I have been thinking about something for a weeks now and I will finally just blog about it now, even though I won't be able to write about it as eloquently as I'd like.

If you're a reader of fiction, there is probably a book that is, as Brad Leithauser puts it, "the book of your life". This is a book that "was made for you", that isn't necessarily a classic. Leithauser describes how if you're a reader, you'll end up reading a quite a few classics, books that are identified as classics, so that after you read them and turn the last page feeling satisfied and even overwhelmed by the greatness of the book, you have "the assurance of knowing that your keenest literary pleasures were preordained".

But sometimes, you read a book that you know nothing about and whose author is a stranger to you, and it ends up being an incredibly special experience.

"There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more; it is the book of your life."

I've never read such a description before, but now I see that I am lucky enough to have two. One is Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Elisabeth Stoddard's The Morgesons. I know both of these are considered classics of some sort, but when I found them I knew nothing about them at all and without expectations, a great book takes on a different kind of importance in your life than if you went into reading it knowing it's considered a classic.

All of this to say that I finished reading Halldor Laxness' Independent People with an introduction by Brad Leithauser. Independent People is the book of Leithauser's life. While I wouldn't consider it one of mine, it's a book that has nonetheless left a strong impression on me. On the cover is a quote by Jane Smiley, "I can't imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for the first time."