THE BOOKS WE RETURN TO AGAIN AND AGAIN

THE BOOKS WE RETURN TO AGAIN AND AGAIN

“If you cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again,
there is no use in reading it at all.”
Oscar Wilde

My daughter found a challenge on Facebook in which you were supposed to list the books which had most influenced you. What that meant was left up to the individual, and obviously there are a lot of ways to look at “influence.” Does it mean the books that were the most life-changing when you read them or the books that, looking back, influenced your behavior, or what? My daughter decided to interpret it as the books she’d read over and over, the ones she kept returning to again and again.

I loved her list and decided to come up with one of my own.
I’ve included both in this post.

Here’s my top ten list of books I keep returning to in times of trouble and stress–or just because I love re-reading them:

1. LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott
I won an abridged version (with lots of illustrations) when I was in sixth grade and practically wore it out. In seventh grade I inherited a copy of the full novel (a beautiful book with pale green- and-pink flowers on the cover and silver lettering) and read the whole thing. I know whole scenes by heart and, in spite of really liking the movies (especially the Winona Ryder version), I still love reading the novel.

2. HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL by Robert A. Heinlein
I know whole passages of this one, too. It was my first introduction to science fiction and my first love, and I’ve read it many, many times. I stumbled across it in the junior high school library and instantly fell in love with it. I love lots of Heinlein’s books, like THE DOOR INTO SUMMER and DOUBLE STAR and TIME FOR THE STARS, but this is my favorite.

3. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES
I loved this book so much in high school that I tried making my own copy of it, writing it all down in those black-and-white composition books (I made it through the first chapter, and that was the first time I realized how much work writing a book is.) I just reread the series for the umpteenth time just before the pandemic hit. (Note: Her other series, EMILY OF NEW MOON, is really good, too.)

4. LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
I stumbled across this one, too, while looking for something long to read on a cross-country flight–I was in college and flying out to the East Coast to break up with my boyfriend. I was in love with the hobbits and Gandalf from the very first page, and by the time I got to Newark, I was so involved in the story, I’d forgotten all about breaking up. (We’re celebrating our 53rd anniversary this summer.) The first time I read the book, I raced through it, skimming the Merry and Pippin sections in my anxiety to find out what had happened to Frodo and Sam, and then when I finished it, immediately went back and read it again–this time more slowly. Since then I’ve read it so many times its scenes are completely real to me: the inn at Bree, the falls at Rauros, the Marshes of the Dead, and most of all, the Shire, which I wish I could live in forever.

5. THREE MEN IN A BOAT by Jerome K. Jerome
My favorite comic novel, hands down. When I read HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL, Kip’s Dad is quoting from the book in the first chapter, so when I’d finished it, I went straight to the library to find it. I’ve read it on planes (laughing uproariously), in a wretched B & B in London (ditto), at Hampton Court (because of the maze), and at the Royal Swannery (because of the part where Harris tells George and J that he “battled the swans and killed them all, and they paddled away to die,” one of my favorite lines in all of literature.

6. GAUDY NIGHT by Dorothy L. Sayers
This is the one crossover book for my daughter’s and my lists, and I’m happy to say I introduced the book to her when we went to Oxford for the first time. She apparently loved it as much as I did. I love all four Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane mysteries–STRONG POISON, HAVE HIS CARCASE, GAUDY NIGHT, and BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON–and I also love NINE TAILORS and MURDER MUST ADVERTISE. I’ve read all of them multiple times, but GAUDY NIGHT is my favorite because, to me, it not only represents Sayers but Oxford, and I adore Oxford.

7. ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL by James Herriot
I actually mean all four of the books in the series, but I’ve read the first of them more than the others, most memorably when my daughter was in the hospital at age eight, and I was frantically worried about her. Herriot not only took me out of myself, but made me laugh, and he still makes me laugh all these years later.

8. 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON by Agatha Christie
My husband can always tell when I’m under stress because I start rereading every Agatha Christie mystery I own, followed by every Mary Stewart novel, and finally (if I’m REALLY upset, like when I’m trying to finish a novel) all the Beany Malone books. I can’t really say I have a favorite Agatha Christie, but I picked 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON because it not only has Miss Marple and a wonderful heroine, but Christie’s playing a game with the reader as well, creating a minor mystery at the end which people have argued about for years. (Note: Other contenders were THE MOVING FINGER, THE ABC MURDERS, and THE MIRROR CRACK’D, which is singularly appropriate for this pandemic, since it’s all about asymptomatic carriers of disease.

9. THE MOONSPINNERS by Mary Stewart
Mary Stewart’s modern Gothic novels are the second stage in my stress comfort reading, and I usually rip through all of them, TOUCH NOT THE CAT, NINE COACHES WAITING, THE GABRIEL HOUNDS, WHAT ROUGH MAGIC, one after the other. I picked THE MOONSPINNERS because that was the first one I read, after seeing the Hayley Mills movie in high school. Reading the credits to see if the movie had been based on a book was–and is–one of my favorite ways of finding new things to read, and I was delighted to find that not only was THE MOONSPINNERS a book, but that there were a dozen others.

