Okay, I'm driving the last leg from Albuquerque to LA today, so I'll make this fast. Make of it what you will.
1. Lord of the Rings
I read these three parts ... one agonizing book every two or three months, because they were my cousin's and I had to borrow them from her house when we went to visit my aunt. I started reading more and more slowly so that I would never have to leave. And I am a very fast reader usually. I wanted to live in that world so much for so long. I even had my mother buy me the calendar for Christmas when I was ten.
2. Black Beauty
I cried every time a horse died.
3. Little Women
I cried every time Beth died.
4. The House of Leaves
I knew the moment I started to read it that I wanted to look at this book inside and out, and that, even if I tried, it would take a hundred years to do it. I put it in my dissertation. Also, the author is kind of hot.
5. The Sound and the Fury
A book that completely and accurately gets the underlying miasma of feeling that is the South.
6. Invisible Man
You want to know the essential Great American Novel? This is it, people! Read it! Now!
7. MacBeth (called the Scottish play by me for many years due to a particularly earlier career choice)
Bill knew what he was doing. And I still remember the soliloquy about tomorrow that my English teacher made me memorize in high school.
8. The Flame and the Flower
This terribly written book was my first experience in a bodice ripper. I read it in sixth grade and LOVED it. Because it was, I thought, romantic. I've since come to appreciate some problematic things about it, especially, er, the sexism in it, but it was good ripping fun at 13.
9. My first book of Poe's short stories
I can't remember the edition, but I remember "The Tell-Tale Heart" very well. This book introduced me to mayhem and murder in a way that was both enjoyable and also set up a love for it for the rest of my life, er, in FICTION. Clearly.
10. Nancy Drew's stories
All of them. I know this is cheating in a way and not exactly ten books but these books, believe it or not, made me realize that a girl can have a brain.
11. THE NEXT BOOK! Which is ... when I'm not working on the dissertation, I read two to three books a week. Right now, in the car, not reading but listening ... I'm listening to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. You know what? It's pretty damned good actually. I'm shocked.
Okay. I'm off to drive for about 10 hours. Say something nice.
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Algis Kemezys
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Comments
I share your number 11.
Come Christmas morning, about two months later, I opened my present and my mother had gotten me the complete set including The Hobbit. I've read it every year since.
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nanatehay--Me too. That book will always remain my favorite, to be read and re-read throughout my life. It shaped what I decided to do with my life. When I realized I could love a book that much, it was quite a revelation.
Bob--I think everything you say is rather lovely. So you may comment in every way that you like. :)
Craze--heh heh I love that show. Although my favorite remains the Tom Cruise episode.
JP Hart-- :) Thank you.
Amanda--It was a rite of passage, I think!
Gabby--Aw. That's nice to hear. I just couldn't think of any other way to introduce these books except to say what they did for me.
M.Mckenzie--I know!!! hee hee
Lainey--I like that, too. :)
Sheila--Thank you! I kind of had a hard time weeding books out. I could have made a list of more than that, most likely.
Aunt Mabel-- :) Thank you! It's true. I read all the time.
Birdie--heh heh I would read THAT book, too.
sweetfeet--Thank you! Yes, we did. I think maybe it was a way of exploring those newfound feelings from the safety of a book.
coogan--oops! Sorry. Um, er, maybe if they do a zombie Little Women, she'll come back to life?
Deb-- :) I knew you would be a Nancy Drew reader. Man, I loved those books.
Monsieur--his stories ... how I wish I could write in that way! Poe is amazing, and actually, in this day and age, totally underrepresented out there.
Hells Bells--You're welcome. :)
liberatarius--You are right. Absalom, Absalom is amazing. I think The Sound and the Fury caught me so much because of the close, and yet terrible, family relationships and how familiar those community problems were.
Kit--I know!! He is hot. heh
LC--oh my! There's another one. heh Someday, I might have to check that out.
Julie--You are so nice! I recommend the House of Leaves the most.
ocular--It was agony waiting until my mother decided to visit my aunt so that I could get the next book! Finally, my parents bought me the entire set for Christmas.
emma--It is an amazing book. Although, I warn you, the footnotes in it occasionally will make you want to pull your hair out. Are they real? Are they not? It's very hard to tell.
JD--Well, the Poe is some of the best stuff, that's for certain.
O'Really--heh heh Smartass.
xenon--Okay, you have to read at least House of Leaves and Invisible Man. Well, I mean, you don't HAVE to, but I highly recommend them both.
AtHomePilgrim--ha! Yes! I do love a good cry from a nice book. Thank you.
Stellaa--He is America's answer to Joyce.
old gold--I know! And the book was quite excellent by the way. I was amazed. Crazy concept. Excellent book.
~R~