Favorite Books: They Make a Difference

American philosopher and psychologist, William James once said, “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

For a person, this instruction can be hard enough to live by. For a writer, it’s even harder. Authors write to entertain, and we’re extremely lucky if we ever learn something we wrote made a real difference in someone’s life. Over an author’s career there are always good reviews that maybe prove we brought enjoyment to somebody, but enjoyment is fairly easy to find. That we made a real difference or changed something for somebody, however? It’s much harder to convince ourselves we managed that!

When I started writing, it was enough to know I’d created a story my publisher deemed good enough to buy and release to the public. In fact, it was super satisfying. But, it was all about me. After several books, I wanted to know if my words meant something more than building my ego. More than giving fluff to the world.

I finally took time to remember and think about the hundreds of books I’d read over the years. What had they meant to me? And the light dawned. They’d meant everything! They’d given comfort, friendship, enlightenment, and inspiration. In my case, they’d helped me set my goal for the future: write a book myself.

There were several books in particular that made a deep and lasting impression on me. To this day, thinking of them brings joy and warm, happy memories.

 1.     The Black Stallion

series—specifically “The Black Stallion’s Filly” and “The Black Stallion’s Sulky Colt.”  These books turned me into a reader—I couldn’t wait to read the next book in the series. They turned me into a lover of library books—the worn, well-loved, hard covers with their colorful illustration were beautiful to me. They turned me into a lover of romance! There wasn’t romance in them, but I sure fell in love with Alec Ramsay—my very first book boyfriend! And, more importantly, they made me want to be a writer of horse stories. I knew one day I would write a story about race horses! And I did. “Missing By a Heartbeat” is all about a race track scandal and describes several races, just the way Walter Farley did in The Black Stallion books.

2.     Runway Zero-Eight: This was a 1972 disaster book by Arthur Hailey. This
book reminds me of the years and years my dad spent reading out loud to me and my brothers – even when we were late teenagers. This book taught me that I should read widely because it’s not a book I’d have chosen on my own, but I loved the adventure and intensity. It also taught me how to read to my children. Now they read to theirs!

3.     Hummingbird: This 1980’s-era romance is by one of the legends of romance writing, LaVyrle Spencer. This book is dated now, but it is THE book that made me a romance writer. I fell in love with the lyrical voice, learned that characters can become completely real, and recognized how to build flaws into heroes. It also contains my favorite love scene of all time!

 Remembering those books and others, gave me comfort and confidence. I might be writing to entertain—but I was also going to affect someone somewhere—even if I never knew about it. In my way I was “acting as if what I did made a difference.”

 

I got lucky. Eventually several writers were kind enough to write and thank me for something I put in a book. A meaningful one was from a mom who appreciated me “writing with sensitivity” about a character who was on the autism spectrum. The character was a ten-year-old boy, and this mom told me I’d made her feel good about how kids like her own son had been portrayed. (“Good Guys Wear Black”) That was definitely a high point for me! 

Authors love giving stories to the world – and now I write, knowing somewhere my book will certainly fulfill a need for someone. I shared the ones that meant a lot to me; I’d love to know what books have made a difference in your life!