Some books you read once.
Some books you remember.
And some books you return to, again and again, because they feel like home.
My latest Old Roads essay, “Returning to Books That Made Me,” is about those stories that stay with us long after we close them. The ones that shape how we think, how we see the world, sometimes without our even realizing it.
It started, as these things often do, with a memory. And then another. And then the realization that some of the thoughts I think are not entirely my own, but were formed somewhere along the road by the stories I’ve carried with me.
There is an almost warm and fuzzy comfort in returning to those books. Not just nostalgia, but recognition. A sense that something there still fits.
One line that kept circling back to me while writing this:
Some stories do not just stay with us.
They shape us.
If there is a book you return to, one that feels like part of you now, I would love to hear what it is.
Read it here:
https://www.johntobias.me/2026/05/old-roads-returning-to-books-that-made.html
I’d have to say that the childhood book I remember the most is Charlotte’s Web. We had to read it in school, and everyone enjoyed it. I remember how much I liked sitting in class listening to my teacher read to us. Everyone was quiet and we just sat and listened. This book taught me compassion and how every life matters (no matter how small).
The Giving Tree is my favorite book. Growing up, I always loved it. Even as a child, I knew what it was about - what it was teaching. I like stories that teach something. Aesop’s Fables that always have a moral for each story. Who can forget those? No one!
I don’t know that any particular book steered my in any direction, but one thing’s for certain…I learned to be compassionate and loving from stories I read or that were read to me.
Reading is definitely important and everyone should make time to read. Read to yourself, read to your children, read to whoever will listen. If you don’t like to read, then be a writer. Writing is a great way to share things with others. You never know who you might help if you write about something that might spark something in someone.