My Book Biography Part 1

Being a book lover and a librarian, people are always asking me what my favourite books are. It is really impossible to distill them down to my absolute faves but these are some of the books that have really stuck with me throughout the years and have made a lasting impression on me. Of course there are so many other fantastic authors and really classic works that I've read and it's an ever changing thing  but these were the books where it really felt that the author was speaking directly to me and reader alchemy occurred,  I felt changed as a result.I need to reread them all! 

Childhood
Run With the Wind by Tom McCaughren

I read this series in 1994 but it actually appeared in the mid-eighties. I think my Dad may have picked them up for me in a charity shop  and I remember being sick one day and just reading the entire thing in bed. My reading of them coincided with the popularity of The Animals of Farthing Wood animation. I loved thinking that animals had an interior life and could experience things just like humans do. I rarely saw foxes growing up and they seemed like magical symbols of a nocturnal world. Every time I see an urban fox in London now, I think of survival and can't quite get the characters of this story out of my mind.

Going Solo by Roald Dahl 

I devoured all of Roald Dahl's books as soon as I discovered him but I remembered loving Boy and wanting it to go on forever. Going Solo was a delicious glimpse of an exciting, adult world outside of my life in Ireland. There aren't many books for children that feature adult adventures in a child friendly package. This book also gave 8 years old me serious wanderlust! I haven't properly been to Africa yet but I hope it happens some day. The dandruff wig scene has been imprinted on my brain for the last 23 years. I read The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje last year and that reminded me of Going Solo. It has the magic of children discovering an adult world and it really is from another time and era that has disappeared.

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

My parents got this for me as a gift and I thought it was the first book in the series rather than a prequel until relatively recently (!). I love Narnia but I've always preferred this book to the rest of the series. I've always wanted to have a shared attic space like Digory and Polly do. 

Anne Frank's Diary

Like so many people this book changed my life. I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about how affecting this book is and why Anne had to go through this horrific ordeal but it inspired me to keep a diary, gave me a lifelong interest in World  War Two history which eventually led me to study German and live there and learn more about the horror of the Holocaust. 

Early Teenage Years

The White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

This book has the right measure of everything and is perfect, beautiful escapism. I need to hunt down my copy next time I'm at my parents place.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I came to this via the movie starring Winona Ryder as Jo and Christian Bale as Teddy and they completely brought the characters to life for me. When I eventually read the book I found it easier to imagine it and I loved it all the more, particularly finding scenes that I could imagine better myself. Its a comfort book that I always return to. It saddended me a little recently to hear that Louisa M. Alcott was a bit annoyed by the infamy of the book. It's on my bucket list to visit the Massachusetts house that she wrote it in.