I saw this somewhere on facebook (honestly, what isn't on facebook, somewhere?) and thought I'd go ahead and do it. I love lists, almost as much as I love chocolate chip cookies, root beer, and swearing at my computer (all of which, as of today, Ash Wednesday, I will have given up one Lent or another--although I've given up swearing across the board, not just at my computer. That's still the only time I savor it, though.)

Fifteen Books (Novels AND Plays) That Have Changed My Life (in vague order, but not much of one)
1) The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
This made me want to write. I wrote, in fact, a one-hundred page handwritten adaptation of The Three Musketeers that I slaved over in fifth grade. It's set in junior high school, in a girl's school, in New York. It's really bad. I've improved since then.
2) Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
This is the first Joan Aiken book I ever read (if I'm honest, Mom read it to me) and only later did I realize that it's the first in a series of excellently dark and vaguely Victorian novels for children. The series got even better after I realized that it's set in an alternate British universe. You know, the one where King Arthur existed in the Renaissance.
3) Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
Second in the series. I was frustrated by the ending, and decided to write Joan Aiken. She replied, and we struck up a correspondence in which she told me that my favorite character, Dido Twite, was based on a character in Dickens. She challenged me to figure out which one. I sent her a few guesses, none of which were right. Unfortunately, she died before I guessed correctly. Black Hearts in Battersea is also notable for containing my first fictional character crush, Simon, who shows up in London an aspiring art student and who over the course of the series is discovered to be the Duke of Battersea. He likes Dido, but she wants to lead her own life and turns his marriage proposal down. I always had mixed feelings about that. Sort of like in Little Women with Jo and Laurie. But that book's not on this list, and the stuff with Dido and Simon only happened later in the series, so I seem to be straying from the point...
4) Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Apparently I have an affinity for French swashbucklers. And unrequited love. In high school, I saw too much of myself in Cyrano.
5) The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman
I've already written about Frederick Garland on this blog (see Thursday, May 8, 2008), but for now I'll repeat that Philip Pullman showed me that books can mean different things and different times of your life, and that they can break your heart. Also, I dread a day when I stop finding Jim Taylor awesome and hilarious. Such a good secondary character.
6) Angels in America by Tony Kushner
It turns out hilarity and sadness can exist together, that bombastic staging doesn't have to overwhelm social commentary, and that a mixture of religion, history, porn, humor, and death will always be award-winning.
7) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Shy girl gets strong silent (ugly but not) type, despite the homicidal woman in the attic who makes noises in the night. Enough said.
Also, I like to pretend the St. John section doesn't exist, and it surprises me every time I re-read.
8) The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett
This six-book series has one of the most fascinating heroes I have ever encountered. For the entire first novel, it is unclear whether he is the hero of the villain. That feeling recurs over the course of the next five books, but you can't help thinking everything will work out in the end. It does. Sorry to spoil. :)
Bonus points for the Spaniard disguise in book one, the rooftop chase in book two, the introduction of the new improved Phillipa in book three, the love pilgrims in book four, the hall of the revels (inspiration!) scene in book five, and the scene between Lymond, Phillipa, Marthe, and Jerott in book six. And of course the happy ending, because the way Dorothy Dunnett apparently loves to kill people off, I was unsure what form the happiness would take.
9) The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian
For every awkward pun or misspeak Jack Aubrey made, every time Stephen got excited about cataloguing specimens or about Diana or was just cutthroat about offing other spies, or every time Killick said "soused hog's face," my heart glowed a little brighter. Twenty one books of early nineteenth century swashbuckling, romancing, spying, and traveling the globe. Between this and the Lymond Chronicles, I am completely ruined for other historical fiction. Seriously.
10) The Untouchable by John Banville
Thinly veiled story of the Cambridge spies + Banville's signature style of an old guy looking meanderingly back over his life + gratuitous scenes in Ireland = one of the only books I've read once and decided that it was one of the best I've read.
11) The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
I liked Philip Marlowe so much that, in middle school and high school, I wrote a series of my own fifties detective stories. The stories themselves were nothing special, but the three main characters are still my favorite characters that I have ever created. Right now my plan is to write my senior creative thesis on them, probably in novel form. We'll see. Either way, thank you Raymond Chandler.
12) The Once and Future King by T.H. White
T.H. White is responsible for kicking off my Arthurian craze (which still continues after a fashion and which never, ever, included an affection for crystals or Glastonbury; it was always mostly a matter of being in love with Sir Gawain and finding Arthur's family dynamics fascinating). The craze was later fueled by other authors of varying skill, but White remains one of the best. Why else would I like King Pellinore so much? Or Monty Python, for that matter? There's really no other explanation. (Except the Spanish Inquisition sketch. Priceless.)
13) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The first Dickens I read in my quest to find Dido Twite (didn't find her). Herbert Pocket cracked me up, Miss Havisham freaked me out, Pip annoyed me, I wanted to give Joe a hug and some "wittles," and Estella was incomprehensible. It was awesome. Why else would I have kept coming back to Dickens for more.
14) Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard is the one who put the idea into my head that to be a writer it is necessary to know a little bit about everything.
15) This is cheating a bit, but: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, The Book of Salt by Monique Truong, and Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
What can I say. Apparently I love Parisians and visitors to Paris drinking, screwing, and angsting. (Maybe it's a matter of me living vicariously?) Does it get any better? I don't think so.