Book Meme
I grabbed this one from Facebook, and I wrote about it there, so if you’re a FB friend, you’ve already read (or ignored) this. I believe I’ve written about all of these books here before, but man, they’re worth it. So I’m writing again. Here’s the meme.
Rules: In your status line, list 10 books that have stayed with you. Don’t take more than a few minutes; don’t think too hard. They don’t have to be great works, just the ones that have touched you.
The Blood of Others ~ Simone de Beauvoir. (something about reading this one and then seeing “Glory” hit me kind of hard back in college.)
Little House on the Prairie ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder. The whole series. If you haven’t read them, or if you’re not me, perhaps you don’t get it. But there is so much humanity, simple goodness and kindness and wisdom here, it’s worthwhile.
The Yearling – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Gah, I hated this book. It broke my heart in too many ways. I’d like to not count it, but it stuck with me.
The Bean Trees ~ Barbara Kingsolver. This one forced me to write a fan letter to the author, which I have never done before or since. She wrote back.
Poetry by e. e. cummings. I don’t know the name of a book specifically, but his poetry touched me in many was.
The Dead ~ James Joyce. Wow, what a short story. It starts out seeming silly and perhaps useless, and ends up breaking your heart.
The Road ~ Cormac McCarthy. This one almost killed me, and there’s no way I could face the movie.
Gone With the Wind ~ Margaret Mitchell. Where I learned to flirt and that it’s possible for a woman to be an idiot and still have the heart of a lion.
When Parents Die ~ Edward Myers. I received a few books when my mom died. It was a horrific time, and I suspect that people gave me the books that helped them the most at horrific times in their own lives. This was the one that helped me the most. I’ve (sadly) given it a time or two. I don’t know if it helped or not.
The Tale of One Bad Rat ~ Bryan Talbot. Perhaps the first graphic novel to break my heart.
5 Comments
Nance
I think almost every single book I’ve ever read has stayed with me one way or another. There have been so many, too. Sometimes, I don’t remember the book, but I remember lines and characters. And all the books I’ve taught have set up camp in my brain forever, too. But…
All Creatures Great and Small (the whole series)–Dr. James Herriot
Gone with the Wind–Margaret Mitchell
The Catcher in the Rye–J.D. Salinger
The Stand–Stephen King
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle–David Wroblewski
The Circus Fire–Stewart Nan
The Biography of Mary Todd Lincoln–Jean Baker
Jane Eyre–Charlotte Bronte
Song of Myself–Walt Whitman
To Kill a Mockingbird–Harper Lee
Gina
Ah, e.e. cummings is by far my favorite poet, with Robert Frost in close second.
And man, I also love the All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriot. I just re-read them for the third time about a month or so ago, and they never fail to make me laugh almost constantly.
Linda
I have never read “The Dead,” but a friend was telling me at length about it not long ago; it obviously made a huge impression on her, too. I must read it.
Rainbow Motel
“Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson” (Oppenheimer)
“East of Eden” (John Steinbeck)
“I Thought My Father Was God:Stores from NPR’s National Story Project”
“Genius in Disguise: The Life of Harold Ross” (Thomas Kunkel)
“Revolutionary Road” (Richard Yates)
“The Diary of Anne Frank”
“In Cold Blood” (Truman Capote)
“To Kill a Mockingbird” (Nell Harper Lee)
“The Complete Stories of Flannery O’ Connor)
*Also…I re-read E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” every year. —
Too many books and so little time!!!!
J
Oh yeah, both Revolutionary Road and Diary of Anne Frank will stick with you, won’t they? Amazing reads.