10 BooksThat Stayed With You.

[Werner]

Charly, by "stayed with you," do you mean just that you remember the contents pretty well? Or that the content has had an enduring influence on you? Or that you reread the book frequently? Or any of those three?

[Reggia]

Love this thread idea!

I may have to return to finish the list but would like to start it now.



1. Don Quixote
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. The Secret Garden
4. Sir Gibbie
5. Their Eyes Were Watching God

[Janelle]

I've been thinking about this since Charly first mentioned it, but it will be a few days before I can post my own books. In the meantime I'll enjoy look at everyone's posts.

[Werner]

I'm in the same boat with Janelle. It'll take a bit more thought before I'm ready to post my list.

[Janelle]

Ok here goes. I have to admit, I've cheated a little here. Some these books are part of a series, so I've just listed the first book. In reality though, the rest of the series has probably been just as influential on me. I hope it’s ok that I’ve added in a quick note about why I have chosen each book. I just couldn’t help myself.
So here it is in no particular order.
The Bible - easily the most influential book on my life, and the only one I deliberately try to memorise.
Anne of Green Gables. When I was a kid, a local bookseller told my Mum that L.M. Montgomery's boos were going out of print. So she bought all of her books for me, in beautiful hardback copies. I read them repeatedly and they definitely coloured my childhood.
Firebird – This is the first novel in a series of five. I enjoyed them all, but I connected very strongly with the protagonist in this particular book.
Tahn– The first in a trilogy. This book has powerful lessons on forgiveness which were incredibly helpful to me at the time of reading.
The Eyre Affair – The funniest, most entertaining book ever. It made me an instant fan of Jasper Fforde.
Out of the Silent Planet – Just reading the title makes me love this one. It’s the first of a trilogy, and I would rate the second book, Perelandra, just as highly. I can’t pinpoint why these books have stayed with me, they just seemed to get under my skin and stay there.
The Homeward Bounders – this book has the most depressing, hopeless ending you’re ever likely to encounter in a children’s book. I connected to it very powerfully when I was a kid, which is kind of sad when you think about it.
The Search for Peace: Release from the Torments of Toxic Unforgiveness – If Goodreads let me rate above five stars, then this book would be first in line. Absolutely life changing.
The Fellowship of the Ring – It was hard to choose between the books in this series, so I’ve put this one down as representative of them all.
Thr3e – Choosing the tenth book was a bit of a tussle. Three won out because although I’m unlikely to read it again (thriller is not my favourite genre) I learnt a life changing lesson from it at the time of reading.

[Werner]

For me, there was no question that the Bible is at the top of my list. I receive it as God's revelation to mankind; it's easily the most pervasive shaping influence and authority for my belief and life, "a light unto my path." It's the only book I try to read in daily, and reread constantly. The rest of the list, however, required a lot more thought! Not all the influences on my life have come from reading; some of the most profound have been family, personal conversation, lectures and sometimes preaching, and TV. And not all of my influencing reading has been in books; periodicals --and more recently the Internet-- have played a big role. But books have played their role as well. Most of the books below are nonfiction, and read when I was young (in high school or college, or even earlier).

Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, by R. H. Tawney. Many of the nonfiction books I've read only reinforced beliefs I already had; but this one did more. It gave me an interpretive framework for understanding Western history, and the relationship of Christian faith to socio-political questions.

The Making of the President 1964, by Theodore H. White. I credit this book with creating my lifelong interest in politics. It was also the major factor in turning my self-identification to the political Right (though that wasn't White's intention!).

Adventures in English Literature, my high school British literature textbook. I already liked to read; but this book (more so than my American Literature textbook) gave me a feel for and appreciation of the tradition of literature as a whole living and unfolding tapestry that I wanted to explore. It also introduced me to Thomas Carlyle's "Midas" and T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, two works that influenced me a lot in their own right.

Handbook on Abortion by Dr. J. C. Willke (the first president of the National Right to Life Committee). There was never a time when I wasn't pro-life; but this book was what made me understand the central importance of the life issues, and gave them such prominence in my thinking.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell. McDowell is a lawyer, and it shows; this outline-format comprehensive survey of Christian evidences can be as dry as a legal brief. But for me it was fascinating, and it built an unshakeable cumulative case for the validity of my faith.

Toward Understanding the Bible, by Perry Yoder (whom I had the privilege of studying under in college). I've read a number of books on Bible study methods and interpretation; but this was the one that really had a germinal influence, with its conceptual distinction between meaning and application.

Amish Society, by John A. Hostetler. This one didn't have as permanent an influence on me as the others, since I'm not Anabaptist-oriented now; but I was for over 10 years, and this book was the gateway to that interest. (For a time in the early 70s, I seriously considered joining the Amish.) Since I married a Mennonite lady (and am happily married to her 34 years later!), and got my B.A. and M.A. from Mennonite schools, I guess you could say it did have an enduring influence!

