“Ten books that stayed with me” is a post circulating on Facebook.  I write about books on this site, so when a friend asked for my list, I thought I would share them here too.

Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling  (favorites in series are Sorcerer’s Stone & Half Blood Prince)

The Luck Factor, Dr. Richard Wiseman

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery

Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis

Quiet – the Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain

Chris Van Allsburg picture books (favorites are Sweetest Fig & Two Bad Ants)

Here’s the problem with my list: a few haven’t “stayed with me” long because I read them recently.  Quiet and Quixote are recent reads and I have hope for the Man of La Mancha because, let’s face it, we’re still reading it 400 years later.  Quiet, on the other hand, may topple off the list but Susan Cain gave me a priceless gift in this book, and that is enduring whether she remains in the top ten or not.

One FB post advised, don’t overthink it.

That may have fallen on deaf ears.  What I did do, is allow myself time because I like this exercise.  I wrote a couple titles on my whiteboard and added to them over the last week or so, giving my middle-aged brain time to scan its dusty shelves, trek back along forgotten corridors, peek in hidden rooms, visit places from my childhood, from my children’s childhood,  and from different stages of my life.

It’s easy to judge someone by her appearance, but there is a lot to be said about seeing her book shelf. Books, periodicals, movies, shows, social media, any content out there today,  these make up our mental, spiritual, and emotional diet.  What we choose to ‘eat’ reflects who we are.

Thank you Diane for asking and thank you also for sharing.

“Reading literature connects humanity across time, place and even cultures. It’s our quest for what is lasting and real; through reading, we can hang out with the great, experience things we’ve never done or felt before, as well as identify and empathize with our own experience.” ( from my column on books, link here)

Below I listed information from network scientist Lada Adamic’s research on this meme, (link to her full article here).

Here are the top 20 books, along with a percentage of all lists (having at least one of the top 500 books) that contained them. 

1. 21.08 Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling
2. 14.48 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
3. 13.86 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
4. 7.48  The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
5. 7.28  Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
6. 7.21  The Holy Bible
7. 5.97  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
8. 5.82  The Hunger Games Trilogy – Suzanne Collins
9. 5.70  The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
10. 5.63  The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
11. 5.61  The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
12. 5.37  1984 – George Orwell
13. 5.26  Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
14. 5.23  Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
15. 5.11  The Stand – Stephen King
16. 4.95  Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
17. 4.38  A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
18. 4.27  The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
19. 4.05  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
20. 4.01  The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho