Ten Books...

Some friends on Facebook keep posting some "challenge" in which they share the ten books that have stayed with them long after reading them. After sharing their list, they are then suppose to tag ten friends who are suppose to do the same. I had three different friends share their lists tonight. For some reason, despite everyone knowing about my love of books and reading, I have yet to be asked to do this is (Not surprising really...I talk about books to much as it is, why invite me to do more?). At least this time around. I think I participated in the same "challenge" a year or so ago. I don't remember how I answered then and I'm not going to take the time to go back and look, but after reading several lists tonight, I feel compelled to make my own new list. So here it is...

The ten books that have stuck with me all my life (in no particular order):

1. Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever by Richard Scarry (duh...) - My grandma and I used to curl up and read this book all the time when I was little. It is the book I learned to read in. I still remember looking at the words in the Peter Piper nursery rhyme and actually being able to recognize them not just say the rhyme because I had it memorized.

2. The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss - Another book I read with grandma, but then continued to read over and over again into adulthood. I used it regularly in my classroom when teaching...both 5th grade and preschool. You're never too old for The Sneetches.

3. The Bible - I have a complicated relationship with Christianity, but I'd be lying if I said The Bible didn't help to shape my belief system.

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - If this book isn't on your own list, it should be. You can't read it and not have it stick with you forever. I wanted to live in the book the first time I read it. And I continue to learn something from it every time I read it.

5. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi - I read this for the first time as a sophomore in high school for a psychology class book report. I have since reread it countless number of times. It was the book that made me realize just how dark my own inner mind was.

6. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen - I could put any Austen book on this list as I've read them all more than once, but there is something about Lizzie Bennet that speaks to me. Maybe I want to be here. But she's the draw for me, not Darcy. I prefer Mr. Knightly from Emma or Edmund from Mansfield Park to Darcy...but that could be because Knightly and Edmund have both been played by Jonny Lee Miller in film versions...

7. Just as Long as We're Together by Judy Blume - My idea of friendship was born in many, many readings of this as a kid and preteen.

8. Memnoch the Devil by Ann Rice - This book had a surprising influence on my belief and understanding of religion considering the main character is a vampire. In confirmed and solidified some ideas I was already starting to have and challenged me to look at what I was raised to believe about God and the Devil.

9. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - Read it. I can't put into words why this book stays with me, but it does. Read it. It'll stay with you too. In the best possible way.

10. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran - This book should be mandatory reading by everyone, not just women, but especially women. I didn't agree with Moran 100%, but she is a feminist in the best possible way. The book is both funny and smart. And pro-woman without negating all the wonderful things about womanhood that are often made to sound anti-feminist...like wanting to be a mom and taking pleasure in caring for your family.

And because for someone who reads as much as I do, narrowing down the list to just ten was hard, I'm going to mention some honorable mention: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, Godless by Pete Hautmann, The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen, Walden Two by BF Skinner, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks and A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.