Tagged by tulkas-smash!
Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag [ten] friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them.
(so uh i didn't really notice or i forgot to respond to this when it was first posted, but better late than never right? this'll be approximately in chronological order. most of them are like children's books because i pretty much stopped reading around middle school)
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman
I got this book as a gift from my parents back in First/Second grade as a way of trying to encourage me to get into science and stuff. I really liked it - I sorta wanted to become a physicist like Feynman up until Third or Fourth grade. That I should have wanted to become a physicist like my parents didn’t seem to really occur to me I guess.
It’s a pretty nice book, kinda funny, kinda inspiring, and has easy-to-read language. However, it does have some “inappropriate content” so unless you’re kinda open and liberal you might not want to suggest it to little kids.
Ender’s Game/Speaker of the Dead by Orson Scott Card
I remember stealing this from one of the classroom “libraries” in elementary school (I didn’t have the most solid understanding of personal property i guess - if i wanted it, it was mine) and really liking it. In hindsight it was really mary-sueish and not all that great but idk i really liked it at the time?
The Odyssey by Homer
I got this one from a reading room in the hospital. I was REALLY interested in Greek mythology/stories when I was in elementary school for some reason; I’d always grab all the books on the topic that I could find. I always found just reading mythologies kinda unsatisfying though because the stories were all so short. I need to find a bigger book, and then a bigger one. And I was still never satisfied.
Then I found this book. The biggest book. And it was satisfying.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The first time I “read” these books was through audiobook. Back when I was in elementary and middle school, I used to go to these weekly chess quads tournaments about 20 minutes away. My father would drive me, and we’d generally listen to NPR but sometimes we got audiobooks and I really really liked these two.
The Old Man and the Sea has really simple language and stuff so younger kids can read it too!
The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks
The Call of the Wild/White Fang by Jack London
The Chosen/The Promise by Chiam Potok
More children’s books! The voice comes through really strongly in these, and they’re good reads. At least, I think. The last time I read them was in elementary school.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
This one’s probably the only novel I’ve read after middle school not for class purposes, lol
It’s basically a romance, but not in a relationship sort of sense? It’s kinda large in scope, and is a story of humanity’s triumph and ability to do things, basically. I don’t know how to describe it very well, but I -really- really liked it.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
don’t read “classics” or books that “intellectuals” consider good ever
trust me
Tagging living-for-fiction, sealpremacy, princessoffloral, oyasumi-artykun, didsomeone-say-draco-malfoy, jdragsky, chiweforkgun, alexicography
