A couple years ago, a friend posted a question on Facebook that went something like this: without thinking about it too much, list 15 books you've read that really stuck. I liked the question, and when I took on the task of creating my list (you were only supposed to take 15 minutes), many of the books that quickly popped into my head were accompanied by a flood of significant memories — some good, some bittersweet. Did these particular books "stick" because of nostalgia? Do these books help conjure up certain life events I don't want to forget? We know that's one thing we love about music (the whole "soundtrack to our lives" thing), and it's fun to think that a book sitting on a bookshelf — about the oil industry no less — can help us do that too. Anyway, without much further ado, here was my list of books (all of which I still highly recommend by the way):
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Oil & Honor: The Texaco-Pennzoil Wars by Thomas Petzinger
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Fall of Japan: The Last Blazing Weeks of World War II by William Craig
1984 by George Orwell
Capote: A Biography by Gerald Clarke
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Naked by David Sedaris
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
(If it was 16 books, I would have included Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.)
Photo by Laura Muir
