I was tagged a week or so on Facebook by a writer friend for one of those chain letter sort of things that goes around. (Do you remember, like, actual chain letters? That you had to write and mail with stamps and everything? Those were weird, and yet they have stuck in the vernacular.) This particular one wants you to list the ten books that have stuck with you the most.
The note tells you not to think about it too hard, but I’ve found I’ve had to because it’s been hard to come up with 10. I read a lot of books–try to get to 50 every year, at least–but not many of those have necessarily stuck.
Here’s the list I’ve come up with:
- Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- Agnes and the Hitman, Jennifer Crusie
- The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
- Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
- The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
- Murder with Peacocks, Donna Andrews
- And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
- Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, C.S. Forester
Of course, now that I’ve finally gotten those 10, more are starting to pop up. Harry Potter. Maria V. Snyder’s Study series. Macbeth. The Ancient One by T.A. Barron. Pegasus in Flight by Anne McCaffrey. And there’s stories that I remember snippets of, clearly, but can no longer recall the name of the book.
Isn’t that how it always goes?
Actually, now that I’ve thought of The Ancient One again, that might be good for a readalong. What do you say, Squiders? It’s a MG/YA science fantasy trilogy. The Ancient One is the middle book. I don’t know if I’ve read any of them since my early teens, so it might be fun to revisit them.
What are the 10 books that have most stuck with you, Squiders?