10. PICK A NEW DREAM by Lenora Mattingly Weber
But my true comfort reading has always been the Beany Malone books. I’ve read them when I was stuck on a story (they have great plotting), when I was sidelined with back surgery, and during this pandemic. Like the Mary Stewarts and the Agatha Christies, I read straight through them all, but I chose PICK A NEW DREAM because it was the one Lenora Mattingly Weber had just finished writing when she spoke at the Denver Pen Women’s meeting where I was lucky enough to meet her.

Here’s my daughter’s list:

1. INTO THE DREAM by William Sleator
This science fiction kids’ book involves prescient dreams, telekinesis, UFOs, and the most terrifying of all things: Ferris wheels! I ordered this book from the Scholastic Book Club in 5th or 6th grade, and I reread it every few years when I need some shivers down my spine!

2. LORETTA MASON POTTS by Mary Chase
This creepy book is by the author of the play HARVEY and involves a long-lost unremembered sister, a secret passage in a closet, a palace, and an enchanted bridge, and includes amazing illustrations. I loved this book and reread the library’s copy over and over as a kid, and years later a friend of mine found me a copy when I was lamenting that I didn’t own the book.

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I read a lot of series when I was a kid (including ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and the BETSY-TACY books), but I have reread the ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY books the most often. This series is about a Jewish family of 5 girls (thus “all-of-a-kind”) living in NYC in the 1910s. I loved all the details of old-time New York AND all the Jewish holidays that were celebrated. In college I found out my best friend loved the books too, so we reread them together. Later, when I taught for two years at the Tucson Hebrew Academy, I reread each appropriate holiday chapter as the holidays came up throughout the year.

4. ABOUT THE B’NAI BAGELS by E.L. Konigsburg
Best known for FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER, E.L. Konigsburg wrote many kids’ books, though this is by far my favorite and the one I’ve reread the most. It’s a fun book about a boy studying for his Bar Mitzvah while dealing with his mom managing his Little League baseball team, but at its core it’s about the heartbreak of losing a best friend. “Great pains make great heroes, but toothaches just make lousy batting averages.”

5. DIED ON A RAINY SUNDAY by Joan Aiken
I first fell in love with Joan Aiken when I read her short story “Who Goes Down This Dark Road?” and went on to read many of her novels, including the oft-read THE SHADOW GUESTS. DIED ON A RAINY SUNDAY is a British thriller about a young mother dealing with creepy household help and lots of chilling rain. After checking it out from my school library, I left it lying around the house and came back to find my mom reading it and unwilling to put it down (note her love for Mary Stewart thrillers above.) We ended up sitting side by side on our floor heater, reading the page-turning finale together, and I’ve reread it many times since.

6. GAUDY NIGHT by Dorothy L. Sayers
True, my mom told me about Lord Peter and Harriet when we first visited the Bridge of Sighs, but it was the PBS Mystery version with Harriet Walter and Edward Petherbridge that got me to read the book. I was home for Thanksgiving and my parents were watching the middle episode of GAUDY NIGHT as it aired. Coming into the middle of a mystery is very confusing, so my mom loaned me the book to read on the overnight train back to college. Unfortunately, the winter travel caused me to catch the flu, so the first two days back at school all I could do was lay in bed and read. So while this book is primarily set in summer, I get the urge to reread it every November!

7. LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry
My mom tried to get me to watch the miniseries but I simply couldn’t get into it. A few years later I stumbled upon the middle of the series and got totally addicted; starting in the middle seems to be a common theme. I got the book and ended up reading its 945 pages three times back to back…while living in London! I remember riding the tube home, sobbing as I read the final pages, and then flipping to the front and starting it again, something I’ve never done with any other book.

8. MAURICE by E.M. Forster
I love the movies of Forster’s A ROOM WITH A VIEW and HOWARD’S END, but my fave book of his is MAURICE. This story about homosexual love during Edwardian times wasn’t published until after Forster’s death, and the book demonstrates the pain of having to hide one’s true self from the world. “For during the long struggle he had forgotten what Love is, and sought not happiness…but repose.”

9. DRAMA! THE FOUR DOROTHYS by Paul Ruditis
This is the first in the series of four DRAMA! Books, all of which I recommend. Written nearly a century after MAURICE, the high school narrator in this series is gay, “But don’t worry. This isn’t one of those angst-filled books where I’m struggling to come to terms with what it all means. I’ve long since accepted it. I’m gay. I’m over it.” These books are a fun, snarky take on musical theatre, with a play as the title for every chapter and lots of musical references. These are the books I read when I’m doing a show and need a reminder that there’s always chaos backstage in every theatrical production.

10. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET by Valentine Davies
My final most reread book was going to be Carrie Fisher’s POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, but then it occurred to me that I don’t reread the entire book, I only reread the section, “Dysphoria,” (which I totally love and identify with.) So instead I decided to end this list with a Christmas story (since my mom is such a lover of Christmas!) This book also has the distinction of being the book I’ve reread ALOUD the most; this is because every year at Christmas my parents and I would take turns reading this novelization of the 1947 movie aloud at the dinner table. We’d start after Thanksgiving and read chapters every night in a race to finish it before Christmas Eve. Thanks to this and the fact that I read all of Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL aloud to my cousin after going to see THE MUPPETS’ CHRISTMAS CAROL movie, I always associate Christmas with reading aloud.

These are are lists.
I’m sure you all have your own lists, and it’s kind of fun to think about which books you’ve read again and again.

Connie Willis