Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Today’s Prompt: Books I wish I could read again for the first time

Do you remember the books that made you love words and writing and books, landscapes and characters, books that stopped time as you read them? That formed your thoughts and helped you escape? I feel like those are the books I would like to read again, that had such a profound effect on my life as I grew up. To feel that magic all over again.

A Prayer for Owen Meany || The Prince of Tides || All Creatures Great and Small

These three books were given to me by my mom, my dad, and my uncle, and I think that helped make them special as well. My mom gave me the whole James Herriot collection when I was probably 10ish, and I adored them. I didn’t always understand them, but it didn’t matter. I understood what these stories represented – kindness, love, and caring for all of our creatures that we share this planet with.

The Prince of Tides was a book given to me by my dad. He loves Pat Conroy (and now me too!) and despite some tough subject matter I was wrapped up in this world. I remember I even stayed home “sick” from school one day so I could finish it. I went on to read the rest of his books, and each were as amazing but none could take the place of Prince of Tides.

A Prayer for Owen Meany was from my uncle. Another book that has stayed with me all through my life, that I think about all the time. I wish I could read it again just to see how masterfully Irving had the ending all planned, right from the very beginning.

The Lake of Dead Languages || King’s Oak || On the Banks of Plum Creek

The Lake of Dead Languages was Dark Academia before that was a thing. I remember reading it and thinking about how I wanted to throw myself into academia the way that these girls did – minus the big secret in this book of course. I love Carol Goodman still, she was my entrance into a world beyond my little town in Michigan, that was all about steel mills and auto factories.

King’s Oak took me down south again, this time introducing me to Tom Dabney, a character I would love to meet and hang out with. Like Luke in the Prince of Tides, he burned a bit too brightly for his world.

On the Banks of Plum Creek of course has to be on here. Who didn’t want to be Laura when they were younger? All those adventures and animals and running wild and living in a sod house! What! I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Franny and Zooey || Remembering Blue || Charlotte’s Web || The Great Gatsby

Franny and Zooey was probably the first book by a classic author that I read and really loved. I know Salinger gets a bad rap but I always liked his work. Franny and Zooey is my favorite though.

Remembering Blue is just like a lovely romantic sad fairy tale. I attended a writing class, a small group of maybe 10 other people, with my dad at Connie May Fowler’s house in Florida (her husband made us dinner!) and it was so cool to talk with her about this book. I wish I wouldn’t have been so young honestly when I went; I feel like I could make more of the whole experience now as an adult. It was an awesome time though.

Charlotte’s Web. Yes, I know reading it all over again for the first time will be tragic but it still makes me cry anyway. Just the love that was in these pages between Charlotte and Wilbur. I read it with Wyatt a few years ago, and it struck me just how much Charlotte was like a mother to Wilbur, protecting him. And reading it with Wyatt for the first time was almost like reading it again myself for the first time, as I was reading it with a different perspective.

The Great Gatsby is another one of the first classics that I read and loved. I wanted to go back and live in the Roaring ’20s so badly, to be a flapper and dance all night in a fringed dress.

And that is it. These books worked magic on me that is not lost, but it would be amazing to feel that first wonder all over again.