So Many Books, So Little Time

If you took a walk down the memory lane of books that have been important to you, what would be your road bookmarkers?  Here are a few of mine from the first quarter century of my life:

Age 0-10:  The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew made me realize there was a world beyond The Golden Books, Nancy Drew and my brother’s Hardy Boys whetted my appetite for mysteries, and Anne of Green Gables gave me a love for stories about people in small towns.

Age 11-17:  The Diary of a Young Girl made me cry, Exodus hurt my soul, and Up the Down Staircase told me there was a current world I didn’t understand.

Age 18-20: A course in Children’s Literature introduced me to Harriet the Spy, The Little Prince, and Narnia.  One planted a seed about writing and the others expanded my understanding of faith and relationships.

Age 21-25: 84 Charing Cross Road made me want to go to England and The French Lieutenant’s Woman taught me that some books that don’t grab your interest the first time are worth giving a second and third try.  I never understood the draw of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, but Watership Down and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee touched me deeply.

On my recent trip to Disneyland I discovered that Tom Sawyer’s Island is now Pirate’s Lair and The Swiss Family Robinson adventure has been replaced by Tarzan so I’ve been thinking about old classics.  But, this really came to mind as I spent the weekend mostly on the sofa with my nose in a book when it wasn’t in a Kleenex.    

Would love to see a similar list from you or ask that you simply share what’s engaging your imagination currently, for as Abraham Lincoln said, “My best friend is the man who gets me a book I ain’t read.” 

Marilyn