The lovely Teralyn Rose Pilgrim over at A Writer's Journey is hosting the Favourite Book Challenge Blogfest from June 20 - 22.
In her words:
1. Pick your top five favorite booksNot as easy as it sounds!
2. Between Jun 20 and 22, write one line of what each book is about and then write one line of why you liked it. Think of it like a twitter pitch for other people’s work. Semi-colons are cheating, but you can use them anyway.
3. Go to other blogs and discuss the books.
I went with 5 of my classic favourites -- books I have read multiple times and still love. In no particular order ...
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
A mischevious orphan worms her way into the hearts of elderly siblings - & a boy who entices & irritates her
Why I love it: It's full of joy, sweetness & fun, plus it brings back so many memories of childhood!
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
10 not-so-nice folks invited to an island then killed 1 by 1 following instructions of a child's poem
Why I love it: It's a great mystery & I've read it to all my grade 8 classes - who loved it!
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
A hobbit needs to return the One Ring of Power to its fiery origins in order to destroy it & save all of Middle Earth
Why I love it: Tolkein was my first introduction to fantasy - love the scope of his imagination (to paraphrase Anne of GG)
The Giver by Lois Lowry
A boy & an old man decide to help their community by saving them from sameness & giving them pain
Why I love it: Incredibly well written and imagined - a terrifying world of what we could easily become.
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
A man is hired by government to prove wolves are dangerous & killing all the caribou -- not exactly what he finds out.
Why I love it: My favourite Mowat book - honest, perceptive, adventurous and full of wry humour.
Whew! (It might take me a few days to get around to all the other blogs - We're in the last 2 weeks of school & life is CRAZY!!)
What book can you read over and over and still love?
91 comments:
I remember the Agatha Christie book as a child I read it and somehow it always remained in my mind.
Yvonne.
Yvonne - I love that book - I read all of her books as a kid too! Great mysteries :)
I remember the movie Never Cry Wolf.
Picking my top 5 books per year might be easier but for all time. Yikes. Holes would definitely be on it. I know that.
Alex - the movie was good, but the book was stellar!! Great stuff :)
Laura - Holes is definitely one of my favourites! Such a well written book - great characters & I love how the plots intertwine! :)
Great teasers! Never read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, but I'm definitely checking it out now! :)
Amy - it's such a great book! There's an old black & white movie I showed my kids of it. It's well done too - but it changes the ending. The kids were ticked!! :)
Ah, the Anne books - I seriously never have a day when I don't think of something from those books. I love that red-haired little thing! I like your other books too - the only one I haven't read is The Giver. Sounds great.
Here's one for you that I loved as a teen - Pamela Frankau's A Wreath for the Enemy - two young people from very different families meet in the south of France and are marked for life by an astounding event they witness. Why I like it? It is a wonderfully written story about what it really means to be an ethical person.
Jan Morrison
I've reread Christie's several times and Conan Doyle as well.
I love rereading my favorites.
I have read all of these except for The Giver. Great list, Jemi. I've read The Lord of the Rings twice, and I've lost count how many times I have read The Ousiders.
"And Then There Were None" is one of mine, too! I love that you read it to your 8th graders! Maybe I should do the same....
Too many to list! Enjoyed reading your selections though!
And then they were none - absolutely fabulous book - I love this book!! Yay!!! What a great list here!! Fantastic! Take care
x
Never Cry Wolf sounds intriguing.
Today is my wife's last day of work at her school. She's been really stressed the past couple of weeks. Enjoy your summer!
Lee
Tossing It Out
Wow, some of those I haven't read in a LONG time!
fun :D
We have so many of the same favorites! :o)
In elementary school, Anne was my favorite and I'd read the series over and over again. In college, it was LOTR, and I read those over and over again... they still are my favorites. :o)
Thanks for sharing, Jemi!!!!
I love the Anne books. I just read them all for the very first time and was sad that I didn't grow up reading them.
And LOTR... big love there, too!
Have I mentioned that I heart books! :)
How on earth would I choose just 5???? Never mind limiting my normally verbose self!
