Books

On Tuesday, January 27, 1998, I listed on my website’s “thoughts” section my favorite books to date. They were:

• Love Story, by Erich Segal
• Remembrance, by Jude Devereux
• A Separate Peace, by Jonathan Knowles
• Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
• Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
• Shane, by Jack Shaefer

At some point in 2003, I wrote in my Friendster profile that my favorite books were:

• Einstein’s Dreams, by Alan Lightman
• A Separate Peace, by Jonathan Knowles
• Love Story, by Erich Segal
• Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
• Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
• Shane, by Jack Shaefer

It looks like Remembrance fell off the list and Einstein’s Dreams took its place. Of these books, I’ve only reread Love Story and Outlander. The rest were one-time reads, but they affected me in a way that I can’t forget.

It’s weird; I had definitely read Einstein’s Dreams before 1998 when I made my original list, but it only made its way onto the list later. I wonder if it just became more significant to me as I changed.

I feel quite sad that I haven’t been able to add anything new from the last eight years to my list. I always think of myself as a voracious reader who loves both fine literature and easy, light reading for the sake of entertainment, yet, I can’t think of anything that moved me so much in the last eight years that I would consider it a favorite. The worst is that the last eight years is when I’ve spent the most money on books, too. The other thing is that while I consider myself a reader of diverse interests, I’ve mostly had only the “dessert” of the metaphorical literary [two words that perhaps should not be used in conjunction] meal in the last few years, with a decided void where the proteins and veggies should be. Erg. My theory is that I only seem to get to read right before falling asleep so I am never in the mood for thoughtful reading. So I have been trying to read earlier in the day whenever I have time, so that I have the brain-bandwidth to read other books. 🙂 Still working on Life of Pi! 😀

What books are your favorite? Which ones do you have on your bedside stand? Which ones do you always pick up with a knot in your heart? Are they the same?