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The Test of Time
 Posted by Shoshana Brown Mar 10 2010, 12:00 am in classic books, Shoshana Brown, timelessness A few months ago, my husband and I were browsing through a bookstore and he found a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. Despite his poor track record for finishing books (he averages maybe one per year) he bought it. He read the first two chapters, then put the book down and forgot all about it. Being the thrifty person that I am, I couldn’t stand for the book to go unread after having plunked down $7.99 for it. So, despite the fact that I’d read it back in high school and not thought much of it, I picked it up. And, from the first line, I was hooked. What an amazing voice. How had I missed this back in high school? It got me thinking–if my reading tastes had changed so much that a book I could barely remember reading was now one of my favorites, what about those books I loved back in high school? I went back and reread a few of my favorites. Some were just as awesome as I remembered (Yes, Fall into Darkness by Christopher Pike–I’m talking about you.). Some didn’t appeal to me any longer, but I could understand why my high-school self liked them. And some were a complete mystery. What was it about the book with zero character development and barely coherent sentences that I had loved at age 15? One thing stood out about the books I still loved. They were each quite well written in their own way. In some, every word was a thing of perfect beauty. Some were so tightly paced I couldn’t stand to put the book down until I had read through to the end. Some had dialog that perfectly captured the characters and had me laughing out loud. But, in every case, the author brought the story alive for me, so that I wasn’t just reading it, I was experiencing it. And that’s something I’ll come back for again and again. What books did you love when you were younger? Are there any that you still read today? What is it about a book that holds your attention after you already know how the plot will play out? Share:
              
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As a mom, I’m loving reading childhood favorites to my daughter. Watership Down was a book I first read at 11, and read yearly for a good while after that. I hadn’t read it for years when I decided to read it to my ten-year-old daughter, and it was still as wonderful and beautiful and scary and funny as I remembered, and my daughter and I both cried together at the end.
In romance, my favorite of all time is probably Patricia Gaffney’s To Love and To Cherish…lost it, but bought a used copy a few months ago, and WOW… every bit as wonderful as I remembered. Just a perfectly-written book all the way through.
My husband’s a big reader, too, and neither of us ever wants to get rid of a book…. we’re drowning in ‘em.
I’m enjoying reading some old favorites with my son too. We’re only up to Dr. Seuss so far, but I have a bunch of my elementary school and junior high favorites ready for when he’s old enough. (Yes, the bookshelves are overflowing.) So far he seems to like books better than television. Hopefully that will last.
I can’t wait until my daughter’s old enough for the Harry Potter series. I plan to make it the bedtime reading, one chapter at a time, when she’s ready.
And I know it’s a terrible, terrible title, but “Scrub, Dog of Alaska” was one of my favorite childhood books (read it in the 5th grade and loved it so much that when my teacher asked me to recommend a book to read to the class–yes, I was bookworm, even then–I recommended it). That became *the* book for the 5th grade read-aloud period for years. I’ve since purchased the book and am waiting until my daughter is old enough for it (years to go, but I’m patient that way
Oh, I LOVED reading Harry Potter to my daughter (the 7th book came out on her 10th birthday, and we went to one of those midnight release parties). I can’t wait til my son is old enough!
I can’t wait until my son is old enough for Harry Potter–it’s a perfect read-out-loud book. When it first came out I hadn’t been read aloud to in…well, it was a long time…but my mom and I took turns reading it to each other and it was so much fun.
Great topic! I can read S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders over and over and it still gets me. Lavyrle Spencer’s Vows is another one.
The books I used to love when I was younger that I wonder whether I’d still like are the fantasy and sci-fi books. I know I’d still love Ray Bradbury, but I’m wondering about some of the sword and sorcery stuff I used to love.
Ooh–I’ve loved all the Lavyrle Spencer books that I’ve read, but I haven’t read Vows yet. I’ll have to check it out.
Lavyrle Spencer is awesome, so hate the day that she retired. I still reread her books, especially November of the Heart. sigh.
November Of The Heart is one of my favorites too. And, Morning Glory and That Camden Summer. Loved her characters.
I think I must study this afternoon. LOL.
I’m third-ing November of the Heart. Loved that book. And Vows. And Years. And Hummingbird. And Morning Glory…okay, so just about everything she wrote.
Bianca Bradbury was one of my childhood faves. I’ve recently considered going back to re-read “Those Traver Kids.”
Read “Wuthering Heights” for the first time in sixth grade, and of course have caught more and deeper meanings with every subsequent reading.
And “Gone With the Wind” was my favorite in seventh grade. Haven’t re-read it in forever, but I’m sure it still holds up.
I somehow missed reading Wuthering Heights in school. I’m going to have to remedy that.
I somehow missed reading Wuthering Heights in school. I’m going to have to remedy that.
No doubt, I loved the Heidi books and My Friend Flika. Read the books until they tattered. Sadly, when my daughters were young they couldn’t understand the books written in the words of an older age. How could that be???
