100 Books that Influenced Me: Miss Rumphius

I'm jumping on the 100 Things Challenge bandwagon! A little late, as usual, but I just came up with a topic: 100 Books that Influenced Me, starting with books from my childhood and going on up.

This morning I was dispatched to get a picture book to read to the kindergartners. Naturally, I started thinking of old favorites to share. Should I get something by Jan Brett? But my favorite book of hers is The Wild Christmas Reindeer, and it's nowhere near Christmas time. Patricia Polacco? It's raining outside today - perfect weather for Thunder Cake...

And then inspiration struck! I got Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius, which is about a girl who decides to do three things when she grows up: to go to faraway places, to come home to live by the see, and to make the world more beautiful. And then Miss Rumphius grows up, travels to faraway places, gets a little house by the sea, and sows lupines across the land so that she becomes the Lupine Lady.

I love the completeness of it: wanting these things, and doing them all, one by one. And I love Miss Rumphius's goals so much that they've become mine. I too want to travel to faraway place, live by the sea (or a lake, or a stream, or a forest; something natural and beautiful), and make the world more beautiful.

Mind, I would probably still want these things if my mom hadn't read me Miss Rumphius at an early age. But I don't think the purpose of books is to change who we are. It's to show us who we are: to uncover new facets of our characters and nourish neglected corners of our souls. Books help us become our best selves.

ETA: I ran out of steam on this halfway through, so I'm calling it a day at 50 books. Fifty is still a lot of books!