Tuesday 8 September 2020

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Top Ten Books for My Younger Self


"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish".

It is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

Top Ten Books for My Younger Self
(These could be books you wish you had read as a child, books younger you could have really learned something from, books that meshed with your hobbies/interests, books that could have helped you go through events/changes in your life, etc.)

I didn't have many books when I was young. My parents didn't have the money to buy me many. And I had two libraries to go to, the school library where I could get one book every week and the church library where I could get a few every week. I probably read most of the books from the church library but the selection was not too great. I found Mary Scott and Pearl S. Buck that way but not too many classics that I love now. I think I might have explored reading even more, had I been exposed to them earlier. Knowing today what I didn't know, I would have loved studying either languages or literature.

Anyway, I think these are the classics I would have loved to read as a much younger person:

Austen, Jane "Persuasion"
- "Pride & Prejudice"
Brontë, Anne "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"
Camus, Albert "The Plague" (FR: La Peste)
Collins, Wilkie "The Woman in White"
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield"
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "Crime and Punishment" (RUS: Преступление и наказание)
Eliot, George "Middlemarch"
Steinbeck, John "The Grapes of Wrath"
Tolstoy, Leo "War and Peace" (RUS: Война и мир = Woina i mir)
Trollope, Anthony "Barchester Chronicles"

You may have noticed that I didn't add any German books. That's because I did read the German classics in school. And loved them.

14 comments:

  1. I still haven't read War and Peace! Someday I hope to change that.

    My post .

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    1. I'm sure you will have read it once you get to my ripe old age. ;) It's definitely worth it.

      Thanks for your visit and for leaving your link. See you there.

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  2. The Plague still lingers in my memory even though I read it quite a while ago.

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    1. Same here. And it think whoever hasn't read it by now should definteily do it, it's more relevant than ever.

      Thanks for visiting.

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  3. I had lots of access to books, but there just weren't all that many at that time that were written for young people. Kids and teens these days are so lucky to have so many and such variety. They have no idea how hard we had it back in the day :)

    Happy TTT!

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    1. You are right. Though, I think I mentioned it before, you are probably not that much older than my children and they already had way more books than I had in my youth.

      Still, I'm afraid there are many kids around who don't get to love books the way we did. I feel sorry for them.

      Thanks for your visit.

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  4. I love Pride & Prejudice Here is my post-https://paigesofbook.blogspot.com/2020/09/top-ten-tuesday-books-for-my-younger.html.

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    1. Most people who made the effort to read it, love it. If ou only read one classic novel in your life, this would be a good choice. Having said that, my favourite Jane Austen book is "Persuasion".

      Thanks for visiting and leaving your link. I'll see you there.

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  5. I read Persuasion as a college student and I think that was the perfect time for me.

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    1. That might be the perfect time for everyone. Unfortunately, I only got to "meet" Jane Austen in my thirties. But it's never too late, as I noticed.

      Thanks for your visit.

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  6. Replies
    1. My son read "Lord of the Rings" when he was eleven, I'm sure I would have managed these in my teens. ;)

      Anyway, I'm glad I got the chance to read them later.

      Thanks for your visit.

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  7. One of the many reasons why I love the library is because we can borrow books... for free! I discovered quite a few of my favourite childhood books at the library.

    Thanks for visiting my TTT list this week.

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    1. But of course, always a pleasure.

      I love libraries, as well, but I have learned that it is always a piece of luck to find a good one. I remember when my son was little, I would always let him pick his books and he usually came back with the same ones. When he was sick and I picked some for him, I noticed that he had exhausted their choice. Seems to be similar with my current library, they have mainly the newest books which is nice but they sort them out quite quickly because they don't have the space. That, and I can't really hold hard cover books for too long.

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