3. Books

"Most" or "Best" lists are often inherently at least partially subjective with their dearth of empirical criteria, which doesn't impede their popularity in any way. Who doesn't love a good list to chew over and debate? We looked a few "Most Influential Books" lists in class, and here's three reads I chose that were personally influential:

1. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks: Sacks, a neurologist, describes special case studies he's encountered in years of practice. I was already interested in psychology, but Sacks really made me think anew about how I interact and perceive in the world. There's the senses I use so much I take them for granted-- like the proprioception (body-sense), the loss of which renders patient Christina mentally detached from her body and able to control what her hands are doing only through sight. Or abilities I didn't even notice I was missing, purposefully blocked in our human development-- like Stephen until he unlocks the world of the 'dog', discovering attention to all the variety of smells in the world.

And as complex and inherent the pieces, still Sacks showed me how adaptable and strange is the whole of cognition with both curiosity and respect towards his patients. In the titular case study, a music professor called Dr. P has visual agnosia so acute he describes a held object as "a convoluted red form with a linear attachment", unable to identify it. But when he smells it unveils itself as a beautiful rose immediately and he begins "to hum [Schumann's] 'Die Rose, die Lillie...' ".*

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon: I didn't always have the most harmonious home environment growing up, but one of the later positive shared experiences I remember with my family was reading this novel. I read it and my mother quickly borrowed it from me and then insisted my dad and my brother read it in quick succession. (To this day, I've never seen my mother otherwise finish reading a book.) Curious Incident's Christopher is an autistic teen boy who counts by prime numbers, speaks to no one on days he sees three yellow cars in a row, and decides to solve a murder mystery. Not exactly the most relatable protagonist. But it is actually Christopher's alienation from understanding other people and recognizing some of his thoughts for our own that is so broadly winning... and encourages human empathy.

3. Selected Poems by E.E. Cummings: Poetry is dead, right? I thought so, but E.E. Cummings was the first poet that really changed my mind by saying more and more clearly about his experience using poetic "trickery" than using straightforward prose"- and with fewer words (here only four):

l(a

le
af
fa

ll

s)one
l

iness

And his philosophy that emerges from his loud sunsets and flirtatious springs is one that I can really take to heart--one of experiencing and being rather than looking for validations or intellectualizing: "for life's not a paragraph/ And death i think is no parenthesis".

*When I went to Germany, guess what I found a college student's required reading!