Word Count Blogathon Day 4: Five Favorite Books

Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book!  A message to us from the dead, - from human souls whom we never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of miles away; and yet these, on those little sheets of paper, speak to us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers. 

~ Charles Kingsley

I love having lines ~ so I can colour outside them.  Today’s suggested Blogathon Theme: The Five Favorite Books on Writing.  A wonderful idea, except that I do not have five favorite books on writing.  I do not think I even have five books on writing at all!  I read a lot of writer-ly blogs and have taken a couple of creative writing courses.  And I do own a couple of books on the craft of writing.

But mostly I just read.

And great readers become good authors.  [Or so I’m told.]

It was a difficult choice, but here is a list of my Five Favorite Books of All Time in no particular order:

Brideshead Revisited [Evelyn Waugh] – A modern classic about faith, friendship and wine that “is heaven with strawberries.”  When I was an undergrad, about four or five of us would sit around in the evening after class, drinking tea and reading everything from England’s Literary Golden Years – both 18^th and 20^th century.  Oh to have that much free time to read again!  [By the way, Jeremy Irons is Charles Ryder and Anthony Andrews is Sebastian Flyte.  Any other movie version is dross next to their exquisitely acted piece.]

Pride and Prejudice [Jane Austen] – Do I really need to say anything here?  I wish more men would read Austen.  Her works are classic literature, written with style, grace and razor-edged wit.

Lord of the Rings [J.R.R. Tolkein] – The man created his own language. What more can I say?  It is an incredible work, which I read as a child and had no problem understanding or “getting into.”  I have encountered more than a couple of people who “didn’t get it” or thought it was boring.  Poor things.  I do not think they have any imagination at all!

Anne of Green Gables Series [L.M. Montgomery] – I was Anne, although my hair is  brown with auburn highlights.  During my junior high days, those books were a balm and an escape like no other books.  I have not re-read them in awhile ~ maybe it’s time to dust them off!

Room with a View [E.M. Forester] – I confess, I did not read the book until after I had seen the movie.  But I love them both!  And reading about Lucy Honeychurch’s adventures in Italy led me to read Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes [that movie was nothing like that book!] and dream of owning and renovating my own villa someday.  And that is part of what reading is for ~ to dream even bigger than we thought possible. 

Who knows, maybe those dreams will turn into words, and words into actions, and actions into habits and habits into our destiny.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What are your five favorite books of all time and why do you love them? Have they inspired you to dream big and follow your destiny?  Email me or drop a note in the comm box!