books i have loved

I have a confession to make. I'm not as big a reader as I ought to be. I'm certainly a fraction of the reader I used to be. A shadow of the reader I was meant to be.

I have fond memories of staying up late on school nights, feverishly devouring the Little House on the Prairie series. Once my pillowcase even caught fire, ignited by the heat of my hardworking reading lamp. I still enjoyed books in junior high and high school - though I felt it was absolutely ridiculous that we had to read the Scarlet Letter twice (our teachers couldn't agree over when it would be better taught....). And don't get me started on how little I enjoyed the Waste Land (although, really, that may not be T.S. Eliot's fault - I had a distinct disconnect with old Barf Bag, my teacher...). Anyway, somewhere along the way, under the weight of required college reading, I lost my way. I stopped reading for pleasure almost entirely. I began to look at books as expensive to purchase and heavy to move. I failed to recognize them as the treasures that they are.

Nowadays I'll read my mother's book club hand-me-downs. On occasion my brother will trust me with one of his favorites. And when visiting my nieces in Oakland, I'll often borrow from their extensive, eclectic library. But I have yet to branch out and reconnect with the world I used to love. Like MerryME, I have a collection of children's books that I cherish. Every now and then I'll read one before a nap. But grown up books are few and far between in my life. On a cold day, I'm more likely to cozy up with a good puzzle book than a new novel. This makes me just a little sad.

Reading more often is in the same category as yoga and flossing - something I imagine myself doing, but never actually make the effort. Something I have no excuse for avoiding, as I know it will enhance the quality of my life. And so, to remind myself of who I was and who I'd like to be, I offer a list of some of books I have loved, in the hope that it will inspire me to love anew:

1. Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn - appealed to my inner freak show
   
2. Mouse Tales, by Arnold Lobel - my childhood favorite. Erik and I often quote various lines such as, "Hello sky." "Hello roots." and "You are very clean now."
3. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner - best with Cliff Notes, granted, and I wish that someone would print it in multiple colors as he first envisioned - or maybe different fonts for different narrators? Sure would help to keep the Quentins straight...
   
4. The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot - I don't actually remember the plot much, and had to confess recently that I didn't realize the author was a girl, but I recall it was long but didn't feel that way...
5. Middlesex, by Jeffry Eugenides - one of the few hand-me-downs from my mother's book club that I wasn't embarrassed to read...
6. Claude the Dog: A Christmas Story, by Dick Gackenbach - I don't even like dogs, but this story makes me smile. It also makes me feel like a selfish bastard.
   
7. Pretty much everything by Dr. Seuss (especially the Sneetches), Eric Carle (especially The Very Hungry Caterpillar, of course, though I loved when Grace read me Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? over the phone recently), Steven King (especially Thinner), and Charles Bukowski (especially Post Office - which I stole from a library ages ago - perhaps this started my book karma?).
8. And, of course, the entire Harry Potter series. No shame there.

Not very sophisticated, I know. But no real guilty pleasures, either. My taste in books is, I see now, far better than my taste in television. Which isn't saying all that much.