Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Reread

Hello Hey Hi Howsitgoin'? It's Tuesday, I'm Christina, and below are my Top Ten Books I Want to Reread. I can count on one hand the books I have read more than once, and I have a lengthy tbr list so I'm not planning on making rereading a new habit. But when I do think wistfully about books I should revisit, these are the ones that I find myself pondering:

1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
This one jumped into my head immediately since I just read it earlier this month. I mentioned in my review that I think it would fare well with a reread. I think I would get more out of it and enjoy it more the second time around.

2. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
I read this in... 4th grade? 5th? It was a long time ago, but I loved it. The plot is awfully fuzzy in my memory, but the basic idea- A bunch of heir hopefuls meet at an estate to play an elaborate game, the fortune being the prize- is so tantalizing and clever (if I am even remembering it accurately). I really need to revisit this one soon.

3. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
There was a period, in 11th or 12th grade, when I regularly cited Ethan Frome as my favorite book. Would I love it as much now as I did then?

4. The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Here's another childhood favorite that I don't remember much about. But something about it must have endured in my subconscious, because many years later when I saw The Royal Tenenbaums, I recognized the reference.

5. A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
Another YA book! I'm sensing a theme here. I love that this survival book features a GIRL. Not that I didn't love The Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain, but those guys didn't have to deal with the trauma of having their very first menses while surrounded by wild animals. Nhamo rocked my world.

6. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Bray Pipher
I find myself typing it again: There was a time when this was my favorite book. I identified with so many of the girls' experiences, and I liked that I was only a mildly difficult teenager compared to most of them. I should revisit it when my own daughter is closer to adolescence, but I'm worried that so much in our society will have changed by then that Reviving Ophelia will seem dated. Hm.

7. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
I think I was about 10 when I read this. I remember loving the danger and adventure of it, but at this point I have no idea what it was about. And apparently it's the first in a series? Maybe I'll save this one until my daughter is a little older, too, so that we can enjoy it together.

8. Atonement by Ian McEwan
As you may recall from my review, I loved this book. I love the movie, too, and it's one of only a handful that I watch again and again. I can see this book working itself into a regular habit if I ever let myself start rereading books.

9. Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster
Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? Yeah, that's what this is. I can definitely see myself revisiting it soon. Peep my goodreads review if you want to know a little more about it.

10. Go Ask Alice by "Anonymous" (Beatrice Sparks)
I really hate this book, so let me explain why I'm interested in rereading it. When I read it I totally fell for the idea that it was nonfiction, but really Beatrice Sparks made up most or all of it because she wanted to scare teens away from doing drugs. I HATE the whole idea of manipulating people with lies, and so I've avoided this book for the last 10 years or so. But now I'm actually kind of curious about it all over again. How shocking would it be to me now that I know it's false? Would I see through it and wonder how I could have ever believed it? I mean, would it seem obviously fake to me now?

What about you? Do you reread books often? What makes a book a good reread? Can't wait to see everyone's lists!

Comments (19)

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Woah there ... A Girl Named Disaster sounds familiar ... I must have read it once upon a time and completely forgotten about it until now. I'm sure I read it because I LOVED survival books especially when I was in elementary school. I'm going to go look it up on goodreads. Oh yeah, and good list. :)
ah HA. It was the 1997 Newbery winner. I definitely read it.
1 reply · active 705 weeks ago
Cool! I guess it was probably pretty popular around that time, being a Newberry winner and all, but I don't think I ever heard much buzz about it.
p.s. - thanks for linking me up! :)
I may have to give some time to think about a top ten list of re-reads for myself. Every once in a while, I think about re-reading old favorites, but I like your inclusion of a book that you didn't like and your reasons for reading it again.

I LOVED The Westing Game. Read it when my kids were young and found it enchanting.
I don't re-read a lot of books - but two on your list I would definitely re-read: Ethan Frome and The Elegance of a Hedgehog - both terrific books which deserve another perusal. I am thinking of re-reading The Tale of Two Cities in February to celebrate Dickens' 200 year birthday...and I am currently re-reading Lady Chatterley's Lover for Banned Books Week. So, the short of it is that I usually choose classics if I want to re-visit a book!
Oh my goodness - The Westing Game. I definitely need to reread that . . . and I almost never reread anything so that's saying something. Thanks for this list.
Yes, I think it is safe to say you would love Ethan Fromme as much today as you did back then! I also LOVED Atonement (book & movie)!
Oh man, I reread a LOT. But I use the term read loosely. Sometimes in the medium of print, but most often in the audio format. Some include: The Dark is Rising Sequence, by Susan Cooper (print and audio), Chronicles of Narnia (umm, Sir Patrick Stewart is a narrator, 'nough said), and well, too many to list. These just came to mind as I was typing. Oh, and I re-listened to the 'Mixed up Files'. I think you would still quite enjoy it. There is very little dating in the book - mostly just economic changes.
You do bring up an interesting point, as to why people choose to reread a book or not. This is something that I will need to ponder on, as I am a re-reader....
1 reply · active 705 weeks ago
I have just started getting into audio books! I listen when I'm doing something that I can't do while reading, like running or walking the dog. So that would be a great way to reread without having to stop chipping away at my tbr list. Awesome!
I used to love From the Mixed up Files....but I can't remember it much now.
That's so weird I never knew that Go Ask Alice was originally presented as non-fiction!? When i read it about 5 years ago it was in the YA fiction section! I'm really curious about this whole thing now!
1 reply · active 705 weeks ago
Woah, yeah! You need to read the wikipedia article about it. Pretty interesting.
Wow, I actually haven't read any of these, but The Elegance of the Hedgehog is on my shelf just waiting for me. I love rereading books, and often pick up on things I didn't catch the first time around. It's just hard to justify rereading when I have so many unread books on my to-read list.
1 reply · active 705 weeks ago
Yeah, that's how I feel. I'm like, constantly working to make a dent in my shelf of books I have yet to read; it seems inefficient to go back and reread something.
I fell for "Go Ask Alice", too! I remember for a while I kept it hidden from my parents because of how 'real' its contents were: I knew they'd never let me get away with reading it as a middle-schooler. I was so disappointed to find out it was made up.
3 replies · active 705 weeks ago
Yeah, I was... kinda disappointed, but mostly... relieved? It was so horrible; I was glad to know that that exactly story, at least, hadn't actually happened to some poor teenage girl.
I just now realized how odd my comment about being disappointed that a girl hadn't gone crazy and then overdosed on drugs she'd freed herself from sounds out of context. (There's no emoticon for...slightly amused, slightly embarrassed, is there?) As a very sheltered kid the book was an exercise in exciting voyeurism: I'd never met rebellious people my age who did their own thing, and I was very interested in the sixties counter culture.
Haha, I knew what you meant. It is kind of anticlimactic, finding out something like that isn't true. I can imagine I might have had a different response if I'd read it in middle school, but I didn't read it until I was like 18.
Btw, here's a post that is kind of about this subject: http://thebluebookcase.blogspot.com/2011/01/post-...
I picked up a copy of the Westing Game not long ago because I had equally pleasant but fuzzy memories of reading it as a kid. I have yet to do my reread. I also loved Atonement.

Come visit my list at The Scarlet Letter.

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