9 — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/Robert Louis Stevenson

Society spoiled this book for me. It turns out, it’s suppose to be a mystery where the whole reveal is, well, the one thing that we all know about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that they’re the same person. It’s still a beautiful read though, and it asks some really important questions for our generation about “the very fortress of identity” and “energy coiled in upon itself, energy turned to hate.”

“I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two. I say two, because the state of my own knowledge does not pass beyond that point. Others will follow, others will outstrip me on the same lines; and I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens.”

I’m very partial to the idea that we, on average, have many different, independent personalities that coexist within us. If you haven’t seen the Netflix series Sense8, you should go watch it immediately, and if you have, PLEASE CONTACT ME. There are few things I love more than talking to people about Sense8, and this story will add a nice dimension to that conversation.

10 — Why Not Me?/Mindy Kaling