The Book(s) That Changed Your Life?
A love letter to reading: one book, all of them
A brief interlude in your day. A coffee break together. For a moment. xoxox
Which book changed your life?
The question causes a rebellion because I can’t pick one. Can you? Reading has changed me both in the whoosh of a love affair and in the intimacy of long-term partnership.
Sometimes hot and heavy, under the covers, quietly. Sometimes the slow turn of pages, not wanting to reach the end, unable to stop. Sometimes a weekend thing.
Always: Books are where I turn when I need support.
Like for most of you, reading is my solace. The kids are in bed, my curly-haired wild boy has finally stopped begging for me to say goodnight. Again. He’s calmed his breathing, so I can finally open the smooth pages of a curious book my eye noted at McNally Robinson, our local bookstore in Saskatoon.
In My Time of Dying
Here’s the hook, the words that snag in your mind and tug a reader (me, you?) into the pages:
A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on death—and what might follow—by the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm.
Sebastian Junger, a journalist who has faced death many times before has an aneurysm one afternoon at home with his family. Describing this, a jolt of my own mortality brings me from the warm sheets, Yann quietly reading beside me, illuminated by the glow of a small light, all the way to a hospital where Sebastian lay dying, communicating with his own dead father.
Junger writes, later on, “I sank into a kind of existential insanity. Every sunset, every dinner, every bedtime story dripped with ghastly significance because I might be dead in three months.”
His way of dealing with this panic was to search for life after death, a lot of his book explores this liminal space. The words ghastly significance struck me—I’m in the moment I lost a dear friend, or when my father nearly died. The brightness of sunshine on the leaves becomes something I cling to, vivid beauty, grace tinged with desperation, all that, I recognise.
In this recognition, I’m changed. Fear ebbs. Junger faces death his way. I do, in mine, because he gifts me language to navigate the world a little better. My life shifts and in the tender quiet of my bedroom, I’m different because I see something I didn’t quite before.
You?
Which book(s) changed your life?
Hundreds of books have done this: given me new ways of looking at the world, taken me on adventures, been there when I’m so sad I don’t want to get up, calming me when my home life is bonkers or when my writing isn’t going well.
A partnership in the best way.
In Spark (my upcoming book for writers), I devote an entire chapter to reading because it’s so vital to my writing life.
“As a kid, I was absolutely and utterly addicted to reading. I perfected the art of walking while holding a book, turning the pages on the long stroll back from the bus stop to my house after school, autumn leaves and misty skies vanishing into the hot California sun beaming on the girls in Sweet Valley High, say.”
Am I claiming that every book has changed my life?
Possibly.
I’ve been thinking about this as I’ve been writing to you, but I’m not sure of the answer. Would I go so far as to say that Sweet Valley High changed my life?
What I settle on is this: what’s changed my life is being a reader.
Devoting myself to words. Falling in love. Over and over, while staying in love with reading for a lifetime. Some books create a small impact, but significant; others rip me apart and I become confetti, scattered briefly on the wind, before becoming remade.
And you? Which book(s) changed your life, today, this week, this month, this year?
xoxox
Alice
If you’re new here, my name is Alice Kuipers and I’m a writer, mother and dog-owner transplanted twenty years ago to the Canadian prairies from England. I’ve published fourteen books in 36 countries and my writing has been described as: “For storytellers and story lovers,” by Kirkus Reviews; ‘Gorgeous, heart-ripping, important,” by VOYA; and “Intense and wonderful” by Bif Naked. Join me for coffee breaks to look at lines from great writers.
Xoxo
Read: On Substack, I’m always pulled to writing by
. So much beauty. The brilliant has a new post today. And I always enjoy seeing when these two Debbie’s have new work: and .I’ve spent most of this month with books, though. On paper. Off screen.
After In My Time of Dying, I read Here One Moment, by Liane Moriarty: a woman on a plane predicts the deaths of various passengers, and her predications start coming true. On the same theme, I’m half way through Outlive, which is about living healthier for longer. This led to many of you taking time on Threads to tell me what exercise you do, inspiring me, in turn, the way words can, to make it to the gym more than once this week.
Updates: Are any of you in Calgary? I’ll be at Wordfest in two weeks. I’m excited to interview Lev Grossman and David Robertson, face the fierce competitors in a Literary Death Match, talk about YA with Sarah Everett, and visit schools.
And I’ve had some editorial feedback on draft six of my crime novel, which shows me new ways to get to the end. The work reignites.
As I get ready to launch Spark, I’ve put together an in person event on November 23rd, which I’ll tell you more about, done a TV interview, and written for Children’s Book Insider, who I love!
Tell me, how are you?
What would you like more of here with me?
Who else do you love to read on Substack?
I read all your comments and am very grateful. This weekend, I’m looking after three of my kids and my mother-in-law on my own and I’m intimidated. Your words are always a gift. Thank you.
xoxo
At the top of my list sits Pema Chodron’s book “When Things Fall Apart,” a narrative of her life unraveling as she manifests a new life to become a sage and beloved Buddhist teacher. With a talent for storytelling and no nonsense lessons on Buddhism and meditation, Chödrön through this book has changed my life and I have no doubt that I am one of many who place this book at the top of their list. A transformative journey.
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. It taught me that life was difficult for everyone, not just me, and influenced my life from the time I read (a long, long time ago).