and development. I came to learn that I truly love post-modern literature; but, above all, I really just love the story and Vonnegut’s style and voice. I can hear him in my head as I read–his writing voice is that strong–and both his dry humor and sardonic nature really push the plot forward for me. Slaughterhouse Five is a great story that was relevant when it was written, and I would argue that its themes of death and irrelevance are relevant even now.

As a companion to a collection of life-changing writings, Vonnegut’s book does wonder for showing us the vile and beautiful faces of humanity. Vonnegut writes: “Somewhere in there was Christmas. Billy Pilgrim nestled like a spoon with the hobo on Christmas night, and he fell asleep, and he traveled in time to 1967 again-to the night he was kidnapped by a flying saucer from Tralfamadore.”

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road was another challenging read for me, but once I got used to the language, I fell in love, and the book made me cry when I finished it. It’s a story about a man and his son traveling through a wasteland hellscape to head south to warmer climate. Along the way, they run into cannibals, nearly starve to death on multiple occasions, and do their best to “carry the fire” for another day.

McCarthy wisely decided to keep details sparce in the story and the language reflects that stylistic choice. I am a fan of moody books because I can be a moody guy (ask my wife), but there is something cathartic about interpreting loss and conviction in characters and plot that I am always attracted to, which I think is probably important in most people’s reading lives and I think it’s also important to face those traumas—even if they are fictitious.

That’s why I consider it one of the life-changing writings that impacted my life.

In the story, McCarthy writes: “He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

Conclusion

Life-changing writing comes in many forms. In this post, we examined books and poems that have an influential sway over me. Yet, I think each of these writings has something in their core. And that thing is heart. It is a passion for life and craving for love. They speak volumes to those of us who would listen.