Monday, February 10, 2014

Books that Have My Heart

Today's prompt was supposed to be me listing 10 pet peeves I have. However, it seemed excessively negative...I don't need any encouragement in enumerating things that annoy me. And since you live with me, my guess is that you will have a great grasp of that list and don't need help with that one.

So I decided to tweak it. There are a list of books I have that whenever I think about them I just get happy or see them in the book store and have this near-uncontrollable impulse to buy, even though I already own a copy. I thought this list might be more edifying!

I was excited to receive books as gifts even as a little one!
As with any of my "top whatever" lists, it's coming off the top of my head and not through any extensive research. I'm sure I could list more, but these are the ones that spring immediately to mind. I could talk for hours and hours about authors and books and genres and titles and on and on and on. These books are not the most worthy in the world, they're just the ones I have a special attachment to. 

1. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - (I almost recalled the author's name as Burton Guster, but he's from the show Psych. lol) This strange and wonderful adventure starts out with a bored little boy. I couldn't believe how inventive and even sort of dark this book was when I was a kid!! You'll always find it around our house.

2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I just thought this was a masterpiece. Daddy tried to read it when we were dating to impress me. Let's just say we've been married over five years and he's still not finished reading it! Ha ha.

3. The Brothers K by David James Duncan - This is a family saga that I have read multiple times. I think about scenes from it often. Can't say exactly what I love or what made it have such staying power in my mind. Maybe one day you can read it and tell me what you think?

4. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - This is another sweeping historical saga (I'm fond of these). I've read it at least five times, along with its sequel-of-sorts, World Without End.

5. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - For a time I was obsessed with Asian writers and stories set in either China or Japan. This was my favorite book for a very long time! Wild Swans is another one that has stuck with me; that one is an actual memoir which makes it all the more memorable and left quite an impression.

6. George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl - I read this very short book in school and was so taken with how wicked it was. The author finally acknowledged how horrible some parents can be, as well as children, and I think I found that refreshing as a child. Many other of Roald Dahl's books could have made this list, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and The BFG.

7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Perhaps I should be embarrassed to have this on here, but I'm not. Maybe these books and movies won't be a big deal when you're older, but I'll probably introduce you to them anyway! Bet you can't read just one.

8. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - There is something about magical realism that resonates with me. Your Yaya sent me this book while I was in college in Australia and I devoured it. Love in the Time of Cholera is also amazing.

9. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - I stole this from Hayley Byrd at summer camp when her mom was trying to get her to read more and suggesting books to her. I read it in a matter of days, could NOT put it down!! Then I had my first real encounter with "the book is SO much better than the movie" syndrome. In this case, it couldn't be more true!

10. The Bible - Though my faithfulness to its contents will wax and wane, it never becomes old or irrelevant. Charles Spurgeon said, "Nobody ever outgrows scripture; the Book widens and deepens with our years." I have found this to be true.

There you go, a little (tiny) glimpse into my literary life. I pray you will be a reader like your Mama and Daddy, then you can keep me up-to-date on all the stuff I missed!

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