3 July 2020

 "...10 books/book series that have impacted me or been formative in my growth over the years. No words - just pictures..."

Tags: Eric Osterholm, Teresa Lee

Some notes on my choices, even though the original post said no words:

1) I tried to restrict myself to book collections, instead of just books by themselves. I guess the reasoning was that more was read in a series of books, and they were spread out over a longer period of my life...

2) I also tried to restrict myself to books that I was exposed to, before my first major manic episode in 1996, or especially to books before I turned 18 - to play off the "formative in my growth" idea

3) I also opted not to put some of the books that might have raised some shackles, like "The Joy of Sex" (It was just sitting there on the bookshelf!), the "Truly Tasteless Jokes" collections (because they are tasteless), and the Xanth and Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony (they were my mom's books, and I read them mostly to spend downtime during visitation weekends). Probably, the "illuminatus trilogy" would be in this group, too..

4) To be fair, I added the RPG books, and the comic collections, to point at media cross-overs, I guess. I did not learn everything entirely from books, and I wanted to give a nod to PBS and movies and art and games and more...

5) I'm old enough.... There could be a second wave of posts, highlighting books that have impacted me as an adult. Yet, I am not up for starting a second thread, yet. I can see "Information Anxiety", "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and probably a book of 20th Century Poetry all trying to edge their way in, to be on that list.