George Orwell's 1984. There aren't many fiction books on this list; but through the "truth of art" and the enormous emotional impact it can have, this one crystallized a hatred for totalitarianism, and also gave me a practical understanding of the distortions of language and perception that are manipulated by cultural-political elites to serve totalitarian purposes.

Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. This was the first 19th-century classic I read, as a young kid; exposure to it, and liking it, at that early age guaranteed that I had no future fear of the classics, nor any hang-up with Victorian diction. It also probably started my liking for action/adventure!

[Catarina]

Well, let's see... It's difficult, that's true... But it's also interesting. :)

- Jane Eyre , by Charlotte Brontë
- The Sevenwaters trilogy , by Juliet Marillier
- David Copperfield , by Charles Dickens
- Rebecca , by Daphne Du Maurier
- Anne of Green Gables , by Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Heart's Blood , by Juliet Marillier
- Wildwood Dancing , by Juliet Marillier
- Brothers Grimm's, Perrault's and Hans Christian Andresen's fairy tales
- Wuthering Heights , by Emily Brontë
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , by Anne Brontë

[Janelle]

I'm really enjoying reading everyone's lists. Some great books there!

[Mary]

Some of the books that stayed with me did so because I taught them for many years; others just had a major impact on me.

1) Song of Solomon (taught)
2) The Great Gatsby (taught)
3) Native Son (taught)
4) Catcher in the Rye (taught a few times)
5) To Kill a Mockingbird (didn't teach)
6) In Cold Blood (taught)
7) The Jungle (taught twice)
8) American Tragedy (taught)
9) House of Mirth (taught)
10) Bleak House (didn't teach)

[Nicole]

Good thread, Charly!
Interesting lists, everyone.

The Once and Future King
The Outsiders
Jane Eyre
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Possession
Great Expectations
A Separate Peace
The Great Gatsby
The Dresden Files: Changes

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse]

Gone With the Wind
To Kill a Mockingbird
Life of Pi
Shutter Island
Remembrance
The Kite Runner
Silent Spring
Vanity Fair
Where the Red Fern Grows
Old Yeller

[Sasha]

These are a list of the books so far that have had an impact on the way i view certain things or just books i feel a connection to. But of course i'm young so this list may change or grow over my life. ;)
Haroun and the sea of stories - by Salmon Rushdie
Persepolis series - by Marjane Satrapi
A hero of our time - by Mikhail Lermontov
The overcoat - by Nikolai Gogol
1984 - by George Orwell
Flow: the psychology of optimal experience - by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
A clockwork Orange - by Anthony Burgess
Man's search for meaning - by Viktor E. Frankle
A lovers discourse - by Roland Barthes
The Kolyma Tales - by Varlam Shalamov

[Ahmad]

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Animal Farm by George Orwell
COSMOS by Carl Sagan
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X

[Reggia]

Just adding to my list...

6. All the Light You Cannot See
7. Morgan's Passing

...although it may be to soon. Perhaps one should wait for a period of time, per se, two years, to see if the book is still felt as strongly.

[Nina]

"Bambi," stayed with me as I was quite young when I read it and that's when I knew it was possible that mother's could die.

[Linda]

From my teens, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."

[Matt]

Stephen King - Insomnia, Dark Tower (Book 1)
Plato - The Republic
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
John Saul - Brainchild
Kurt Vonnegut - 2BrO2b
Robert Heinlen - Stranger in a Strange Land
Isaac Aasimov - I, Robot
Earnest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
Dean Koontz - Watchers

[Nina]

"Silas Marner," I hope that is how you spell it. It was the first book report I had even written and I was in sixth grade when I read it.

[MichelleCH]

Linda wrote: "From my teens, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."" Just finished reading it. I don't know why it took me so long. What a beautiful book.

[Linda]

1, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"
2. "Price and Prejudice - Jane Austen
3. "Sacajawea" - Anna L. Waldo
4. "The Bell Jar" - Sylvia Plath

[Nina]

1, "Dr. Zivago" Boris Pasternak
2, "The Wizard of OZ," Frank L. Baum
3. "All Creatures Great and Small," James Herriot
4. "Wind in the Willows," Kenneth Grahame
5. "A Gentleman in Moscow," Amor Towles
6, "Night Circus," Erin Morgenstern
7, "Circling the Sun"Paula McCain
8," Heart of Darkness"
9,""The Goldfinch," Donna Tartt
10, "The Iliad," Homer

[Peggy]

1. The Bible
2. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
3. The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien
4. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
5. Stepping Heavenward - Elizabeth Prentiss
6. The Scarlet Thread - Francine Rivers
7. Redeeming Love - Francine Rivers
8. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
9. Little House on the Prarie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
10. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brian

It was tough to pick just 10