One book that has amazed me over the years is Pearl Buck’s Peony, written about a concubine in China. The first time I read it I was in my early twenties and loved it. The second time I was in my forties and it was a different story because I had changed and read it with life’s experiences. The last time I read it was in my fifties and yet again it was a different story. Isn’t it strange how as we change so do our attitudes and the way we see life. I never realized it would affect my reading as well. BTW – even it was three different stories to me, I still loved each one of them.
>> Sadly, when my daughters were young they couldn’t understand the books written in the words of an older age. How could that be???
I don’t have a problem with my son choosing a different career path than I did or liking different foods, television shows, music, etc, but the thought of him not loving my favorite childhood books is really upsetting. Perhaps this is a sign that I have an unhealthy attachment to books.
Peony sounds interesting. I’ll have to check it out.
Oh, I was just talking to a friend about ‘Catcher’! I read it when I was very young and I remember tossing it aside thinking, “I have no idea what that was about.” I’ll have to read it again with my thirty-something eyes.
To be honest, I was more interested in horses, so ‘Black Beauty’ was more up my alley at that age. I’ve still got the copy I bought at age 11. The story is told from the horse’s POV, and the chapters in which Beauty describes the perils of being a horse-for-hire makes me weep.
Oops, I just realised how silly “thirty-something eyes” sounds. My internal editor has taken the day off!
It does paint an interesting picture in my head. Although perhaps not the one you intended.
When I think about formative or favorite books from my youth, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and Little House come to mind immediately, but I was, shall we say, a very precocious reader. By age 10, I was regularly reading adult fiction and genre books: thrillers. Potboilers. Sci-fi. Mysteries. But the books that prompted the librarian to call my mom about my reading tastes? “Those books” – meaning romance novels. In this case, Harlequin Presents. To this day, it cracks me up that the librarian was so concerned about those tame category romance novels when “The Godfather” was sitting at the bottom of my checkout pile.
I went on to study creative writing and literature in college, but as a genre girl, my tastes and perspectives were woefully out of step with those of my professors and classmates. Stating that I enjoyed Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” more than Melville’s “Moby Dick” because of Dana’s accessible writing voice did NOT endear me to my Am. Lit professor.
When I think of memorable books from my youth, it’s not “Catcher” or “Slaughterhouse Five” that come immediately to mind. It’s “Dune” by Frank Herbert, and Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire.”
I re-read these books every other year or so – for enjoyment, and to study worldbuilding.
Have you tried David Brin yet? He’s pretty hard-core sci fi (versus Dune, which I think of more as fantasy), but the world building is *fantastic.* If you haven’t read them already, try the “Uplift” series!
Wow. How could I have forgotten Anne Rice? I was a sophomore in high school when I read “The Vampire Lestat.” Reading it first, I fell in love with Lestat, then was very disappointed when I read “Interview with the Vampire” and Louis made him sound so horrid.
I think Anne Rice’s one/two punch of “Interview with the Vampire” followed by “The Vampire Lestat” helped form my appreciation of three-dimensional villains.
After all, aren’t villains the heroes of their own stories? It’s a matter of POV.
I had precocious reading tastes as well. I was always very selective about the covers of my romance novels, hoping that if I checked out the one featuring a house with a flower garden instead of the one with Fabio in a clinch with a barely clothed woman, the librarian wouldn’t notice. I’m sure she did anyway, but she never said a word. Probably just glad I was reading…
Dune blew my mind. I read it in my early twenties at the behest of my boyfriend-now-husband, and I thought it would be dorky ridiculousness, but I adored it. It changed the way I looked at fantasy/sci-fi forever, and launched me into a whole ‘nother section of the library!
Funny, Tamara’s early list is the same as mine. I LOVED the Little House on the Prarie series. My favorite ever. Still love them today.
I graduated into romance pretty fast. I started with those nurse romances by Mills Boon wondering what the heck a Spider was because the doctor always drove one. LOL. I seriously wanted one of those little capes and caps the nurses wore.
The first “big” book I read was The Thornbirds. I was probably eleven or twelve. After that, it was game on. I read every paperback romance I could get my hands on at my aunt’s used bookstore. I distinctly remember Janet Dailey, Mary Higgins Clark, and all those Jude Devereaux’s.
I didn’t appreciate the classics until I got into high school and college and even then I always wondered why some character didn’t say, “Just shut up and let me kiss you.” Would have fixed a lot of things.
Oh, yeah, “Thornbirds” rocked my world for years. I wonder if I still have a copy of it somewhere…?
I loved the Little House books too.
Your aunt had a used book store? I am sooo jealous.
I love the idea of characters in classics saying, “Shut up and let me kiss you!” Ophelia to Hamlet, perhaps?
I read the Little House on the Prairie books when I was very young. I didn’t much care for being told what to read in school.
It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I really connected with any of the books we read in class. Kind of sad.
What a wonderful topic!
Boy, I loved reading. I still do, but I wonder if that magic of early reading can ever be recaptured? I so adored these five books that I’m afraid to return to them, worried that they might fall short, as you said some of your old favorites did.
