This week's Booking Through Thursday question is: What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time?This is a really hard question because there are a lot of books that during the process or immediately upon completion I want to go back and re-read, but I know I'll lose something of that "first love" experience because I know what's going to happen. Some I've re-read selectively--favorite passages, etc.--but most I just put on the shelf (I can't bear to part with them), and look at their spines and remember that blush that crept up my cheeks when I first read them.
That being said, the books that gave me that gooey feeling (in order of gooey-ness) were:
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon - This might just be because it's relatively fresh in my mind, but this was a book I crawled inside and rolled around in. (I could probably easily replace this with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay because pretty much everything Chabon writes is ethereal.)
- Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld - This is the first book that caused me to cry at the end simply because I was done; I was dying for more, but a simple re-read wouldn't satiate me.
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - These characters have stayed with me since reading and I've even thought, "Hmm, I wonder what Chip would think of that?", which is just ludicrous because Chip is fictional (proving that Franzen is a genius).
- A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley - This book opened my eyes so much to good writing (and good reading); Smiley created a world of characters that were so vivid that I couldn't help but fall in love with all of them (even the deeply-flawed).
- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler - This was the first book that was about "nothing," that did "something" to my heart and mind.
This list could go on forever, I haven't listed anything by John Green or the other great YA authors who inspire me, but I'll stop at five.
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I have not read any of those. And somehow Tyler did not appeal to me at all. I have read only one book of hers.
BTT: Second a first
I love Anne Tyler, too!
I read Prep, too, but I have to say it didn't resonate all that much with me the way it seems to have done with you. But I have read a LOT of books that make me want to cry because they're over! :)
Happy BTT!
Jess
I hear such great things about Prep. :) I need to read it this summer.
I haven't read any of those...I might give the Anne Tyler book a try.
I haven't heard of these.
Here is A Second First Time
I've read the last three and loved them all...especially The Corrections.
I agree that the experience of reading a book for the first time can't really be recaptured.
I love Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant! It's one of my favorites. I've read A Thousand Acres and enjoyed it. I haven't read Chabon yet though I have many of this books on my shelves. I plan on giving him a try soon.
I really liked A Thousand Acres. Absolutely Shakespearean.
I really liked Prep, Still working through the Corrections, loved Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. I can't remember if i've read A thousand acres?
My choices would be
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, (cause I cried at the end, just because i didn't want the story to end)
We the Living by Ayn Rand... so moving and powerful.
We Lived in the Almont, It's a book from my childhood and I fell in love with it.
@Sabrina,
I loved The Fountainhead, and need to go back and read more of Rand's stuff... I hadn't even heard of that one.
I really couldn't read The Corrections. I did try, but something about it just blocked me. I gave up after not too long.
@Booktrash - I was the same way on the first try (about five years ago), but I picked it up again and enjoyed it immensely. Maybe not now, but it'll be great for you eventually. [Right time, right place, I think.]
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