To the books that changed my life,

I cannot write a letter to an individual book because there are too many of you to single out just one. How would I ever pick just one book that has changed my life? I can't. There are so many books that stayed up with me later than any friend, family member, or lover did. There are so many books that made me laugh, cry, rejoice, have hope, and want to throw it against a wall, but no matter what emotion they elicited, they changed my life for the better.

To the books that changed my life, thank you. To the books that I have yet to read, I cannot wait to meet you.

But again, how could I pick just one book? I never could. How could I pick between the nights I spent with Oscar Wilde in prison over the nights I spent with Walter Hartright in The Woman in White?

How could I pick between the laughter I got from Solomon Kugel in Hope: A Tragedy and the laughter I got from Heaven in Stupid and Contagious?

What about the tears I got from Ellen Hopkins? How was I to choose between Burned and Identical?

The point is, that I don't have to. They all changed my life and for different reasons. Better yet, and perhaps what I am most thankful for, they made me a better writer (I hope).

The books that changed my life the most are books that I know changed someone else's. The books that have words underlined and "beautiful" written in the margins--those books change my life even more. Because I know that they laughed when I laughed, cried when I cried, held the book to their chest at the end like I did. Or maybe they hadn't. Maybe they cried where I laughed, laughed when I cried and put the book down before they got to the end. It is the fact that they could have had different human emotions than I did while reading that changes me, too.

It is the notes I leave in the books that changed my life for the next reader:

"Please appreciate the language as well as the message" in The God of Small Things.

"This book held me tighter than any girl ever has" in Looking for Alaska.

"I wish I wasn't done reading, but five times is enough" in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

All signed, "LD" written messily and quickly.

It is the possibility that after I wrote my notes and initials in all of the books that changed my life, that someone may do the same in my books one day. Thinking about all the combinations of initials that could be scribbled inside the front and back covers of books on whose front my name is.

I hope that one day I am the author of one of the books that changes someone's life. But thank you to the authors of the books that changed mine.

- LD