Top Ten Books From My Youth That I Want to Re-Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s fun to play along, especially since I like to make lists. Join us! I haven’t re-read a book in years, mostly because there are so many other books that are waiting to be discovered. Some of the books on my list I’ll wait to re-visit with my future kids. For the others, I just need to get over my fear of not “being productive” and re-read them!

Piggins by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jane Dyer
These three books about the crime-solving butler Piggins were my first mystery reads, and I begged my mom to get them for me every time we went to the library. The illustrations are intricate and have clues to help solve the mystery, if your eyes are observant enough!

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
I loved them when I was little, so did my younger brother. We tag-teamed checking the various books out from the library because there were rules on not checking a book out back-to-back, only being allowed to get so many books by one author/subject at a time, etc. Bill Watterson is a genius because Eric and I loved them, and so did my mom and dad.

Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House books were a source of comfort and fueled playtime ideas when I was young and lived in a big woods, too. Farmer Boy is my absolute favorite, and I was overjoyed when I got to read it with a former student that I was tutoring. Honestly though, I don’t remember what happens to the Ingalls family when Laura gets a little older, so I wouldn’t mind discovering that all over again.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
My mom started reading these to me when I was seven or eight, and when I was a little older I read them to myself countless times. Sometimes I would just read my favorite parts. When I was having a bad day, I would sit in my closet and concentrate so hard on going to Narnia.

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
I read this book seven times in 2012. I tried so hard to become Harriet: I created a spy kit, bought a hooded sweatshirt, carried a marbled composition notebook everywhere (though it wasn’t green because my town only sold the black ones), recorded what the neighbors were doing, played “town” according to the rules in the book, and I even tried to like tomato sandwiches at a time in life when I couldn’t stand tomatoes.

Agatha Christie Mysteries
I progressed through mystery novels in this order: Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes. I don’t really remember which Agatha Christie books I read, so that’s a sure sign that they will be fresh when I get to read them again.

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
I read this book in 6th grade (didn’t understand it) and 10th grade (cried a lot). I told myself that I would definitely read it again.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I read all the Hitchhiker’s Guide books in a row when I was 13 or so. I remember giggling an awful lot, and trying to explain the jokes to whomever was around me, but realizing that it’s best if you just read it yourself. I also remember being awed by the revelation of 42. So overdue for a re-read.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
I read this book twice when I was in high school, and it completely changed my worldview about Christianity and the church. Miller helped me make my faith more personal and less “this-is-just-what-we-do.” This book made me realize that there are many flavors of Christians, and guess what… they are all still Christians!

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
I have actual plans of revisiting it this year! I’m in line for the audiobook of The Fellowship of the Ring at my library, and it’s a full cast BBC production. I’m stoked. I read it in middle school and I am so positive that I missed a lot of its depth. That’s true of just about all the classics that I read when I was a teenager, though.

14 comments :

  1. emily @ for the bookishMarch 24, 2015 at 2:00 PM

    These are all great reads! I've never read Harriet The Spy, though! I so need to. The Little House series is probably one of my favorite books, to this day. (I read a couple of them last month.) :)

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  2. Love your mystery book progression. I'm a Christie fan as well and actually have reread a bunch of those. They are usually short. And Gone With the Wind. Only read it once, but the movie - many times. My list was from my teens - a long time ago. LOL

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  3. I know what you mean about not feeling productive when rereading. Especially now, that I'm trying to reduce my TBR and that I have less time to read, I feel like every book should count! So I always mean to reread all my old favorites, but I never do. Out of your list, I only ever read Agatha Christie, The Fellowship of the Ring and the first Hichthiker's book, which I need to reread because I barely remember it, so I can finish the series. I have trouble remembering which Christie books I read as well, there are so many of them. I also want to finish LOTR and read Harriet the spy some day.

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  4. The FOOD in Farmer's Boy. Gosh, I so remember being hungry all. the. time when my Mum read those aloud when I was a kid...omg, all that pie. xD

    Here's my TTT!

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  5. That sounds really interesting. I never read anything about Japanese culture before, so my knowledge of it is pretty superficial. It sounds like it is a really great one to learn with. I also
    like that it seems to be literary writing, though I am a bit intimidated by all these topics you mentioned!

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  6. Oh my gosh, I loved the Piggins books too! I totally forgot about those, but I know we read them over and over when I was younger. So great.

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  7. They stand the test of time so well! I've been closing my eyes to those news articles that are popping up about how Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't exactly stay true to her real experiences. I don't care! They are lovely.

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  8. I like listening to the BBC audio plays of Christie's books. They are a few hours long at most, so they are perfect for a day's commuting or an airplane.

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  9. ME TOO. Same with the Redwall series. Brian Jacques managed to make British food seem so appetizing ;)

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  10. I think I had a monopoly on them at the library, haha. I couldn't really remember any other books from when I was reeally little besides Dr. Seuss books, which my dad and I read a lot but I don't care too much for now.

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  11. Ahh the woes of being a bookworm! ;) Maybe I should take a month this year and clear out my Netgalley and library holds, then only re-read books. hmmmm....

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  12. Put in a list like that, they are intimidating! But they are explained in a very conversational way, even more so than Stephen Hawking does. One of the things that I really appreciated about the book was learning how Eastern religious perspective affects the way the characters see the world. I never studied anything about that in school, so I'm glad to learn about it now. I have a friend who is an Eastern religions professor, and she likes to show Miyazaki movies in her classes because she says that they teach so much about Shintoism. It's interesting!

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  13. Consider my interest piqued! O: This book sounds really good, and I definitely want to look it up. I love discussions around culture, and the connection between science and Buddhism is something I want to read about. :) Lovely post!

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  14. Thanks so much! I want to read Ruth Ozeki's other books too!

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