What book takes you back?

Yesterday, I was watching the cinematic version of Little Women (with Susan Sarandon, etc., in case there are any other versions) with my son. (He’s two and a half, and just likes it cause there’s pretty music and prettier girls, but that’s okay. I have to start getting him into the classics somehow.)

It always takes me back to the times I read it. It remains one of the few books I’ve read more than once. The first time was when I was about eleven or twelve, I think, and my mother and I would sit up each night and read out loud from some class work of literature. I remember Treasure Island, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, but Little Women best of all.

I remember hiding under the covers at the bottom of the bed during the scene where Beth died — as you can guess, that wasn’t my night to read out loud — and my mother still laughs about that. But it is a very powerful scene.

Then I read it again for ninth grade when I returned to public school and had three weeks to do a book project that everyone else had all summer to do, so I chose the book I’d already read. Not that it made it any less wonderful, but it stands out in the mind.

Talking to a friend about it, she shared her own special Little Women memories. While this book is far from the only one that takes me back, it’s one of the earlier ones, and I really like the movie version, so it takes me back to that memory of reading with my mom whenever I watch it, cause I’m watching it with my son and will read it with him some day.

(My son is going to read lots of the classics, even if they are all about girls.)

So, it makes me wonder… what books take other people back? If anyone would like to comment and share, feel free!