Titles of Note

Perry Feyk, Upper School English Teacher

the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

“One of the best science fiction novels ever, about a planet where the inhabitants are male and female: It is about what it is to be human, and how we confuse gender with humanity. It will change the way you see the world.”

To say retiring English teacher Perry Feyk is a bibliophile is to fail to fully articulate his love for the written word. His wall of beloved quotes, plucked from a variety of tomes in the literary canon, has been as much of a classroom staple over the years as Feyk himself.

“I realize that if you want to know someone, look at their bookshelf, and ask them what they love most about what they read. That, will reveal the person,” Feyk says.

Here is a small glimpse into Mr. Feyk’s bookshelf — the self-selected, top five books he has taught as part of Benjamin’s English curriculum over the years. And, of course, his thoughts on them, and the quote(s) from each book that has resonated most with him.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

“Gritty, powerful, painful at times, but so deep and soul changing. Morrison goes deeper than any writer I know into the human heart.”

Sixo on true love: “She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all Estraven, the main character, explains not patriotism, but true love of country: “Hate Orgoryn (his rival kingdom, with whom they are on the verge of war)? No, how should I? How does one hate a country, or love one? Tibe (his secretary of state) talks about it; I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks. I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one’s country? Is it hate of one’s uncountry? Then it’s not a good thing. Is it simply self love? That’s a good thing, but one mustn’t make a virtue of it, or a profession...Insofar as I love life, I love the hills of the Domain of Estre (his country), but that sort of love does not have a boundary line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.”

The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy

“I think Conroy’s best. Based on his experience at The Citadel, the off-themainstream narrator Will McLean and his three roommates confront joy and

injustice, and ultimately learn the meaning of friendship, love, and honor through their time in the crucible of the Carolina Military Institute.”

“I want to tell you how it was...I want you to understand why I hate the school with all my power and passion. Then I want you to forgive me for loving the school... You see, I wear the ring.”

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“One of my favorite writers of all time. He writes with a clarity of style and metaphor, and there is a music to his words that approaches that of Yeats and Dylan. Yes, the book deals with censorship and banning books and ideas, but really, as my man crush Neil Gaiman says about it: ‘This is a book about caring for things. It’s a love letter to books, but I think, just as much a love letter to people.’ ”

“It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

“One of the greatest American novels. Yes, it is about the Dust Bowl, yes, he thinks people should care for each other in a communal socialist way, but like Bradbury, it is a love story for mankind; nowhere have I read more love for people, or a more positive view.”

“For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.” “Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live — for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And this you can know — fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.”

“I realize that if you want to know someone, look at their bookshelf, and ask them what they love most about what they read. That, will reveal the person.”