The Books I Go Back To

My Uncle Rodney gave me the first book I remember being daunted by. I was too young for Jane Eyre when I received it, and I remember attempting to read it twice in that first year before settling in with enough vocabulary (and gumption) to tackle Bronte.  I was 10. It was in the window of age underlined by the move from Arkansas to St. Louis.  Bronte went with me, and Jane was my first friend in my new city.

Since then my Uncle Rodney has given me books.  Many books. He mailed a monstrosity of a box of them to Morocco when I complained of having nothing to read.  I don't remember how many books he mailed to Africa, but it was in the double digits, and I read every single one within three weeks.  Those books are still in Africa, left behind due to my speedy evacuation, and I have no doubt they've found their way into many happy Peace Corps hands since their arrival on the continent.

Within that box was Geek Love and Feast of Love, two books I return to often. As I do Jane. I devour books pretty rapidly and I find it hard to part with them.  And among the Books I've Read, there is a small, treasured bunch I'll refer to as The Books I Go Back To. I'll eliminate The Bible at this point.  It doesn't belong amongst mere novels and poetry volumes, as it's The Book of Truth that has been beside and within me since I could read. I grew up in a Bible-loving home, and so that Book is a constant, the heartbeat beneath the bookshelf.

The Books I Go Back To are listed below.  Some (The Flounder, Atlas Shrugged) were read and reread but now are revisited largely for certain passages or chapter.  A line of The Flounder is tattooed on my back so I suppose that one, in particular, is with me for life.  Some other books, like Jane, are old, dear friends that I reread often but are more like quiet companions that do not need a revisiting, the story is so well cemented in my memory.  Others, like Suite Francaise, are recent additions to my revisiting pile, and may or may not become lifetime members. But, for what it's worth, here are the Books I Go Back To, beginning with the first one that truly engrossed me. 

Jane Eyre, C. Bronte
Wuthering Heights, E. Bronte
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
Suite Francaise, I. Nemirovsky
Geek Love, K. Dunn
The Flounder, G. Grass
Atlas Shrugged, A. Rand
Walden, H. Thoreau
The Tower and The Winding Stair and Other Poems, W.B. Yeats
Idylls of the King, A.L. Tennyson
Of Human Bondage, W.S. Maugham
Eliza Stanhope, J. Trollope
The Trial, F. Kafka
To Kill a Mockingbird, H. Lee
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, J. Joyce
Man Walks into a Room, N. Krauss
The Feast of Love, C. Baxter
Sonnet 71, Shakespeare
Voyage Au Maroc, E. Wharton