Once upon a time in a library

[krislaughs]

a meme, from thistlerose

Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes

1. A Separate Peace by John Knowles -- More than Catcher in the rye, this was my novel of teenage angst.
2. Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkein -- The first novels I ever illustrated and compulsively re-read
3. The Christmas Day Kitten by James Harriot -- One of my favorite of his standalone stories. I should really include the entire All Creatures Great and Small in here as well.
4. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein -- I still get choked up
5. The Giver by Lois Lowry -- this story is so haunting. Even now.
6. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Immortality, and Identity by Milan Kundera -- his words, even through translation, speak to every notion of self and art I've experienced.
7. Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare -- I was so angry the first time I read this. Later I began to understand.
8. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman -- What every Catholic schoolgirl should read
9. Fierce invalids home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins -- my first foray into his wonderful and totally absurd comedy/satire
10. Harry Potter by JK Rowling -- my first foray into a fandom
11. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski -- One of the first books I understood better after analysis in class
12. Whip Hand by dick Francis -- the first of his mysteries I read
13. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman -- this is to young adult maladjustment, what a Separate Peace was to teenage
14. Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara -- Son of flicka. I discovered this in the back of my lower/middle school library and didn't leave the room until I'd read the whole thing
15. The Chronicles of Narnia

Comments

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

1. YES

And I mostly liked Catcher in the Rye. But A Separate Peace just broke my heart into a million pieces. I still haven't gotten over Phineas.

[krisomniac.livejournal.com]

It did, and I felt for Gene, too. Best teenage angst (which is funny, because I really had nothing in common with the boys being a girl, going to a day school in manhattan... Should have related to Holden. ;)