Book meme!
Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag some friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them.
1 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I read this once a year and have the most cathartic cry ever. True story about me - I cannot watch the movie. I know that Gregory Peck is amazing and I'm sure it's absolutely wonderful, but the book, to me, is Scout's story. The story of HER and how she becomes who she is, and the movie seems to make it very much Atticus's story.
2 - Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls: Another cathartic cry book. This just barely edged out "A Day No Pigs Would Die" by Robert Newton Peck. It falls into the same genre of breaking your heart and coming of age in all the difficult ways. The love of something simple and working so hard for it and the way it will always be a part of you. Also fathers.
3 - Waiting for the Galactic Bus by Parke Godwin: I have recommended this book to a LOT of people. I cannot honestly say I LIKE this book? But I recommend it because it's really well written and it's sharp and satrical, but I don't know if I LIKE it. It's weird. But read it. And then talk to me about it.
4 - Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card: I read this long before I knew of the problematic-ness of the author, and as much as I loved Ender's Game, this is the story that stuck with me. I can still remember reading it for the first time and sitting on my bed crying at the end, because I knew I'd never be able to write like that.
5 - Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green: Looking at this list, there is a lot of "make myself cry" books. It's so much about who you are and what you believe and what happens when "the enemy" is someone just like you, someone human. And what does that mean if you're willing to treat them like something less?
6 - The Phantom TollBooth by Norman Juster: I cannot love this book enough. It was my first known exposure to puns and it's funny and smart and sharp and I love it a lot. I even watched the HORRIBLE movie. I made both my kids read it and then I made their teacher read it because it's just that good, and how can he be a teacher and not have read it?
7 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: One of the rare instances where the book and the movie (the original) both work for me in different ways. There are a LOT of problems with the book when you look at it as an adult, but as a kid it was all about wish fullfillment and getting everything you wanted and then seeing what it could cost. I never really realized just how fucking twisted it was though. Interestingly - the movie is about Willy Wonka and the book is about Charlie, much the way "To Kill a Mockingbird" is, but in this case it doesn't bother me. Probably because I identified far more with Scout than with Charlie.
8 - A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry: Hi, my name is Laura, and I had issues with my sister the entire time I was growing up. And then I read this book and it was like someone else knew what it was like. Another book that makes me cry. Sometimes I think about myself as Meg at the end and think maybe there's something beautiful that can be captured in me when I least expect it, when I'm not looking.
9 - Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie: Another problematic author in a lot of ways, but more as a product of her time I think, but I love this book. I love Hercule Poirot a lot, but this one is just wicked and sharp. The ending gets me every time, even though I know how it ends, because it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?
10 - Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S by Jeremy Leven: I was given this book by someone who meant a lot to me, and it was unlike any other book I'd read at that time. Another book that I loaned out to a lot of people and eventually didn't get back. I think I eventually found it again in a used book store, because to buy it outright is crazy expensive. Weird.
These are just the first ten that come to mind, I could list like 2983479237492387 bazillion others. Books are just really great.
1 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I read this once a year and have the most cathartic cry ever. True story about me - I cannot watch the movie. I know that Gregory Peck is amazing and I'm sure it's absolutely wonderful, but the book, to me, is Scout's story. The story of HER and how she becomes who she is, and the movie seems to make it very much Atticus's story.
2 - Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls: Another cathartic cry book. This just barely edged out "A Day No Pigs Would Die" by Robert Newton Peck. It falls into the same genre of breaking your heart and coming of age in all the difficult ways. The love of something simple and working so hard for it and the way it will always be a part of you. Also fathers.
3 - Waiting for the Galactic Bus by Parke Godwin: I have recommended this book to a LOT of people. I cannot honestly say I LIKE this book? But I recommend it because it's really well written and it's sharp and satrical, but I don't know if I LIKE it. It's weird. But read it. And then talk to me about it.
4 - Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card: I read this long before I knew of the problematic-ness of the author, and as much as I loved Ender's Game, this is the story that stuck with me. I can still remember reading it for the first time and sitting on my bed crying at the end, because I knew I'd never be able to write like that.
5 - Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green: Looking at this list, there is a lot of "make myself cry" books. It's so much about who you are and what you believe and what happens when "the enemy" is someone just like you, someone human. And what does that mean if you're willing to treat them like something less?
6 - The Phantom TollBooth by Norman Juster: I cannot love this book enough. It was my first known exposure to puns and it's funny and smart and sharp and I love it a lot. I even watched the HORRIBLE movie. I made both my kids read it and then I made their teacher read it because it's just that good, and how can he be a teacher and not have read it?
7 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: One of the rare instances where the book and the movie (the original) both work for me in different ways. There are a LOT of problems with the book when you look at it as an adult, but as a kid it was all about wish fullfillment and getting everything you wanted and then seeing what it could cost. I never really realized just how fucking twisted it was though. Interestingly - the movie is about Willy Wonka and the book is about Charlie, much the way "To Kill a Mockingbird" is, but in this case it doesn't bother me. Probably because I identified far more with Scout than with Charlie.
8 - A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry: Hi, my name is Laura, and I had issues with my sister the entire time I was growing up. And then I read this book and it was like someone else knew what it was like. Another book that makes me cry. Sometimes I think about myself as Meg at the end and think maybe there's something beautiful that can be captured in me when I least expect it, when I'm not looking.
9 - Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie: Another problematic author in a lot of ways, but more as a product of her time I think, but I love this book. I love Hercule Poirot a lot, but this one is just wicked and sharp. The ending gets me every time, even though I know how it ends, because it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?
10 - Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S by Jeremy Leven: I was given this book by someone who meant a lot to me, and it was unlike any other book I'd read at that time. Another book that I loaned out to a lot of people and eventually didn't get back. I think I eventually found it again in a used book store, because to buy it outright is crazy expensive. Weird.
These are just the first ten that come to mind, I could list like 2983479237492387 bazillion others. Books are just really great.