Top Ten Things on my Reading Wishlist

Top Ten Tuesday adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceasedesist/4812981497/I totally didn’t do my weekend reading update this weekend. I actually haven’t made much progress in my book, so I think that’s fine. I just had a busy week. I do like this week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday:

Today’s Topic: Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist (if you could make authors write about these things you would. Could be a specific type of character, an issue tackled, a time period, a certain plot, etc.)

 

  1. I want a really great gothic ghost story something like [amazon_link id=”0307745317″ target=”_blank” ]The Woman in Black[/amazon_link], but set in Ireland or Scotland, and with a great creep factor, but no ick. Also, bonus if it’s in a castle. I am a big Scooby Doo fan. Also, double bonus if it’s set in the Edwardian era because I love the clothes.
  2. I would love it if someone would do something with Celtic myth. I actually have a little something I’m working on myself, but I would really like to see what someone else would do with stories from the Ulster Cycle or Finn Cycle in Ireland, or the Mabinogion in Wales.
  3. More really good historical fiction about Shakespeare. I have read some that’s not what I’d call good. Bonus points if it explores one of the lost plays or the Dark Lady. Maybe I should cook up something along those lines myself.
  4. I’d like to read a historical fiction book like Diana Gabaldon writes. Historical romances are just not my favorites, but she seems to cross genres in a way that really intrigues me. Also, I like how her books span across time and over the lifetimes of her characters.
  5. A really good multigenerational saga. I know these exist, but I haven’t had as much luck finding them. If you know of one, please share. I mean, I’d like to see hundreds of years pass. I am really interested in genealogy, and it would be interesting to me to read about a family’s history.
  6. Really good derivative works. I mean, tell me the story from Miss Havisham’s point of view, but make it awesome. I have read some metafiction lately that hasn’t been up to scratch. Some of it has been really good, however. Bring on more of the really good.
  7. An Arthurian novel that measures up to [amazon_link id=”0345350499″ target=”_blank” ]The Mists of Avalon[/amazon_link]. That book is probably my favorite Arthurian saga. I love that it’s told through the viewpoint of the women, mainly Morgan Le Fay. I wish someone would come up with a fresh and interesting way to tell that story again.
  8. A really good novel set in Paris that makes me want to keep flipping pages the same way that [amazon_link id=”143918271X” target=”_blank” ]A Moveable Feast[/amazon_link] does. I love that book. By the same token, it can be similar to [amazon_link id=”0345521315″ target=”_blank” ]The Paris Wife[/amazon_link]. Bonus points if it’s about artists.
  9. A good book about George Sand’s life. I have been fascinated by her since I was in college. This is yet another topic I have considered exploring myself. I adore her passion.
  10. A good thriller like [amazon_link id=”0307474275″ target=”_blank” ]The Da Vinci Code[/amazon_link] but well written and with characters that are more than cardboard stand-ins or flagrant copies of Indiana Jones.

Sometimes I think it’s good advice to just write the book you want to read. Don’t tell anyone my ideas.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time

Top Ten Tuesday

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a really fun one: a list of the books I wish I could read again for the first time. For some books, there is nothing quite like the magic of reading them for the first time, no matter how good they are on a reread.

