Personal Canon - Set Up

Moonlight Reader started this with her post on Booklikes about her personal canon, so she is too thank or blame or both.  And I wish to thank her again because writing this has made me think of various connections.

                I thought a bit about my criteria for my personal canon.  Then I got out a notebook with gnomes on it and designated it my canon book.  I’ve been keeping reading journals since 2000.  Listing the start date of the book, a bit about it when I finished, and so on; therefore, I have plenty of notebooks.  The first page of my Canon Notebook is the “rules”, which are roughly as follows.

1.       Fiction and non-fiction allowed.

2.       Short stories and poems are allowed.

3.       List book, author, and first reading time/period

4.       Series are allowed in some cases, but pull out a particular few books.

5.       Has to be something more than simply liked it.

6.       Give reasons why.

7.       In most cases, the book or work should be read more than once (though there will be expectations).

The reason I allowed short stories and poems because for me such work is just as vital.  In many ways, I am basing the ideas of the Personal Canon along the ideas of the list of books that I had to study for gaining my Master’s in English Literature.  There are some stories and poems that are central.  So, to not include them is stupid.  In short, I am looking for what impact, touched me, or made me think in a new way.