OK, here are the rules:What I like about this is that it's not your 15 favorite books, but the first fifteen books that come to mind that have really stuck with you for some reason. I had fun seeing the 15 books on my friend's list, and being the book-lover that I am, I immediately had to sit down and come up with my own list, even though I hadn't actually been tagged. Here it is:
15 Books. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends like.
The Pushcart War, by Jean Merill
The Book Thief, by Martin Zusack
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card
The Island and the Ring, by Laura Stevenson
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline l’Engle
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norman Juster
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan
Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Peppermints in the Parlor, by Barbara Brooks Wallace
The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman
Coming up with this list was hard! I had to force myself not to add books to the list or make edits after I came up with fifteen. (Okay, confession: I made three edits. I won't tell you what they were.). These really are the first fifteen (well, sixteen minus three plus two) that came to mind, many of them from my childhood. And as I looked over the list, I realized that the reasons these particular books have stuck with me are incredibly varied. Les Miserables and Cry the Beloved Country are both books I find profoundly moving, whereas The World Without Us simply conjured up some images that are easily recalled in everyday life. A Wrinkle in Time, The Island and the Ring, The Hundred Secret Senses, Speaker for the Dead, and Doomsday Book are all books that for some reason I have read at least three times, maybe more, and that I keep returning to because reading them is like spending time with an old friend. That's really rare for me, and I honestly don't know why these particular books are the ones I can come back to so easily and so often. The Pushcart War was the first book to make the list for an interesting reason. My mother read it to me as a child, and several months after we finished, I had a very vivid and sad dream involving some of the characters. The details of the dream, and most of the details of the book, have all left me, but the intense sadness and empathy that I experienced in that dream never has.
Anyway, that's my list. I'm not going to tag anyone, but I would really, really like it if people responded in the comments section with their fifteen, or at least with a few of the books that have really stuck with them.
* For some reason the grammar at the end of that sentence stumped me. I hope I got it right.
6 comments:
Okay, here goes...
Pride and Prejudice
To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Damnation of Theron Ware
The Old Wives Tale
Rocket Boy
Nicholas Nickleby
Palace Walk
No Name (My favorite Wilkie Collins book)
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
The Power of One
Les Miserable
Among the Dolls
The Count of Monte Cristo
Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland
The Forsythe Saga
If I had taken a little longer to think about it, I would have cheated ;-) like you and swapped out a couple (Among the Dolls and maybe the Forsythe Saga) for Wolf Story and Call It Courage. Those have special memories from reading to you kids.
Ok, let's see:
1) The Bean Trees
2) The Sun Also Rises
3) David Copperfield
4) 1984
5) Coming up for Air
6) My Name is Asher Lev
7) The Gift of Asher Lev
8) The Chosen
9) Me Talk Pretty One Day
10) How Green was my Valley
11) Wuthering Heights
12) Jane Eyre
13) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
14) Catcher in the Rye
15) How to talk Minnesotan
That was too easy...I mean that in a nervous way. Like I know I'm forgetting several of my favorites. But those are the ones that came to mind! It took like two minutes, that's why I know I'm missing some. Oh well. :)
Can I switch one out for 100 Years of Solitude? ;)
See, now I can't do the list because you and Mom have put too many in my thoughts that might not have been there otherwise. Maybe I'll try later.
*Yes, you got it right. It would have been easier to re-work the sentence to avoid the issue altogether.
I wrote this out last night before bed. I'm absolutely certain that I forgot some. In fact I remembered a few already...
1- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2- Beauty by Robin McKinley
3- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
4- The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
5- The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
6- The Island at the Center of the World by Russel Shorto
7- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett
8- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
9- What Should I Do with My Life by Po Bronson
10- Anthem by Ayn Rand
11- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
12- The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
13- Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg
14- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
15- A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Works that I forgot and probably should have included:
- The Giver
- The Decameron
- Holes
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