By Thorne Wolfenbarger — Jan 2, 2025

What is my Pre-Reading?

Pre-reading is a useful activity before attending a lecture to make sure you get the most out of the delivered content. Doing some pre-reading lay out some foundations for the subject matter at hand and helps you connect the concepts introduces in the lecture more quickly and more deeply. What if we applied the concept of pre-reading to our lives? What if we asked someone, "what pre-reading should I have complete before I get to know you?"

Thorne Wolfenbarger's Pre-Reading

My pre-reading ideally is a list of media that I believe sum up to who I am as a person. While I believe a lot of who I am can be determined by inspecting the content I publish elsewhere on my blog, something is missing. I think it is important to share (what I can remember of) the media that influenced my way of being. Through this inspection of my most impactful media, maybe we can identify trends and understand my perspective on relationships, work, and relaxation.

Movies

It's difficult to decide between film, books, or music, which medium should be introduced first. Given the special relationship I've had with movies during my late teenage years, I've opted to provide my most impactful films first.

Watership Down - The only film that has given me nightmares.
Spirited Away - My introduction to Studio Ghibli and Anime more generally.
North by Northwest - The first "old" movie that made me go "wow!"
A Clockwork Orange - One of the best movies I've ever seen. Taught me about the absolute breadth of directorial control in film. Showed me what a beautiful shot really was.
Taxi Driver - Tied with A Clockwork Orange as my "favorite film". Taught me, later than I'd like to admit, that there is creative genius and that Scorsese is one such example.
Nightcrawler - Taught me about the unlikeable protagonist. Showed me how a film could live in my head for long after I had watched it. Introduced me to Jake Gyllenhaal, one of my favorite actors.
Whisper of the Heart - My favorite Ghibli film throughout my childhood. Just a beautiful story.
Howl's Moving Castle - Even more wonder-inspiring than Spirited Away. The scene where they are all eating inside the castle for the first time makes me salivate like crazy.
Castle In the Sky - A strong contender for childhood favorite movie. I think I have continually under-appreciated it. It has the best soundtrack of all the Ghibli movies.
Kiki's Delivery Service - This is now my favorite Ghibli film. Tears came immediately when this shit hit the screen at my first ever Ghibli fest showing in 2018.
The Wind Rises - An aerospace engineer. I watched this after high school graduation before starting my engineering degree. I cried.
The Boy and the Heron - Taught me that the media that was once made for me is no longer.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Part of my high school introduction to the song "Come on Eileen" and David Bowie. One of the most beautiful coming of age stories I've ever seen.
Juno - Maybe the first film that showed me movies are actually art, not just some entertaining thing to watch when you are bored.
Being John Malkovich - Cerebral, introduced me to Bjork. Showed me what sort of movie I would grow to like.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Maybe my first mindfuck movie. Really beautiful. My favorite movie leaving high school.
Dead Poets Society - Maybe the piece of media that taught me that sometimes role models are good.
Good Will Hunting - I admit, I tried to identify with the lead. It's a wonderfully crafted movie. The end pulls my heart strings.
Donnie Darko - I feel like you could have guessed this would be here by now.
Slumdog Millionaire - I was really just a child when I watched this, everything was over my head, but I loved it. Images of it kept coming back to me for years. Introduced me to M.I.A.
The Wild One - Angsty just as I felt it when I was 17. "What are you rebelling against? Whaddaya got?"
Rebel Without a Cause - Maybe I just wanted to be James Dean.
The Truman Show - Snapped something in me when we watched it in a high school class and I acted out.
Fantastic Mr. Fox - I don't think I realized it at the time, but it would have been the most perfect movie I'd seen to date. Wes Anderson is another creative genius.
Blue is the Warmest Color - Some people have critiques about the director's motivations for putting this film together. It's beautifully shot though. Truly art.
The Breakfast Club - Another coming of age film. Watched it around the time I met my (brief) high school girlfriend. Holds a certain double nostalgia for this reason.
Heathers - This movie is too good.
The Fault in Our Stars - It's cute and I don't regret it.
Casablanca - This is not virtue signaling. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen.
Star Wars - Attack of the Clones - My favorite Star Wars film through my childhood. We really see Anakin's angst here.
Every Other Star Wars - It was my favorite universe / story as a child. I was a Star Wars kid and I loved it.
Spider-Man - I daydreamed about being Spider-Man for most of my childhood. I still do, on occasion, even today.

Anime

I feel like it's correct to distinguish Anime and other TV. Ghibli excluded for obvious reasons.

Kill la Kill - It's really good, I swear!
Sword Art Online - I'm not sure there was a better time in my life than when me and the boys would sign in on Skype/Discord and tune in for the Thursday night SAO episode. I was really happy in those moments and I still miss them a lot.
One Piece - I think I'm gonna be stuck 650 episodes in for a long time.
Your Name - I didn't know anime was a serious genre.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Very nice :)

Books

Ender's Game - I created online identities similar to Demosthenes. I dreamt of the Giant's Game. I learned to keep kicking to win the rest of the battles.
Harry Potter - It's doubtful that any bookworm child being raised in the early 2000s would reject the notion that Harry Potter dictated how they would perceive fantasy for the rest of their lives.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret - If I remember correctly, this was the final book I was read as a child. I think only part of it was read to me, because I "learned" how to read unassisted around this time.
The Chronicles of Narnia - Perhaps far more impactful on my perception of fantasy. I read these books over and over again.
Henry Huggins - I read these books, offset by a generation, due to their presence in my father's library. I think a lot of the hiccups in my language are due to these inherited books.
The Remains of the Day - The most consequential work on my relationship to my work. Very emotionally impactful.
A Wild Sheep Chase - :)
Pinball, 1973 - My favorite Murakami book.
The rest of the Haruki Murakami books - He writes about a second coming of age. He meditates on maleness and I feel seen through his writing.
The Metamorphosis - This book made me dream in color.

Video Games

I don't really have anything specific to add for any of them. Perhaps ask me my personal relationship to Civilization IV.

Music

There is so much music that has changed me over the years. I keep a playlist on Spotify to hold the most important songs in my life. I keep another playlist for my selected first song of each year. A sampling:

Riptide by Vance Joy - I went to a friend's birthday party in high school. Someone brought a ukulele and it was the first time I'd ever heard the instrument in person. Seeing a beautiful girl play a ukulele and sing a song will change a boy - and it changed me.
Sore Throat by Zack Villere - One of the best renderings of how I feel when I suffer.
Our Song by Radiator Hospital - Love // Unrequited Love // Lost Love
Can't Be // How U Feel by Billy Lemos - This is how I feel love. Just below my sternum. A weight towards the top of my stomach.
Nice To Have by 070 Shake - Love // Lost Love // Eternal Tango // Ebb & Flow

If you like my main playlists, here is another one where I keep the songs that I am considering for the main playlists.

Overall

I'm sharing this with the world to find more likeminded people. If you were influenced by any of this media as much as I was, please reach out!
thornecanyon [at] gmail [dot] com
@thornewolf on X/Twitter