Black Beauty
The Black Stallion
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
The Secret Garden
Watership Down
Like most kids, I also inhaled Nancy Drew mysteries and everything Judy Blume ever wrote, as well as the early books in the Redwall series.
I never wandered into the general fiction section of the library. I wish I had! I just didn’t know about it, I guess. I envy those of you who were reading Wuthering Heights and Dune as middle-graders.
I loved The Secret Garden. I saw my old copy crammed in the middle of one of my parents’ bookshelves the last time I was visiting. I’ll have to borrow it the next time I’m over there and give it another read.
I remember a story and guess what it was a YA romance before there was a genre. I read it when I was in 8th grade. I loved the book so much, I wanted it for my own so over a school year so I began to type my copy. Seriously. We’re talking manual typewriter. This was pre-internet, amazon, B & N. The novel was called Cassundra’s Challegne. It was about a young girl, whose family’s business (Fox & Hound Bed and Breakfast) was in trouble. One day the young rich hero shows up at the door. You get the idea.
I typed half the book and then moved on to the high school. They didn’t have the book. I’ve searched Amazon and B & N and used book stores looking for that book, but as of this date no luck.
So if anyone comes across it, please let me know.
Also, In high school, Johnny Got His Gun. Moving story of a wounded solider who is thought to be a vegetable and his struggle to contact with the world he still hears and feels. I have two copies on my shelf and encourage everyone to read it.
Great topic.
>> I typed half the book and then moved on to the high school.
That is serious dedication. I’ll keep my eye out for Cassandra’s Challenge.
I had a favorite teen romance back in junior high that I’d check out of the library every few months. I did a google search a while back, trying to find it, but I couldn’t remember the name.
WOW!! Yes to all of the above books mentioned. Add in some early Stephen King, Jack London and Louis L’Amour. I did love my westerns.
Thanks, this was a nice reminder of great books past.
That reminds me–I’ve been meaning to read The Call of the Wild. This post is making my TBR list huge.
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series – I reread them a year or so ago and they were as fabulous as I remember (just don’t mention the film version). My kids are still a little too young, but soon… very soon…
My favorite is still The Grey King.
Another is Alan Garner’s The Owl Serives – beautiful and tragic all rolled together with wonderful.
I’ll have to check out The Dark is Rising.
Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. That book touched me. I can’t even remember the story–just that I loved it. Thanks for reminding me of it, Shoshana. I really need to find a copy and reread it.
That’s how I am with “A Swiftly Tilting Planet”! I remember that it shocked me, stunned me, threw me off my bed, but I can’t remember why. I just know I loved it.
There may have been talking animals? I always love that.
I just checked out the summary of Joy in the Morning on wikipedia and it sounds like a great story.
So much to read, so little time…
I also loved the Little House series, Nancy Drew and Black Beauty. But I also liked darker stories (and poetry) as a teenager. Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King come to mind. Even as an adult, I’m a pretty eclectic reader. It’s interesting to experience new voices and styles.
Thanks for the blog post Shoshana. Makes me want to go back and revisit some of the books I read in high school. And it’s interesting to see what others enjoyed in their younger years.
Hmm…should have been Edgar ALLAN Poe. I knew that looked wrong.
Yep–switching between genres definitely helps combat the boredom factor.
I had a teacher in junior high who introduced my to reading plays. Along with Leon Uris and Agatha Christie and other books, I read Thorton Wilder’s Our Town. I sobbed through the whole last act, and would today if I reread it. It contains the most hopeless view of humanity I have ever read, and changed forever how I look at life.
Yep–there are some awesome plays out there. Of my two favorite things I read in high school one is a play.
OMG I went through a huge George Bernard Shaw phase when I was in Junior High. I remember “Mrs. Robinson’s Profession.” That was pretty risque since her profession was the oldest one in the book.
Late as usual—
Jane Eyre ranks up there as the book I could read and re-read and never get tired of. I first read it when I was in 7th Grade.
It wasn’t long after reading Jane Eyre that I read Catcher in the Rye. I absolutely hated that book. And this was back in the 1960s when it was practically contraband because of the dirty words in it. Everyone read it just to rebell. But I always thought Holden was a big fat whiner. Maybe I should try it again. After 40 years maybe I’ll find a little more charity for the guy.
Or maybe not. I can certainly see how he might come across as a bit of a whiner. Okay, a big fat whiner.
I loved any of the Black Stallion books. Can still read them now and not want to put them down. As you said, Shoshana, if a writer can pull me into the story, I’m hooked.
Me, too! I *so* wanted a horse of my own someday. It could still happen!
I liked the idea of having a horse…until I actually rode one.
All the American Girl books. I was obsessed with them when I was ages 8-11. In fact, I think that’s why I started writing historical fiction and one of the reasons I love it so much.
I’ve re-read a few of the books (I can get through an entire girl’s six book series in a few hours now) and I can still see why they appealed to me. I just hope that if I ever have a daughter one day, she’ll love them as much as I did–and still do.