I can’t help but steal a meme from Smart Bitch Candy: Compile a short list of books specifically meant to help somebody understand you. These are not (necessarily) non-fiction books that catalogue your particular disorders or quirks, but books that especially resonate with you, that express a facet of you in book form.

What explains my religion: Life of Pi by Yann Martel – Religion is such a personal experience, and I’m glad to know that many people are deeply, deeply religious in ways that I would have never understood 5 or 10 years ago. One of the main themes in the book is alternate points of view: Hindus, Muslims, Christians, or what constitutes truth. In the end, truth is as subjective as the person telling it.

How I wish I was: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott – Anne Lamott gives advice that I wish I’d thought of first. You know how you read some books and really wish you’d written them? This is one of those for me.

What touches me: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – Being an ISFJ, it’s hard for me to see things without making them personal, so this was not an easy book for me. I started crying about halfway through and didn’t stop until the end. I think what really drew me in was the theme of love in spite of everything: sickness, difficulty, even time. What purer love is there than can transcend all those things?

What my imagination looks like: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie – On the surface, fun and adventure, but if you dig a little deeper, there’s some fear and big scary things.

What turns me on: Lady Sophia’s Lover by Lisa Kleypas – This was the first romance novel I ever read, and I was hooked from the beginning! Not only was there adventure, mystery, history, love, and a happy ending, but there was also hot sex! Why did it take me so long to discover romance novels?