| | I got this post prompt from Pickwick12, and it sounded like fun, so here goes!
Directions: don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.
1. The Lord of the Rings. Reading it again this week is reminding me of all the reasons why I fell in love with it in the first place. Outside of Scripture, I don't think there's any more compelling story of sacrifice and salvation.
2. A Wrinkle in Time. I would cite every Madeline L'Engle book I've ever read, but I think this one is the one that started it all for me. The harrowing story of Meg fighting to save Charles Wallace is thrilling every time.
3. The World of Pooh. Still makes me laugh out loud.
4. Emily of New Moon. (And the other Emily Books). This series shaped me as a teenager. It made me believe in writing as a calling I might have, it taught me accept the miraculous, and it opened my eyes to grief that changes you without ruining your life.
5. The Betsy Books. Another series that shaped me as a youth. Betsy taught me who I wanted to be, and proved that girls could flirt and giggle and daydream and still be intelligent and interesting. If I had to choose just one, it would be Heaven to Betsy.
6. Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. In my nerve-racked college years, and still today, this book gives me hope that Christian literature of high quality can be accepted in the secular world. I have rarely been so moved by literature.
7. Matilda. Another one that still makes me laugh aloud, although I see much more in it now than I did when I first read it as a child. This book taught me that intelligence might make you weird, but that's okay.
8. Carry On, Jeeves (and others by P.G. Wodehouse). There's almost nothing in the world that makes me laugh harder.
9. Vanity Fair. I started this book because I had to read a novel for a college class. I finished it because I was totally enthralled. Thackeray is a master.
10. Sense and Sensibility. Of course, I could put almost anything by Austen, but this one is my current favorite.
11. Homecoming. Not only have I been changed by loving this book, I am still being changed by it as I share it with a student. I am in awe of the writing and the story as I look at it through new eyes.
12. Mere Christianity. The most basic of Lewis' theological works, and the one that captured my heart and made me a lifelong devotee of apologetics.
13. A Few Figs From Thistles. I think this is my favorite of Edna St. Vincent Millay's collections, but in all honesty I'm hard pressed to choose.
14. The Complete Works of George Herbert. Awe-inspiring. There's just no other word.
15. The Complete Works of John Donne. Donne's verse is total genius.
These aren't necessarily my favorite, but they are definitely books that have has a profound impact on me, both as a person and as a writer. What are your favorite fifteen?
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| | Posted 6/27/2009 12:13 AM - 16 Views - 4 eProps - 4 comments
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And the water aerobics have been fantastic.
