Is it
possible that I could have been affected at such an early age by a book? And an advanced book, however small, at that?
Yes.
But I was always a
precocious reader. In 7th Grade,
I read the next book that shifted my world view into something bigger – Gone With the Wind. What strains
credibility even more is how deeply affected I was in 8th Grade by the
posthumous publication of Dag Hammerskjold’s spiritual diary, Markings, not an easy book
for adults to fathom, much less a young teen.
From 1966 to 1974, I can’t
remember anything moving me in anything close to the same way. That was the year Dorothy Rhodes (now Brown)
and Susie Grubb (now Andrews) introduced me to Carol Gilligan’s In A Different Voice.
I’d like to say that reading
that eye-opening book spurred me into a rush of reading. It did not.
I still saw myself as a bit of a dim bulb. Besides, what was the sense of bothering? I might glean insights into my challenging life
situation, but that wouldn’t change anything.
Then, 1989 arrived, and my
universe shifted.
In February, I fell in love
with John Richard Murphy. In September,
dear reader, I married him. For the
first time, I had a remarkably balanced, emotionally healthy individual 4-square
in my life. My healing had begun.
In November, two short months after our wedding, I was headed
directly from work for a gal pal weekend in the Catskills, near Woodstock. Oh no!
Stephen Covey’s
audio book of his newly published 7 Habits
of Highly Effective People caught
my eye. Its chief virtue being that it
looked like the right amount of time for the trip, I nabbed it, expecting only
an interesting listen on a long drive.
To this day, get chills remembering how
the exact length of the audio book lasted from when I flipped on the
audiotape pulling out of B&N’s parking lot to when I arrived at my
destination.
One audio book, three
cassette tapes, and my life took a quantum leap forward.
Since then, there have been
a lot of books & audiotapes as it slowly dawned that I was not the dunderhead
I’d thought myself. I became a voracious seeker & reader, spending hours & hours each week in our local B&N and Borders, discovering the cohorts, guides & role models I’d
longed for over so many years.
As anyone who knows me even slightly knows, I am no shrinking violet when it comes to sharing opinions, insights or "I just read something wonderful..." For years, friends have urged
me to go into life coaching, or at least write a book.
As complimentary as such
opinions are, the fact is that personal development books are highly... personal, in some ways a lot like shoes. A friend might admire a pair of boots I'm wearing, but it would be foolish to get her an identical pair if she wears size 5 & I wear size 8.
The books that turned my world around are ones suited to me, meeting my needs,
filling the empty holes in my emotional core. Like shoes, people have to find their own best fit.
It's true I would make a hash of writing "how to" book. But what joy to write about the books that shifted me into a more fully realized version of
my best self, an chance to give a tip of the hat to forces that changed my life in stunning ways I could never have imagined. So, here we are.
What a mental to & fro I
had, deciding in what order to discuss just the top ten or so. Should I use the chronological order in which
I read them? That won't work, as I don’t
have a clue when that would be. Go by publication
date? That washed out, having often
read them years after their first printing.
By author? Not right. How about by alphabetically, by title? That feels like a good fit (and it’s easy to figure out).
It was only after I hit on
using titles alphabetically that I realized the first book would be the one I listened to on that long-ago drive – The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People, by Stephen
Covey. It changed my life in 1989 &
again in 1997 – but I get ahead of myself.
And so, we begin…
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