I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to write about today, but I was inspired by something I was challenged to do on Facebook.
My friend Daniel (who runs the film festival I work for) challenged me to list the 10 books that have stuck with me the most. I was totally for this challenge, but then I realized how difficult picking 10 books out of a lifetime of reading could be. So I bent the rules a little and picked some series and authors as well.
Most people just listed the books on their list, but I wanted to explain each one. Some of these books (or stories about these authors) have been mentioned before on here. I tried to find those posts and link to them when I could.
So this is my list, copied from Facebook:
1. “Rumpelstilskin”. I remember reading this book as a kid (probably when I was 3 or 4) and it terrified me. But I loved it so much. So I would read the book in bed and then take the book outside my room and leave it there overnight so the book couldn’t scare me while I was sleeping. I was a very early reader (I learned to read at 2), and this is one of my first memories of reading.
2. “The Babysitter’s Club” series. Holy moly I loved these books! I devoured them! My parents still have all the books somewhere in their house and when I eventually have a kid, I know that I’ll be passing them down to them.
3. All of the American Girl books. Another series from my childhood. This was the start of me getting into historical fiction (although I didn’t know that at the time). And yes, I had an American Girl doll too (I had Samantha). My doll and all of my books are being stored by my parents at their house so I can pass those down as well.
4. The Body Movers series by Stephanie Bond. I randomly picked the first book from this series up from the bookstore before going on a trip to Tahoe to see my parents. I totally judge books by their covers and this one really interested me. I remember reading the first book at the condo in Tahoe. I got to the end, which happened to be a cliffhanger, and screamed out loud when I realized that the next book wouldn’t be coming out for a year! This is also an important book and author to me because Stephanie Bond is one of the first authors that I ever connected with via social media. The day she followed me on twitter was so awesome.
5. “Jemima J” by Jane Green. Yes, this is chick-lit. But it was the first chick-lit book I ever read. I never knew that there were fun silly books like this that I would love to read. And it opened an entire new world up for me.
6. Anything by Jennifer Weiner. I started with her book “Good In Bed” because again, the cover looked cool. Since then, I’ve read several of her books and have loved them all. She is another author that I have connected to via twitter and it turns out that she reads my blog! When she tweeted to me about that, I almost passed out.
7. “America’s Women” by Gail Collins. This was one of the first non-fiction books I read that I was able to finish without having to read some “fluff” in between. It’s an amazing book about the history of women in the US and it got me interested in finding more historical books to read.
8. Anything by Danielle Steel. I know they are silly, but some of them are pretty fun to read. And this is one of the only authors that both my mom and I both like. It’s nice to have some books in common to talk about and to recommend to each other.
9. The Hunger Games series. This was my introduction to dystopian future books, which is now one of my favorite genres to read. I started to read them after all the books were out so I didn’t have to wait to find out the result of the cliffhangers between the books. Since then, I’ve read many more dystopian future books, but most of them I’ve had to wait as patiently as possible before the next book comes out.
10. “I Heart NY” and all the other books by Lindsay Kelk. This was another random purchase of mine. I saw it as an e-book and it looked like fun. I got it and after only a few pages, I realized that I loved this book! So I went back online and got all the other ones in the series that had come out so far! I connected with Lindsay over twitter and we met up for lunch in Santa Monica when she was out this way. I was totally geeking out over meeting her. But she was super cool and we found out that we both love Disneyland. So on her next trip to LA, we went to Disneyland together and had a blast! I love that I have a new Disneyland buddy!
I love that a book related challenge is going on around Facebook. I challenged 10 of my friends to do this one as well. And I’d love to see any of your top 10 books lists in the comments! I’m always up for discovering new books that other people love!
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