Just Your Average Bookworm
 |
| I will have a library like this one day :) |
Today I had the great privilege of listening to a lecture by Dr. Benjamin Carson of the Johns Hopkins Medical School. He is amazing! He has performed several groundbreaking surgeries in his career and has changed medicine in countless ways. I decided to take off work to go to his lecture in the glorious Marriott Center. I was bubbling with excitement as I looked forward to some good old medical talk, but I got a completely different lecture. However, I was not the least bit disappointed. (Aside from President Monson's devotionals, this one has to be my favorite). Dr. Carson spent an hour talking about what we could do as a nation to return the basics and those things that made America great. He gave some wonderful insight, but there was one point that stood out to me. Dr. Carson was talking about his upbringing in a low income family in Detroit. He was the anchor of his class, consistently scoring the lowest on exams while in elementary school. His mother, not wanting her children to be limited in any manner, implemented her own homework in their household. Both Dr. Carson and his brother were required to read 2-3 books a week from the local library. This changed the entire outcome of Dr. Carson's life. He suddenly went from being the anchor to the curve breaking. Wanting to know more about this remarkable man, I naturally consulted Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge. Dr. Carson later graduated with honors, attended Yale, and completed his medical training back in Michigan. As I was reading this I realized something: reading changes things. By simply reading a few books a week, Dr. Carson changed the entire course of his life. This is amazing!! Thus, I have decided to embrace my inner bookworm from now on (not that I didn't before) :) Reading is cool! I love that I can pick up a book and escape the frozen tundra of Provo and arrive (for free) on the tropical shores of the south Pacific. I can travel back in time and entire the wonderful world of Harry Potter, all without leaving the comfort of my warm toasty bed. Books are without a doubt the best invention this world has ever seen! So, in honor of a wonderful Tuesday, here's a list of the best books ever written...that I've read:
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (I never go on a trip without my pocket-sized edition)
- Harry Potter 1-7, JK Rowling
- A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
- Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen (whether or not it's real, it's a great read)
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, JR Tolkien
- Lord of the Flies, William Golding
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
- Contagion, Michael Crichton
- A Walk to Remember, Nicholas Sparks
- Animal Farm, George Orwell
- Outliers, Malcom Gladwell
- The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman
- The Sneetches, Dr. Seuss
- All of the Ramona books, Beverly Clearly
- The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
- Mere Christianity, CS Lewis (not quite finished but it will clearly make the list)
- Gethsemane, Andrew Skinner
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (one of the best!)
- The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
I love love love to read! It is one of life's simple pleasures. I am extremely grateful that my mama read to me as a young child and started this great romance between myself and books. It has been a love affair for the ages :) Next on the list? The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee :) Happy reading all!
Post a Comment