Down a Path of Literature (Nudged by Kayleen and Erin)

This morning we read that a couple of our young journalist friends have been taking the path of literature.  Kayleen, while we don’t have the memory to give reference found within specific books, we did enjoy skimming over books on our dusty shelves (about 80 feet).  
 
The first books remembered have to start with Dr. Seuss.  He was very stimulating between pictures and poetry.  Gave us the sense that words could tantalize us to all kinds of imaginative thought.  The first, “big book,” we remember reading was a story of an abused dog called, “Beautiful Joe.”  This touched our heart forever.  As we matured, we developed a keen interest in Nancy Drew.  And, we abhorred the series of Harlequin Romances our mother and cousin read.
 
Our first serious reading (beside the Bible and dictionary), was our introduction to psychology, education, modern fiction, and also of the poet Kahlil Gibran.  Although Freud was top of the important list, there were philosophical foundations that included Plato, Sarte, Buber, Kant, and Kierkegaard.  We also studied the writings of Maslow, Menninger, and Rogers while paying attention to the behaviorists and clinicians.  Our literature tastes were guided by Dostoevsky, Potok, Tolstoy, James, Conrad, Kafka, Bellow, and Solzhenitsyn.
 
With not to much difficulty we soon crossed over to an interest in Eastern philosophy through authors such as Krishnamurti, Suzuki, Watts and anything that resembled the I Ching.  Our favorite sociologists were Meade, Montegu, and Peter Berger.  We were also impressed with Buber and Rogers in education.  After social and family studies, we were back to psychology and human development.  Just love the mind!

In our late 20’s, we started to read of abuse topics starting with Ellen Bass and Laura Davies.  We collected Alice Miller, books on trauma, and about a dozen books on multiplicity.  The two novel threads have been Anne Rice and our all-time favorite Honore Balzac. 

Our other collections include, "The Great Books Series, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the Annals of America."  We figured this would stop us from purchasing, but now we're developing a collection on developmental disabilities.  And man ... what to do with the Internet!?  *Sigh*

(Identify with Lara in Zhivago!)