14 February 2012

Day 14 - A Non-Fiction Book

Well, I've got two I'll talk about today.

Part of the major requirement in college was a Women's Literature course.  Because I was just *so* busy with whatever I was busy with, I did not read the assigned books at the time I was supposed to read them.  I ended up reading them the semester after...and do I regret that.  I missed out on a good classroom discussion, probably.

"Stone Butch Blues" is what I called fictionalized non-fiction.  The book is a thinly veiled autobiography of Leslie Feinberg, a transgendered lesbian who grew up during the sixties.  The reason I loved that book is that it was a riveting look into a culture I knew NOTHING about.  And, I think in part, that book planted the germ of that mantra I now hold near and dear: All I really know is nothing.  That book started the idea within me that there's so much I don't know...but I am willing to learn.
More recently, another book that has revolutionized my life is Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".  She chronicles a year in which she and her family eat only what they can grow or produce.  The first time my eyes were opened to the insidious dangers of high fructose corn syrup was during the reading of this book...and things for me haven't been the same since.  I have not gone back to give this book a second reading, but her work led me to those of Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle and others.  All of these authors, along with my own growing awareness, have impelled me to make changes in my diet, and maybe even my career.


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