It's time again for Top 10 Tuesday, and this week, we join the gang at The Broke and The Bookish to discuss the top 10 books we desperately wish we could read again for the first time. It would be nice if some good fairy godmother of books would pop up once in a while and allow us to forget the favorites we've already read, WITHOUT having to develop alzheimer's or a brain injury in order to do so, and let us enjoy them all over again for the first time. It won't happen, but we've all decided to pine over them together, nonetheless. Let the melancholy and choruses of "Auld Lang Syne" begin.Top 10 Books I Wish I Could Read AGAIN for the First Time:
10. The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
A wonderful YA puzzle mystery, and one I never outgrew
9. The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
I LOVE the dear little Nac Mac Feegles (a description of themselves which they would absolutely detest); they just make me want to gently squeeze each of them and give them a thimble full of single-malt Scotch, especially Daft Wullie.
8. Imzadi, by Peter David
I first read this book when I was sixteen, and I was just mezmerized by it. I think a teenage girl will always be more impressed by this book than any other type of human, because it's just so full of romantic melodrama, but I still love it.
7. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle
Oh, how I cried at the ending of this book! It is a very satisfying read all 'round, with plenty of merriment, pathos, tomfoolery and romantic daring-do. Robin Hood is famous for some very good reasons.
6. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders, by Sir John Mortimer
I love dear old Rumpole. This book was a little difficult to get into at first, because it was very disconcerting to try and imagine a YOUNG Rumpole, green in experience and "white in wig," "rising up on his hind legs" for the very first time to address the honorable court. But it was still Rumpole, delightful as ever, though far more flabbergasted by his fellow man than he ever was in later years, solving the famous Penge Bungalow case. I enjoyed it heartily.
5. Virgin and Martyr, by Fr. Andrew Greeley
This book is amazing. I don't know what else to tell you. It's amazing.
4. Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
One of the single most hilarious books I've ever read. If you haven't gotten to it yet, you simply must make time for this book.
3. Crocodile on the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters
The Amelia Peabody mysteries are simply wonderful, especially if you're an armchair Egyptologist, like me. Murder mysteries, a family of geniuses, and ancient Egyptian tombs. What's not to love?
2. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
I won't point out the oh-so-obvious fact that the book is better than the movie, because I truly love the movie in its own right, and think one absolutely must experience both. However, the book is much richer with adventures, satire and sarcasm than you could ever imagine just from seeing the movie. Fabulous book.
And of course...
1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
I could have just filled seven out of ten spots on this list with each book in this series and called it good, because I still re-read them frequently enough to make me wonder if I need some specialized kind of rehab, and sigh disconsolately every time over the fact that I do actually know how it's going to end before I ever open the cover. JKR, there must be more books, I tell you!!! There MUST be!!!!
Great list - good to see The Princess Bride there :-)
ReplyDeleteHarry Potter is a popular choice for this week's list. I have Book 1 and Book 7 on mine, both of which I wish I could read like it was the first time :)
ReplyDeleteYou mean Cheaper by the Dozen was a book before it was a movie?? I'll have to get my hands on a copy of that.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to read the whole of the Discworld series for the first time all over again. But I obviously won't get to do that. So I should be happy (for now, at least) with the fact that, since I haven't yet read the Tiffany Aching books, I do get to read them for the first time now :)
ReplyDeletePrincess Bride! Great book, great movie. (And I hardly ever say a movie adaptation was even decent.) And Robin Hood! <3
ReplyDeleteThanks! I actually just did a Google search. ("Harry Potter Book Cover Collage") I think it's from Tumblr. I'm tempted to print it out and put it on my wall! (:
Oh, The Westing Game! I haven't thought of that book for a while and I loved it so much. I'd like to read it again (though, it's been so long it might be like the first time :)
ReplyDeleteDitto The Westing Game! I forgot about that one, but I loved it so much when I read it for the first time in middle school that I recently acquired another copy to reread. I've got a sneaking suspicion that it won't be as great as the first time, but I'm going to give it a try just the same! :)
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