And in the morning we'll start over again
I got tagged for this by 
flywithturtles over on tumblr, and funnily enough, I had actually done it and then realized I couldn't post it in December because gushing over The Tombs of Atuan might have given away one of my yuletide stories! Ha! As if! So here it is.
List 10 books that have stayed with you - they do not have to be great works or classics...just ones that have stayed with you!
The Teddy Bear Habit by James Lincoln Collier
I loved this book so much as a kid that when I was an adult, I tracked down a secondhand copy for myself, and then another one for my niece when she was old enough to read it. (though I don't believe she ever did. sigh.) It's a really strong evocation of time (the 60s) and place (NYC), and it probably takes the slot that most people use for Harriet the Spy, which I also loved, but which did not contain a jewel heist. Let's remember who we're dealing with here.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
I read and reread and reread this book a lot as a kid, until my mother broke down and bought it for me so I wasn't taking it out of the library every week. Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
First read around the age of 9, and reread once or twice a year every year after that until I was in college. As an adult, I find Tolkien's prose defeats me - while The Hobbit is still easy enough to get through, I've been unable to slog through the full trilogy in years. I still occasionally reread sections though. Mostly Faramir's big speech ("I would not take this thing if I found it lying on the road."), Eowyn's big scenes, and then their courtship.
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin
Oh, man, Ged and Tenar trusting each other in the dark. I mean, aside from LeGuin's fantastic prose, is there a better scene than the one where they trade insults and challenges, and then he says, "I show you yourself"? Well, only the one where she runs down to save him when she discovers Kossil is going to kill him, and then the one later on, after they've escaped, and he calls the rabbit for her, or when she's going to kill him herself, and he just touches the bracelet on her arm and says her name. Guh. OTP OF OTPS. Seriously formative for me.
Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner
My nominee for best novel ever written. It's about the terrible things people do to each other, and then the stories we tell about them (both the things and the people), and how those stories shape us and weigh us down. Oh, Quentin. Oh, honey.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles.
Oh, Gene. Oh, Finny.
Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer
This was the only Heyer my mother, a voracious reader of Regencies, owned, and I read it and reread it a lot. I believe I've spoken about Mary shooting Vidal, and becoming vilely ill on the yacht after he kidnaps her, and their ridiculous courtship. Very formative for me, particularly in terms of the hijinks that ensue.
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
Brilliant and brutal and masterfully structured. Okay, I mean, Ellroy basically tells the same story in every novel (and I almost put American Tabloid on here, since it was the one I read first), and he's kind of devolved into self-parody? but L.A. Confidential is the apotheosis of the Ellroy novel and of neo-noir in general.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
The best, most tightly written installment of the series, plus REMUS LUPIN and SIRIUS BLACK and a metric fuckton of amazing backstory/exposition.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behaviour, nor restrain men from doing the things they have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. [...]
You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty. This is such a fantastic book. Highly recommended, if you don't mind having your heart broken a lot.
Honorable mentions:
The Iliad by Homer
The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis - it makes me sad that I'm terrified to reread this because of the racism, because Aravis and Aravis/Shasta were another seriously formative OTP for me.
Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr - while I'd had an Alexander & Bucephalus phase when I was ~12 or so, I was a little older when I read this and man, the fact that Alexander/Hephaistion was canon in it made my OTPing heart sing. I especially love that it covers the siege of Tyre, which Renault unfortunately left out.
The Belgariad & The Malloreon by David & Leigh Eddings
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews - ugh, so shameful and yet so influential
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/633409.html.
people have commented there.
flywithturtles over on tumblr, and funnily enough, I had actually done it and then realized I couldn't post it in December because gushing over The Tombs of Atuan might have given away one of my yuletide stories! Ha! As if! So here it is.
List 10 books that have stayed with you - they do not have to be great works or classics...just ones that have stayed with you!
The Teddy Bear Habit by James Lincoln Collier
I loved this book so much as a kid that when I was an adult, I tracked down a secondhand copy for myself, and then another one for my niece when she was old enough to read it. (though I don't believe she ever did. sigh.) It's a really strong evocation of time (the 60s) and place (NYC), and it probably takes the slot that most people use for Harriet the Spy, which I also loved, but which did not contain a jewel heist. Let's remember who we're dealing with here.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
I read and reread and reread this book a lot as a kid, until my mother broke down and bought it for me so I wasn't taking it out of the library every week. Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
First read around the age of 9, and reread once or twice a year every year after that until I was in college. As an adult, I find Tolkien's prose defeats me - while The Hobbit is still easy enough to get through, I've been unable to slog through the full trilogy in years. I still occasionally reread sections though. Mostly Faramir's big speech ("I would not take this thing if I found it lying on the road."), Eowyn's big scenes, and then their courtship.
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin
Oh, man, Ged and Tenar trusting each other in the dark. I mean, aside from LeGuin's fantastic prose, is there a better scene than the one where they trade insults and challenges, and then he says, "I show you yourself"? Well, only the one where she runs down to save him when she discovers Kossil is going to kill him, and then the one later on, after they've escaped, and he calls the rabbit for her, or when she's going to kill him herself, and he just touches the bracelet on her arm and says her name. Guh. OTP OF OTPS. Seriously formative for me.
Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner
My nominee for best novel ever written. It's about the terrible things people do to each other, and then the stories we tell about them (both the things and the people), and how those stories shape us and weigh us down. Oh, Quentin. Oh, honey.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles.
Oh, Gene. Oh, Finny.
Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer
This was the only Heyer my mother, a voracious reader of Regencies, owned, and I read it and reread it a lot. I believe I've spoken about Mary shooting Vidal, and becoming vilely ill on the yacht after he kidnaps her, and their ridiculous courtship. Very formative for me, particularly in terms of the hijinks that ensue.
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
Brilliant and brutal and masterfully structured. Okay, I mean, Ellroy basically tells the same story in every novel (and I almost put American Tabloid on here, since it was the one I read first), and he's kind of devolved into self-parody? but L.A. Confidential is the apotheosis of the Ellroy novel and of neo-noir in general.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
The best, most tightly written installment of the series, plus REMUS LUPIN and SIRIUS BLACK and a metric fuckton of amazing backstory/exposition.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behaviour, nor restrain men from doing the things they have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. [...]
You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty. This is such a fantastic book. Highly recommended, if you don't mind having your heart broken a lot.
Honorable mentions:
The Iliad by Homer
The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis - it makes me sad that I'm terrified to reread this because of the racism, because Aravis and Aravis/Shasta were another seriously formative OTP for me.
Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr - while I'd had an Alexander & Bucephalus phase when I was ~12 or so, I was a little older when I read this and man, the fact that Alexander/Hephaistion was canon in it made my OTPing heart sing. I especially love that it covers the siege of Tyre, which Renault unfortunately left out.
The Belgariad & The Malloreon by David & Leigh Eddings
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews - ugh, so shameful and yet so influential
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/633409.html.
people have commented there.