I love the idea of national, or cultural literary canons so that led me to ask "What is ChefGrinderMcD's personal canon?" My answer is below but I'd love to hear others.
You can define your terms however you would like. For me, books that are in my personal Canon are there because they have informed significant parts of my personality and have altered the way I relate to the world. They together form the prism in my brain that refracts all the light i see. In no particular order. The books in my Canon are first, The Odyssey, I was forced to read this in high school. I did not enjoy that experience but after college. I found a translation at a used bookstore that I really fell in love with and was able to connect with the material, It really helped to quantify the values of cleverness, strength, both mental and physical and just really enjoy the adventure part of it too. The second, is The Sun Also Rises, thinking about my 20s. I was every single man in that story at one point or another. I really loved how this book broke away from narrative styles that I was used to and really just showed these people's lives overlapping for a small slice of time. And the third one is Les Miserables, this book really added a new color to my world, and really forced an internal conversation about principles and being principled in my thoughts, and discourse, and actions
So what books make up your personal Canon?
by chefgrinderMcD