Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. Today is Wednesday, and it’s time for another post in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. If you’d like to participate in the challenge, then you can find the list of topics for 2025 here. If you’re interested in reading other people’s responses to this week’s topic, you can do so here.
Books that Influenced my Life
Two main books influenced my life—one in a positive way and one in a negative way.
Let’s start with the negative to get it out of the way.
The Bible.
I’ve mentioned before that I grew up in a Catholic family, and my nanna was staunchly devout. We were made to go to church every Sunday—and for Ash Wednesday, Easter Sunday and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve—and we had to behave in a typically “Catholic way”, i.e., being kind, being polite, presenting ourselves in a socially acceptable way and not letting anyone know what goes on behind closed doors and to present a facade of peace and happiness. Now, that sounds okay, right? Not too bad? But for a little gay boy growing up in the 1980s and 90s, it was hell.
I knew that I was “different” from a very early age—and I also knew, from the biblical teachings at Sunday school and from what I learned from my family via osmosis, that the sort of different I was would prevent me from getting into “heaven”.
That book made me hate myself so much that I didn’t believe I was worth my space on Earth. I thought my family would be so ashamed if they knew. I was ashamed of myself. All I saw on TV (of the meagre representation there was back then) was horror stories of people being disowned by their families or beaten up by people in the streets. Poor Matthew Shepard’s murder was all over the news in 1998. I was terrified to act naturally in public, so I’d put on a mask and pretend to be something I wasn’t.
In the end, I discovered that this particular book held no power over me. My nanna remained staunchly devout until the day she died, but when she learned I was marrying a man, she couldn’t have been happier, telling me, “It’s about time!”
Overall, the Bible—a book meant to symbolise love, peace and forgiveness made me afraid of my own family when I had no need to be. My family did—and do—accept me and have never been anything less than loving and supportive.
I’m all for people’s right to religious freedom. In fact, I envy the blind faith that those people like my nanna seem to have and those whose experiences with Catholicism and the Bible on the whole have been lovely—but I’m too logically minded to believe an all-knowing entity created the entire universe, and I don’t enjoy knowing that the text of the Bible has been interpreted and retranslated over and over. Who can even be certain of it’s original message anymore?
Now for the positive.
A Christmas Carol
This book was read to me many times when I was growing up, and then, when I could manage it, I’d read it myself. I believe Mr Dickens is the reason I have such a love for the Christmas period. Although the story is one of change and redemption, it was the spirits that captured my imagination. I also think it’s why I love the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas.
If nothing else, A Christmas Carol certainly began to stir my imagination, and it may even be part of the reason I enjoy telling my own stories.
Now, whenever I read the book or watch an adaptation (The Muppet’s Christmas Carol is my favourite), I am whisked back to my early childhood when I’d be tucked into bed before my dad would begin to read all about Ebeneezer Scrooge and his miserly ways. Even now, the story brings me a sense of calm, tinged with a feeling of homesickness for a home I can never return to, which, I suppose, is what nostalgia is.
Well, that’s me done for now. I wonder what books, if indeed any, have influenced your lives.
As ever, thank you all for taking the time to read my words. I really do appreciate you all!
Until next time,
George
© 2025 GLT
Categories: life, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge
GEORGE L THOMAS 
It is understandable to feel that way, George. The history and happenings of the Old Testament, don’t seem to match the love and the hope of the New Testament, even though the prophecy of a savior is there. We all come to such a powerful book through our human experiences, and our reactions are bound to be different.
A Christmas Carol is one of my favorites as well. It’s a wonderful book of transformation. Thanks for sharing.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2025/11/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge_19.html
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Thanks so much, Cheryl! 😊😊😊
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I’m sorry you’ve had that experience with the Bible. It’s a fascinating collection of man at his best and worst.
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Thanks, Stephen!
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As noted, it’s understandable that you felt that way about the Bible as it would have been read in those homophobic days. I hope the two of you are able to read it in a more inclusive way now. It would be nice if more people would read what Moses and Jesus actually taught.
I think Daniel McClellan’s new book, “The Bible Says So,” may go too far in its attempt to be “gay-friendly” but he makes valid points.
It’s hard to resist Dickens’ Christmas spirits, anyway…and if he’d been American, what a good time Dickens would have had with Thanksgiving!
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Thanks, Priscilla. I’ve read “The Bible Says So”. It was certainly interesting. And I think you’re right about Dickens. I wonder what he would have written if he was born across the pond.
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” the sort of different I was would prevent me from getting into “heaven”.” – I call BS; makes me want to rip something up.
I’m so happy you like A Christmas Carol, it has got to be the coolest Christmas story out there, aside from the original 😂.
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