On books.

Photo from Pinterest! Please let me know if you know who took this photo! This is lovely.

There are three things I loved as a child that I still love very much so today: 1. drawing, 2. going to the beach, and 3. reading. I often talk about the first two, not so much about the latter because, well, I am often enchanted.  I'm often speechless when enchanted with another world, another era, a different story. Here are some of books that have left a mark on me.

1. The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Don't ever tell anybody anything.  If you do, you start missing everybody. 

2. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery
Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.
 
3. The Bell Jar - Sylvia PlathI took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart:  I am, I am, I am.  
 
4. Blankets -Craig ThompsonHow satisfying is it to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement--no matter how temporary.

5. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami 
Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.

6. The Shrinking of Treehorn - Florence Parry Heide
 He's still shrinking, sniff Treehorn's mother. Heaven knows I've tried to be a good mother. (Plus the book is illustrated by Edward Gorey, one of my favorite illustrators ever. A must-read for kids and adults alike.)

7. Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert 
This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.  

8. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
 It was a matter of perspective, I began to see. The whole world was crazy; I'd flattered myself by assuming I was a semifinalist.
 
9. The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing - Melissa Bank
 The only relationships I haven't wrecked right away were the ones that wrecked me later.

10. Franny & Zooey - JD Salinger 
We're the tattooed lady, and we're never going to have a minute's peace, the rest of our lives, until everybody else is tattooed, too.

11. Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
 It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.
 
12. Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami  
We're both looking at the same moon, in the same world. We're connected to reality by the same line. All I have to do is quietly draw it towards me. 

13. Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto 
It was at once a miracle and the most natural thing in the world.