I'm It.

I was tagged by Dan Drezner to answer the latest book meme making the rounds. John Cole got the ball moving by asking:

Do you ever read those stuffy book lists you see circulating, like 'List your five most important books,' and think to yourself- no wonder these people are so damned boring. Some of the titles give me a damned headache, they are so dull. Knowing things is great, but fiction makes life bigger and better and in color.

So, in the proud spirit of anti-intellectualism (just kidding), I am going to offer... the five books I liked enough as a teen/young adult to read again as an adult.

Five? Only five? I read a lot back then. Mostly because my fascist parents had imposed strict regulations on TV viewing. Biding my time until college when my time would be better spent at the pub, I read widely and indiscriminately. A promiscuous reader was I. From beach trash to sci fi to comic books to philosophy.

Five books that I read as a teenager that I have reread as an adult (or would like to reread):

1. I often talk about my love of the Brontes and Austin, so something new. I was also a big fan of Louisa May Alcott. Not only the famous Little Women, but also Little Men, Jo's Boys, and Rose in Bloom. Alcott is an American original. Her characters are full of energy and strength and imagination. They're not weighed down with money/class baggage that burden the heroines of Bronte and Austin.

2. Junior year of high school, one group of my friends and I went through a romance novel binge. We traded boxes of paperbacks. On every cover, a dashing pirate/union captain/Scottish laird embraced a swooning maiden with heaving bosoms. Hey, don't laugh. One friend, who holds an MBA from Harvard, has spent years writing her own romance novel. One romance novel that was a big favorite in high school was Shanna. The writing is unpretentious, the plot fast paced, and the hero... well, let's just say he has many talents.

3. I've skimmed some of the answers in this meme. Lots of people mention the Lord of the Rings series, Narnia series, the Foundation series, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Gallaxy series. Read them all. Required reading for geeky bloggers. After reading the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I spent a lot of time wondering what Turkish Delight was. I suspected it was chicken.

4. I read No Exit and Three Other Plays in my high school lunch room; it explained a lot to me, but I was entering my misunderstood artist phase of high school.

5. And, like Dan, I think that there are wonderful, non-fiction narratives that also inspire. So, I'm breaking the rules to include a work of nonfiction. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

I pass the meme to: Russell Arben Fox, Tim Burke, Jay Allen, Allison Kaplan Sommer, and Elizabeth.

Comments

[Russell Arben Fox]

Your wish is my command, Laura: my five (actually seven or eight, depending on how you count) are here.

[Laura]

Thanks, Russell. What fun it will be to pass on these books to our kids some day, right? Though I don't think I'll be able to convince my boys to read Little Women.

[Mo Ryan]

I'd be a little afraid to read Judy Blume's Forever as an adult, but its influence on my adolescence cannot be overstated. I think one dog-eared copy circulated in my junior high for years on end...