Ten Books That Have Stayed With Me

ahef1963: This book was seminal as it awoke stirrings of social justice in me, and made me realize how much I take for granted.

ahef1963: I just read this a couple of months ago, but it's a work I will never forget. Both brilliant and devastatingly sad.

Marissa_Doyle: One of my top books of all time. I am in awe of the world she created.

ahef1963: Pride & Prejudice is the first classic novel that I really enjoyed. It was the cross-over from childhood reading to adult reading.

jillmwo: I reread the Christmas chapter almost every year. I got this book as a gift on my 8th birthday before we moved to Bangkok.

Marissa_Doyle: Haunting.

imyril: I think I mostly just loved the idea of Jesuits in space, but I also loved the characters and the prose. Knowing it will end badly just added to the bittersweet pleasure.

imyril: Haunting and horrifying.

imyril: My Latin teacher made us read it. We were all deeply grateful, and then teased him mercilessly. Wonderfully dark, angst-ridden, alienating and alluring. Such prose and singular characters.

imyril: Enlightening, enthralling and inspiring.

imyril: The only Tolkien I still dip back into. It shaped so much to follow, and shaped so many of my preferences.

jillmwo: His beautiful creation story -- I just love it.

imyril: One of the first dystopian novels I ever read, which plays on several themes that are close to my heart.

SylviaC: Provides some insight into our role and effect on the planet.

jillmwo: Two stories in this collection, April in Paris and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Marissa_Doyle: Wonderful, spooky, truly captures the "otherness" of the Fae in folklore.

ahef1963: My favourite book as a young teenager. As an adult I took my children to the museum a couple of times a month and we would figure out where we would live if we ran away to a museum.

thorold: Needs no explanation

SomeGuyInVirginia: My grandmother gave me this book for my birthday when I was very small. I was disappointed it wasn’t something more interesting, but it awakened my passion for books.

SylviaC: This was the book that I asked everyone to read to me, before I could read it myself.

thorold: A book that makes you think "If everyone read this, we could be sure it would never happen again"

imyril: I read this very young and it introduced me to the concept of satisfactory but unhappy endings. Also, the Earldelving. Gah.

SylviaC: A childhood favourite. The wonder of that first pair of glasses, after years of being labeled as slow and clumsy.

Marissa_Doyle: I read this when I was a young teen, and it has profoundly affected how I write.

thorold: The literary equivalent of an earworm: you know it's a bad book, but you can never get it out of your head...

SylviaC: Made me look at listening in a whole different way.

jillmwo: The idea of setting aside the culture and treasures of the ages so that they don't get destroyed.

SomeGuyInVirginia: Même chose.

ahef1963: The first fantasy novel (I read the trilogy in one volume) that I ever truly, deeply loved.

Marissa_Doyle: Retelling of the classic of Welsh mythology. Just beautiful.

Marissa_Doyle: Haunting as well, but in a very different way from the Ishiguro.

imyril: This could as easily have been Triffids. Wyndham introduced me to apocalypse fiction, and I love both books for their evocative descriptions of a ruined London.

SomeGuyInVirginia: Scared me to death as a kid.

SylviaC: A protagonist I really related to.

ahef1963: Started my life-long fascination with all things African.

imyril: This stays with me for its haunting implications. Sad, sentimental, yet satisfying.

SylviaC: I like epidemic books, and this one was pretty comprehensive at the time.

jillmwo: She explains some things so well. From Elfland to Poughkeepsie is an essay that has stuck with me.

ahef1963: Explained to me, in layman's terms, the science of paleontology and awoke in me a love of the subject matter.

Marissa_Doyle: One of the truly happiest books I've ever read.