Soul Books

Exploring your universe

Today is my birthday so I find myself thinking of some of the best gifts I’ve ever been given. As a writer, I am always hungry for words. You can’t really be a writer if you are not.
Some of my favorite gifts have been books given to me by other people, especially that which is their favorite book.
One of the most treasured books I own was given me by my writing mentor, a liberal Jewish lesbian who I had very little in common with except a shared love of words. Upon my 18th birthday, she presented me with a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. I had already read it, but she told me that, in college she carried it with her until it was beaten up and abused, and she had written in the cover, encouraging me to do the same. I have not fulfilled this, but I have admirably beaten it up through multiple readings, each time growing a bit more and understanding the book more fully from not only the protagonist’s and the author’s points of view, but from my writing mentor’s. She presented the book to me, not just as a piece of required reading, but as a piece of herself, something that she could let me in on, like a small gem of her soul.
Soon after she presented me with that book, I began to understand the power of giving books, not that you necessarily think your friend or family member will love, but that you love. To this day, one of the most common gifts I have given anyone is Till We Have Faces, a novel by C.S. Lewis. It is a beautiful retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth with a strong historical flavor and a brilliantly crafted female protagonist. But I very rarely give it to a person with any description beyond, “this is my favorite book”.
You see, when you give your favorite book to someone, you are, in a way, letting them in on the big secret of your soul, unveiling yourself, so to speak. They will read you into the book and try to work out the appeal. If they are a good reader, they will understand, even if the book doesn’t speak to them in the same way, why it does speak so strongly to you.
So I encourage you, writers and artists alike, to let yourself love a book so much it becomes a part of your soul. Then I encourage you not to hoard it all to yourself, but to share that most beautiful aspect of yourself with others, so in that way, you can make them a bit more beautiful too.