I’m an English major. I like books. I like reading them, I like writing about them, I like smelling their pages, and I like collecting them in piles at the foot of my bed. When I pack for school at the end of the summer, I always have to decide which books from my personal collection will make the journey with me to Kenyon. Unfortunately, books are heavy, and it’s not that practical to lug a whole suitcase full of them from Oregon to Ohio to pile around my dorm room. These are the lucky few that stand together on the shelves above my bed:
One Train by Kenneth Koch
I came to the poet Kenneth Koch in a roundabout way. During my sophomore year of high school I read a lot of William Carlos Williams, whose work led me to Kenneth Koch’s poem “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams,” an imitation of Williams’ “This is Just to Say” and by far the funniest poem I’ve ever read. Koch’s poetry is very accessible, but always surprising. My favorite piece in this collection is “On Aesthetics” a series of short, haiku-like poems musing on everything from Plato to elephants.
Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot
I bought this book at Shakespeare in Company in Paris, which is the most awe-inspiring bookstore I’ve ever visited, and that’s coming from the girl who shares a city with the world’s largest independent bookstore. The little blue volume reminds me of summers spent traveling with my family. I find myself returning to “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” whenever I’m panicking about the future.
The Dream of a Common Language and Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth by Adrienne Rich
If I had to choose a favorite poet, it would be Adrienne Rich. I stumbled upon her entirely by chance during my junior year of high school, while I was browsing at the public library, trying to choose a topic for my IB Extended Essay. I fell in love with the lyricism of “Twenty-One Love Poems,” a collection of lesbian love poetry, and I found that studying the poems gave me a way to process my own queerness. Long after I submitted my essay, I decided I needed my own personal copy of Rich’s poems to replace my well-loved photocopy. The feminist sentiment in her work continues to empower me and make me feel less alone.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
When we were studying “Song of Myself” in high school, my English teacher told the class that this was the kind of poem you kept by your bed and read a couple lines from every now and then. And so, like the overachiever I am, I did.
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
This is the first novel on this list, and it is another recommendation from my sophomore English teacher. This book, more than any of the others, reminds me of my physical home. Ken Kesey, who is himself from Oregon, set the work in the fictional town of Wakonda, which he modeled after logging towns along the Oregon Coast. When I read it I smell the pine trees and taste the salt of the ocean. It has one of the most unique narration styles I’ve ever read, where a single sentence will often be narrated by multiple characters. Despite its tragic ending, I like to keep it around for the captivating family drama and breathtaking portrayal of the Pacific Northwest.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
I almost wanted to leave this one off the list because I know it’s such a Kenyon bookshelf cliché and because I know that David Foster Wallace has become the darling of pretentious white men. It’s embarrassing to admit that I first heard about the book when I read that John Green modeled the fictitious An Imperial Affliction in The Fault in Our Stars on it. I don’t often like to tell people I read this entire thing in four months when I was fifteen years old because I know I probably understood very little of anything that Wallace was trying to say. But this book blew my mind, and I am in awe of its structure, complexity, and detail (and the way that DFW made me care about tennis even though I hate sports). Someday I’ll get around to a second read.
I know full well that I’m not going to read any of these books cover to cover while I’m at school. I’m busy, and I have too many other books to read for class. However, it’s comforting to have this little piece of home with me in the form of these words that have consoled me, entertained me, and opened my eyes to what literature can be. I know I’ll keep adding titles to my shelf for many years to come.