My Favorite Books (in no particular order)
Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans (read for the first time when I was so little I can't remember)
The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin (read for the first time at age 8 in Mrs. Mutch's fourth grade class)
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg (read at age 9 also in Mrs. Mutch's class)
Jason and Marceline, by Jerry Spinelli (read at age 12 on a family trip to Williamsburg, VA-also one of my brother's favorite books)
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (read at age 13, over the summer)
Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger (read at age 13, immediately following Gatsby)
Le Petit Prince, by Antoine St. Exupery (read - sort of - in French class at age 16)
The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner (read at age 16 as a pretentious AP English student)
Pretty much anything written by Peter Mayle or Nick Hornby or Nick Bantock (all of which I'm still reading)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay , by Michael Chabon (read at age 26 while Cooper was away in Australia and New Zealand for 3 weeks)
The Harry Potter collection, by JK Rowling (which I am still reading)
It's amazing how the impact of specific books just tapers off. Now, when I read a book I really like, I automatically relate it to one of the books listed above. DaVinci Code? Basil E Frankweiler meets The Westing Game. And really, the Peter Mayle and Nick Hornby books are all derivations of one of the books I read when younger - Hornby is all about morality and coming of age and understanding what relationships mean as an adult (a mix of Salinger and Fitzgerald and Spinelli). And Mayle books (the fiction ones at least) are just straight entertainment, like The Westing Game, but set in a fantastically beautiful setting.
I almost wish I didn't appreciate these other books quite as much. It might be easier, then, for me to write something of my own.
The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin (read for the first time at age 8 in Mrs. Mutch's fourth grade class)
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg (read at age 9 also in Mrs. Mutch's class)
Jason and Marceline, by Jerry Spinelli (read at age 12 on a family trip to Williamsburg, VA-also one of my brother's favorite books)
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (read at age 13, over the summer)
Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger (read at age 13, immediately following Gatsby)
Le Petit Prince, by Antoine St. Exupery (read - sort of - in French class at age 16)
The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner (read at age 16 as a pretentious AP English student)
Pretty much anything written by Peter Mayle or Nick Hornby or Nick Bantock (all of which I'm still reading)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay , by Michael Chabon (read at age 26 while Cooper was away in Australia and New Zealand for 3 weeks)
The Harry Potter collection, by JK Rowling (which I am still reading)
It's amazing how the impact of specific books just tapers off. Now, when I read a book I really like, I automatically relate it to one of the books listed above. DaVinci Code? Basil E Frankweiler meets The Westing Game. And really, the Peter Mayle and Nick Hornby books are all derivations of one of the books I read when younger - Hornby is all about morality and coming of age and understanding what relationships mean as an adult (a mix of Salinger and Fitzgerald and Spinelli). And Mayle books (the fiction ones at least) are just straight entertainment, like The Westing Game, but set in a fantastically beautiful setting.
I almost wish I didn't appreciate these other books quite as much. It might be easier, then, for me to write something of my own.
posted by Kit Pollard at
4:21 PM
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