Last evening Roxanne Coady was here at the Library. As owner of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT, she has hosted many book-touring authors - around 2000 such programs through the years. For The Book That Changed My Life, Roxanne asked 100 of those authors to contribute 500 words each on the book that matters most. Seventy-one writers responded. Profits from the compilation go to Read to Grow, a literacy project founded by Coady. Connecticut's literacy rate is surprisingly low; Read to Grow provides 2000 gently used books per week to children in our state.
Answering audience questions, Coady said she reads about ten books at same time, often in the middle of the night, but her "100 page rule" has been diminshed to a "paragraph rule," as in "why am I wasting my time?" Some of the titles she suggested were Denial of Death, recommended by two of the contributors, by Ernest Becker (about the legacy you wish to leave behind) and Blindness by Jose Saramago (profound, but so unremittingly dark, that she recommends reading it in the bright sunshine on the beach with someone who will discuss it with you.) Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates reminds Coady of stories about life in Westport and Lorrie Moore's short stories Birds of America was endorsed for its humor. Coady cited a quotation from Parallel Lives by Phyllis Rose to underline her belief that even when the details of what you read elude your memory, you have embedded the significance in your consiousness.
Do you have a book that matters most to you?