#simplehat

you're so pretty stop it

Do you want me to come with you? I'm free.

rules: in a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. tag ten friends, including me, so i’ll see your list. make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them!

I'm actually going to tag people because I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR BOOKS

you don't have to do it and also I am bad at thinking of people on the go but anyway I'm curious about everyone tell me about your important books I WANT  TO KNOW

so I mean I'm not sure about ones that have "touched" me but stayed with me? sure

the Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (I'm a cliche and let me tell you, you would not want to get a hold of my copies they are chewed at and dog eared and battered and pages are falling out and wow)

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell (this book was the beginning of a really different point in my literary life, but it's also connected to a really fond memory of mine?)

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath  (there are books for sadness and sometimes I have a plath day)

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

The Princess Who Wouldn't Come Home - Irving Finkel (this is basically a fairytale, but it was written and illustrated by a cousin of mine who I only met once, long ago, and there's something so whimsical and childish but honest and charming about it that it has always stuck with me and my copy is one of my most well worn books)

The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson (language is so interesting?!?!?!)

The Colour of Water - James McBride

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (seriously though this book and its various adaptations have had such pivotal roles throughout my life? my jane austen anthology has been battered around so much that the spine isn't legible anymore)

oops only nine because

they probably don't actually count but special mentions to the most battered books in my collection, most too big to fit the bookshelf - they have a special spot in my cupboard - my big ol' travel books. Lonely planet pictorials detailing countries of the world and great cities and whole regions of the globe, since I bought them with prize money when I was 12 they have been dragged out a few times a year to be read and examined and well loved. Reading them used to be a special occasion, where I'd get a warm drink and set up camp on my bedroom floor and just read for hours and hours, a few days even, and even thinking about it just makes me feel warm and safe and excited

I had to give away a book that meant the world to me but it was a book of collected fairytales (wow) but strange ones, old ones, beautifully illustrated and well told and I remember reading them to myself when I was little but too big to be read to and still very sappy to try and force myself into good dreams and god that book was my baby. The sleeve came off it and the cover underneath was beautiful and old and grand and made me feel a bit like a princess as I read them

there are other books that I'd call formative rather than special or lasting - the goosebumps series, for all its rubbish, played such a fundamental role in my nervous childhood and my growth from that, and my god the ripleys believe it or not books were so important to me wow and I had this book which was about different festivals and celebrations from around the globe that I would reread religiously oh my god and there was this cookbook that meant the world to me I'm pretty sure I still have it and... I was one of those kids who wasn't sure what to do with herself other than read? I was always jealous of kids who could stop midway through a book and enjoy themselves but while I was reading, that would consume me for a long time and I couldn't separate myself from fiction for the duration so I'd try and swallow them up as quickly as possible. I got calmer and I can read properly now, but I still get caught up and try to burn through them and really, really struggle to leave a book unfinished

look those books aren't necessarily good but I don't think the important thing about posts like these is the quality of the things you choose but in the reasons they are chosen and the things they mean to you okay a lot of these books mean so much to me that I can't even articulate it?

1. Put on feet 2. Get transported to alternate dimension 3. Boogie on down