Book that changed my Life

In one of the magazines I subscribe to, Best Life, they have a small column entitled, "The Book that changed my life," which I always read so I thought it was time to blog about it so other readers might be inspired to think about which book they would select.

This month's featured book was chosen by Rick Moody who is the author of the new book - Right Livelihoods. Mr. Moody selected The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon which he read during a fiction class he took in his freshman year at Brown University.

For me I would state that "different books changed my life at different points in my life" but since Mr. Moody mentioned his university years he biased my response since I immediately thought of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Like Mr. Moody, I too read this book during a university course but in my sophomore year for a class taught by Professor Kathy Hickok - http://www.las.iastate.edu/kiosk/1257.shtml - who I should note also taught in the "Women's Studies" department. While reading this book Ms. Hickok commented that one scene in the book of the "the boat entering the harbour.......was clearly symbolic of the penis entering the vagina....................."

Professor Hickok's comment completely opened my eyes (and ears) to the power of symbolism in literature since this visual was never on my radar screen until she suggested it as a possibility.

Open books to open minds,

Todd