You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
Steve Jobs
Books have changed my life. Here are a few that have served as doorways, opening whole new rooms of life for me:
- Story, by Robert McKee. Got me into screenwriting, and a job directing a movie in college.
- For the love of enzymes, by Arthur Kornberg. Got me interested in basic biologic research, which led to a job at the NIH in a biochemstry lab.
- On the road, by Oliver Sacks. Got me interested in neurology, and led to a job at Montefiore Hospital, where Sacks used to work. If I hadn’t serendipitously picked up this book, I very well could have had another career.
- Gesundheit!, by Patch Adams. Got me into clowning, after I said yes to a trip to Mexico with Patch.
The awe-inspiring thing is, when I first pick up a book, I cannot predict if it will be a doorway, if it will change my life. I could not have predicted that what I learned in Story would get me a job well-above my skill level, directing a 16mm movie my freshman year of college. I could not have predicted that reading about Oliver Sacks would lead me to his old stopmping grounds. All I know is that I’m going to keep on reading…
Which books have been doorways for you?
danscreativeoulet 