PBS posted the list of America’s 100 most-loved books, sadly my three favorite are not on this list! But I’m going to share them with you and hope that you have or will enjoy them as well!
I picked these three because I have read them several times and have owned several different copies of them. I have many more books that I would consider top contenders, but these are the ones I can still pick up and enjoy at any moment. This is not a review of the titles, it’s a commentary on my feelings towards them.
Side note though – These aren’t my favorite authors, that’s a list for another time and narrowing that down to three would be impossible. I might do a top ten favorite author list at a later time.
Here they are in no particular order:
#1 – This is an eternal favorite, that I hope will become a favorite for my daughter as well. “The Secret Garden”, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in 1911 (also if any of you comes across an original edition, please let me know). I first read this in the 6th Grade (note the 6th Grade will probably be mentioned often in my blogs as this was an important year in the development of both my love of reading and my love of writing) and I fell in love with the book from the moment I read ‘most disagreeable looking child’ through Mary’s amazing transformation and the hint of magic at the end. I love the theme of regeneration and you’ll see it in a lot of my stories, in one form or another. And that touch of magic was all I needed to set the tone for everything I fell in love with after that. I feel lucky and privileged that I have been able to hold onto that sense of wonder at the world and I cling to that when things in the ‘real world’ become bleak or seem darker than it really is.
#2 – The next one is not a single book, but a Trilogy that I often read all together, “The Dark Visions Series: The Strange Power, The Possessed, and The Passion”, by L.J. Smith (I’ve actually read almost all of L.J.’s work) I’m not sure what it is about this series that to me stands above the others – Two of her other series have been turned into television shows (The Circle and The Vampire Diaries) – it could have just been the time in my life that made those characters relatable to me, or the late seventies early eighties sci-fi vibe I got from it (in the vein of The Fury, Firestarter, and The Visitor). I first read it in my early twenties when I was hanging on pretty tightly to my YA fiction well into adulthood. I had three favorite authors at the time and I devoured all their books and patiently waited for their next one to be released by obsessively checking my local bookstore for their work. I know it was springtime because I used to sit on my front step and read for so long, the rabbits in my yard would come out and go about their bunny business as I read. And for years afterwards I would pick it up again whenever the weather began warming up after a long winter. It is my spring fling and when I look at the book, I immediately think of springtime.
3 – Last but, certainly not least – “The Mists of Avalon”, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Now, this story is unique in that I was craving something different at the time. I’d already spent way to long in the bookstore, having picked up and put down roughly a dozen titles, nothing was capturing my imagination. At that time, my usual genre was almost always in the horror section. Back then I was very much into reading that and not much else. I almost never perused the fantasy section. Fed up not finding anything I was about to ‘storm’ out in frustration and the fantasy section was right next to the horror and I would pass it on my way out. Well, that day I was leaving and suddenly a rather large book caught my eye, in fact, I think it was positioned beneath a light because to me, it was as if the sun was shining on it specifically for me. It was set face-out, all the other books were spine out and its beauty was jaw dropping. I almost kept walking, but like the magic contained within it, it compelled me to stop. I grabbed it. I bought it. Based solely on the cover. I’d never done that before and I haven’t done it since. I knew nothing about the book, I didn’t even read the back cover before I bought. And for three months I couldn’t stop reading it (it’s also the longest book I’ve ever read) and I have read it over and over. If I was forced to chose favorite book, I would pick this one. It’s lusciously detailed and full of magic and betrayal and politics (I could have done with less of that, politics don’t do anything for me), a feminine twist on the Arthurian legend
I plan to work my way through The Great American Read as best as I can, my goal it to complete at least 65% of this list. What will you be reading?