  1. The entire [amazon_link id=”0545162076″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter[/amazon_link] series by J.K. Rowling. I will never forget discovering those books, and the slow reveal as new books were published. When I began reading them, the movies hadn’t been released yet. I read them in 2001, right before the first film came out. At that time, [amazon_link id=”0439358078″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Order the Phoenix[/amazon_link] hadn’t been published yet.
  2. [amazon_link id=”0618640150″ target=”_blank” ]The Lord of the Rings[/amazon_link] by J.R.R. Tolkien. Such a gripping read the first time around. I haven’t managed a full reread. I usually get bogged down somewhere in [amazon_link id=”0618574956″ target=”_blank” ]The Two Towers[/amazon_link].
  3. [amazon_link id=”0385737645″ target=”_blank” ]Revolution[/amazon_link] by Jennifer Donnelly. I loved this book. It’s still my top read for 2011, and it influenced me a great deal. I know I have been more open-minded about music since I read it, and I have been listening to music a lot more, too. I’m not sure I would be if not for this book.
  4. [amazon_link id=”0143105426″ target=”_blank” ]Pride and Prejudice[/amazon_link] by Jane Austen. I was so thrilled by this book the entire time I was reading. Jane was actually funny! And I loved the characters and setting.
  5. [amazon_link id=”1451635621″ target=”_blank” ]Gone with the Wind[/amazon_link] by Margaret Mitchell. I know I loved it the first time, but I’m not sure how I’d feel on a reread. It’s such a revisionist history of the South in so many ways. It would be interesting to come to it the first time again without any of the baggage I’ve accumulated over the years.
  6. [amazon_link id=”0061205699″ target=”_blank” ]To Kill a Mockingbird[/amazon_link] by Harper Lee. How would it be to read this again with the hope that Tom might be freed by that white jury?
  7. [amazon_link id=”0345441184″ target=”_blank” ]The Mists of Avalon[/amazon_link] by Marion Zimmer Bradley. My favorite King Arthur book. I ate it up when I read it for the first time in 1996 or 1997. I would like to read it again, but more than anything, I wish I could read it for the first time again.
  8. The [amazon_link id=”0440423201″ target=”_blank” ]Outlander[/amazon_link] series by Diana Gabaldon. This was another fun discovery. I read up through [amazon_link id=”044022425X” target=”_blank” ]Drums of Autumn[/amazon_link], but it took [amazon_link id=”0440221668″ target=”_blank” ]The Fiery Cross[/amazon_link] quite a while to come out, and I never have read that book or any subsequent ones.
  9. [amazon_link id=”0061990477″ target=”_blank” ]The Thorn Birds[/amazon_link] by Colleen McCullough. I read it so long ago, and I’ve never reread it, even though I’ve meant to. I would like to read it for the first time.
  10. [amazon_link id=”B000GH2YPG” target=”_blank” ]Rebecca[/amazon_link] by Daphne du Maurier. So suspenseful! How fun would it be to read again without knowing what happens or how it will end?

Books That Change Lives

Last week Lifehacker asked its readers to vote for the books that changed their lives. I think the resulting list gives a lot of insight into the kind of readers Lifehacker has, but it also made me wonder what I would say if someone asked me to list books that had changed my life. Whenever I have to fill out profiles that ask for my favorite books, I always say “too many to list,” which is quite true, but I wonder if I can narrow down the books that changed my life? In no particular order, this is my list:

To Kill a MockingbirdTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This story of racism and prejudice in the Deep South profoundly affected me when I first read it in the 11th grade. If I recall, it was the only assigned reading in high school that I actually read ahead of the reading schedule. I really enjoyed that book. Since then, whenever I have shared it with students, I have fallen in love all over again — with the language, the characters, the story it tells. Harper Lee calls her novel “a love story” (the paperback version linked here includes this reference Lee makes on its back cover). It took me a long time to figure out what she meant, but I believe I understand.

Gone With the WindGone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

While today I find the characterization of the African-American characters to be at best romantic and at worst racist, I have to admit this book was my first “adult” novel and really taught me how amazing and wonderful the world of books could truly be. I took the book with me everywhere and read it whenever I had a free moment. It took me two or three weeks to finish the first time I read it. I think I will most likely always have a soft spot for this novel.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 10th Anniversary EditionHarry Potter Series, by J. K. Rowling

No other books have given me so much delight and have so frequently been on my re-reading cycle. Believe it or not, I have endured a lot of criticism for liking these books — some of it from people I am close to. I have had to defend my interest in these books to adults who think I should know better than to love children’s books. I just can’t understand why those people feel it necessary to be so narrow-minded and joyless. Why should they care? I fell in love with these books some time during my reading of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. If I had to select an exact moment, it might be when Hagrid shows up at the hut in the sea. In fact, my favorite scene in any of the books remains Harry’s first trip to Diagon Alley to get his school supplies.

The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Containing some of the most beautiful prose in American literature, The Great Gatsby remains one of my favorite books to teach. I have many of my favorite passages highlighted. I actually enjoy the language more than the plot of the story. I pulled out my favorite passages and wrote about them many years ago.

The Mists of AvalonThe Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

I know I really like a book when I finish and wish with all my heart that I had written it. Why I feel it necessary to make it even more mine than it is after having read it, I’m not sure, but I have felt it several times. However, I think the fist time I felt it was after reading this novel. I still maintain, even after ten years have passed since I read it, that it is the best rendition of the King Arthur story I’ve read. I’ve never looked at the character Morgan le Faye the same way since then (or Guinevere, for that matter). To me, this novel was pitch-perfect, or it was when I read it. I was enthralled by it.

I’m sure I could expand upon this list with a bit more thought. It would never include any Ayn Rand, however.