Pageant Question 16: Tell us about a book you’ve read that has influenced your life, and why?

Jamie's toes had gone numb from the cold and her knees would have bruises from  scuttling around the Circle of Power she had drawn on the stone slab floor in her workroom, but she couldn't stop until the Summoning was finished.  She had worked for months leading up to this moment, and her discomfort was nothing compared to the agony Falk must have suffered all this time.  Jamie used her fear for her mentor's life as motivation to learn the most complicated and dangerous spell she had ever attempted.  If it went wrong, the best possible scenario was sending herself into one of the various hells that could open within the Circle.  The second best possible scenario was sending only half her body and bleeding to death.  The other scenarios were worse.


Because I was inspired to think about which books have influenced me, I include here for you a partial list, from earliest read to most recent, and I heartily recommend them all:

On Beyond Zebra, Dr. Seuss
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Dr. Seuss
The House with a Clock in Its Walls, John Bellairs
The Haunting of Cassie Palmer, Vivien Alcock
I Will Make You Disappear, Carol Beach York
The Silent Tower and The Silicon Mage, Barbara Hambly
The Talisman, Stephen King
The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
It's Always Something, Gilda Radner
Cruel Shoes, Steve Martin
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline

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Kell's fingers held her chin, tipped up to see eye to eye.  Lane blinked and her mouth went dry for Kell's eyes seemed to hold the world.  His dark, swooping eyebrows were always so expressive, and now they showed caring beyond that which she had ever experienced.  Eyes, wide open, taking in and showing everything.  The moment stretched and held and Lane would go back to it again and again in her memory, wondering what had become of Kell.

259

She had to get indoors and soon.  Even more than that, she needed someone to give her advice, or, at least, take the news she had from her so she wasn't the only person to carry the burden.  Professor J, she thought immediately.  Even if he didn't still live in this old neighborhood, she would still have wanted to go to him.  Her walk turned into a trot and she scanned each dark space between the houses and in the empty lots and near the parked or broken cars.

A light was on somewhere far back in Professor J's house.  The kitchen, she thought, picturing the eccentric man steaming a chai to keep his fingers warm as he worked late.  He wasn't old, but most people thought of him as having been around a long time.  It was difficult to imagine him as young, at least.

She could see though the partially-closed curtains through the living room and back towards the kitchen, and yet she was still a little nervous going to Professor J's house so late at night.  She was sure he'd help.  He'd have to.

She went to the side porch, clutching her bag strap that pulled across her shoulder, and knocked firmly on the wooden screen door.  A moment later, the many locks rattling, the door opened, warm kitchen light framing the professor in his loose work clothes and always disheveled hair.  "Katie?  What is it?"  The screen door's spring creaked as he pushed it open for her.  "Come in, come in.  Are you hurt?"  Professor J peered out into the darkness as Katie entered.  The screen door banged shut twice and the professor closed and relocked the interior door.  Professor J took in Katie, with her bag and flushed cheeks, standing practically on tip toe.  "Sit, and have some tea while you tell me what's up."