It's time to get back to my "What Books?" feature. I stepped away from it for a month or so, because I was so busy posting my 2010 Book Lists.
What is the "What Books?" feature?
I have so many book memories from my childhood. Different books touched me in different ways and had came to me at important times. I plan on running this feature every other week and featuring books that I love(d) for different reasons.
A lot of the topics and books that come to mind feature books that I liked when I was in elementary and middle school more than books I liked in high school and later. So there is more of a middle-grade focus. But this particular post will feature books that I loved as a child and that I love now.
See prior editions of What Books? here:
Favorite Not-Super-Popular Book Series
Favorite Ghost/Scary Stories
The Movie Is Better Than The Book - Check out this post for lots of fabulous comments
Favorite Obscure Childhood Book
Please feel free to contribute your own favorite books in the comments or post similarly on your blog and link to this. If people like this feature as it gets going, I think it might be a fun meme.
What Books Do You Love To Re-Read?
Like most kids, I was a perpetual re-reader. In between every new Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley Twins book, I would invariably re-read the books I had several times.
I occasionally read other books than Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley Twins - although I was so obsessed with these, that it's hard to believe I had time for anything else. Here are a few books that I've read countless times:
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| With You And Without You by Ann M. Martin |
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| Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume |
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| The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder |
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| The Giver by Lois Lowry |
I don't re-read many book now as an adult. There are just too many books that I want to read. But there are still a few I come back to time and time again...
Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen
-I read this book every December. For the past three years, I've read the Annotated Edition, edited by David Shapard. But for Christmas this year, I received a new coffee-table covered Annotated Edition, edited by . I'm excited to read it!
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
-On a whim three years ago, I re-read the entire series at once. It was the first time I'd read all of the books in one go, since previously not all the books had been out. Reading all 7 books at once makes such a difference. I was a big Harry Potter fan before, but reading all the books in a row was wonderfully all-consuming. I resolved to do it every year and for the past three years, I have. It usually takes me about 4 weeks, although it took me 6 weeks this year, since I was trying to read other books at the same time.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
-Now this one is a little different from the prior two. I have re-read each book a few times, but typically I don't sit down and read an entire book. Instead, I pick up one of the books and turn to a particular section that interests me. As many times as I have read the parts of each book that I like best (i.e. Jasper's back story in Eclipse or the Volturi scene in New Moon), each time I pick up these books, I become completely lost. For example, I grabbed New Moon off the shelf at Barnes & Noble on Friday and opened it to the part where Alice and Bella leave for Italy. Immediately, the world disappeared around me and all I knew was Twilight - as usual, I ended up reading the book for a lot longer than I planned.
Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen-I read this book every December. For the past three years, I've read the Annotated Edition, edited by David Shapard. But for Christmas this year, I received a new coffee-table covered Annotated Edition, edited by . I'm excited to read it!
-On a whim three years ago, I re-read the entire series at once. It was the first time I'd read all of the books in one go, since previously not all the books had been out. Reading all 7 books at once makes such a difference. I was a big Harry Potter fan before, but reading all the books in a row was wonderfully all-consuming. I resolved to do it every year and for the past three years, I have. It usually takes me about 4 weeks, although it took me 6 weeks this year, since I was trying to read other books at the same time.
-Now this one is a little different from the prior two. I have re-read each book a few times, but typically I don't sit down and read an entire book. Instead, I pick up one of the books and turn to a particular section that interests me. As many times as I have read the parts of each book that I like best (i.e. Jasper's back story in Eclipse or the Volturi scene in New Moon), each time I pick up these books, I become completely lost. For example, I grabbed New Moon off the shelf at Barnes & Noble on Friday and opened it to the part where Alice and Bella leave for Italy. Immediately, the world disappeared around me and all I knew was Twilight - as usual, I ended up reading the book for a lot longer than I planned.
I could only take a few books with me when I moved to Kuwait, so I brought the Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Kate Daniels series since those books I can re-read over and over again. Except for The Last Battle, I start crying at the same spot every time so I've decided not to read it any more.
ReplyDeleteJennifer (An Abundance of Books)
I like to re-read the Harry Potter books and the Twilight Saga :)
ReplyDeleteI have DEFinitely re-read all of my BSC books at least 3 times. There was a book called Libby on Wednesday that I re-read several times b/c I really, really wanted to be Libby. And I vividly remember re-reading Glass Slipper Give You Blisters because I thought the main character's job (lighting for a play) was so cool :)
ReplyDeleteI like to re-read Harry Potter. I actually like to reread all of my favorite books, but I try not to because I don't want to take time away from books on my TBR. I usually end up reading The Conjurer Princess by Vivian Vande Velde at least once a year though.
ReplyDeleteTwilight books, and I pretty much read them just like you do! I also like to go the Stephenie Meyers site and read the bit of Midnight Sun that she has posted there!
ReplyDeleteNC
Truly Bookish
The Giver and Judy Blume are some of my all time favorites. You are right that there is not much time to re-read books, but I have also re-read the Harry Potter Series, the Twilight Series and the Sookie Stackhouse series. These are some of my favorites and I always re-read them before the movie/TV season comes out.
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed out on this feature before, but I'm glad it is back. From your post, I picked up a couple of titles that work for a YA of the 80's and 90's challenge I'm in.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I first picked up the Twilight series. I read the series back to back four times. I was crazed.
I re-read the Twilight Saga the same way as you. The only book I'll re-read all the way through is Twilight. The three sequels are usually the ones I flip through. :-)
ReplyDeleteAw, I read Just as Long as We're Together when I was a kid too! And The Giver is fabulous. Also P&P is one of my fave re-reads :)
ReplyDeleteYup! Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter are defintely on the list!
ReplyDeleteI loved BSC when I was little and still re-read Judy Blume (Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and Blubber are my favorites).
I've read the Harry Potter books a bunch of times and I never tire of them. It's time again for another reread I'm sure, I just pick up something new each time and I love that about those books:)
ReplyDeleteI also have very few books that I re-read as an adult: "Wutering Heights" by Emily Bronte (I use to read it once a year, but haven't in the past 5 yrs), "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. "Twilight Saga" by Stephenie Meyer is a recent re-read now too.
ReplyDeleteI might be alone in this but I love to reread books right before the movie comes out so that it is fresh in my mind. I know a lot of people don't like to do this because there is a tendency to nitpick every detail in the movie that is different from the book but I love it. I plan on doing this for both DH and BD.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting question. I rarely reread books. Mostly nonfiction. I do love to read quotes I've written down from books. I wish I would write down more good quotes from books.
ReplyDeleteLoved The Long Winter, and also Snowbound with Betsy by Heywood. But I hate snow. Interesting to see you also liked this one.
ReplyDeleteI used to own a lot of books, but last time I moved, I cut it down to only books I plan to re-read multiple times. There are not many left, but I do have the Piers Anthony Incantations of Immortality series. That is probably the best series I have ever read.
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