Jan - that sounds terrific!! I haven't read that one yet - I'll definitely have to check it out! :)
Mary - I think I've read most of Christie's 2 or 3 times - but not Doyle's. I started one on my iPod, but got distracted by something shinier! :)
Lynn - Outsiders is such a great book. I've read it to a lot of my classes over the years! :)
Karen - I loved Nancy Drew too! I read them so many times! Little Women too - Jo, of course, was my favourite! :)
Elizabeth - It's such a great story! I had to explain a lot about the class system and vocab at the beginning, but the kids loved it :)
Lisa - thanks! It was hard to pick 5, so I took 5 from childhood :)
Old Kitty - thanks! I love Agatha Christie's books - so enjoyable :)
Arlee - it is a great book! I love Mowat's stuff :)
We still have another week and a half to go before summer starts - but I'm hoping it zooms by!
Jolene - I know! They're a lot of my favourite from years and years ago! :)
Jackee - me too! LotR and Anne are such incredible stories - well worth reading more than once :)
Julie - once or twice!! :)
I LOVED Anne growing up - I think I read the entire series 3 times!
Beth - you crack me up! It's really hard to choose just 5 - and then to only give a sentence for each :)
They made some movies out of some of your favorite books. Never Cry Wolf is on my TBR pile.
I've read And Then There Were None more than once, but in between times I forgot who did it. Now that I remember the answer, I haven't read it again.
I've only read it once, but I'm sure the Hunger Games trilogy is something I'll be able to read time and time again.
I've read the Agatha Christie book and LOTR.
I've never tired of reading my Anne McCaffrey books or Watership Down.
Susan - I think you will love it! Mowat is a terrific writer - he draws you in and makes you care! :)
Susan - that's the reason I've stopped reading most of Christie's books again. I get about halfway through & I remember the ending. Maybe in another decade or so... :)
I agree - I think Hunger Games is going to be one of those books for me too!
Diane - McCaffrey is another one of my favourites! LOVE the world of Pern. Who wouldn't want to be a gold rider! :)
Anne is on my list, too :) And I absolutely loved The Giver. I have never read Agatha Christie... guess it's probably about time!
I haven't read any of these...yet.
I could read Alice in Wonderland, James and the Giant Peach, and The Bell Jar over and over again. I lost count, but I believe I read each one at least three times.
Kim - the Giver is so good!! When I got to the revelation about the apple, I had to go back and reread to see if she'd ever mentioned... well you know. And of course she hadn't. Amazing!
Medeia - Love James & the Giant Peach - such a well done story. I have to admit I never enjoyed Alice as a kid - I'll have to try it again one day. :)
Loved The Giver. It was so good.
What a great blog challenge! I love the one's where you get to talk about all the books you love!!! Always a great feeling!
I love The BFG, The Red Heels, and Harry Potter series (to name a few).
I have The Giver. Still haven't had a chance to read it. Hopefully I get to it sometime soon.
good stuff, jemi... 'the giver' i've not even heard of; will look for it after my big move at month end....
Loved The Giver by Lois Lowry. I've reread Harry Potter and The Accidental Tourist, and To Kill a Mockingbird more than once. When I was a kid, I read books over and over.
Anne of Green Gables is definitely on my list. Love love LOVE!
What a wonderful list - 4 books I love and 1 I hadn't heard of.
Never Cry Wolf sounds like a great read: 'honest, perceptive, adventurous and full of wry humour' - what's not to love? :-)
Wonderful to find another Agatha Christie fan - I have a box of her books. I'll have to put the other on my to read list. :)
Love The Lord of the RIngs!
I've seen Anne of Green Gables and Lord of the Rings on several other participant's list - read them both. I have to look up your other entries. Thanks for the great recommendations - I'm a new follower :)
Jen - I know - it's such fun to talk about books we love! :) I stuck with favourites from my childhood for the most part - but otherwise Harry Potter would be right up there!
Susanne - I think you'll absolutely love it! It's such a beautifully crafted book! :)
Laughing wolf - thanks!! I think you'll love the Giver - great story line! Good luck with that move!!
Theresa - Me too. All of these are ones I first read in elementary school. Awesome books! :)
Talli - me too! I reread Anne a few months back to see if the book still held the magic for me. It definitely does! :)
KC - if you love the others I've listed I think you'll love Never Cry Wolf. Mowat's a Canadian writer, but I know his books have sold well world wide as well :)
Jo - I love Agatha Christie's work. I read a lot of them in grade 7 & 8 - they really hooked me!
Heidi - me too! What a great imagination - that world has become so real to so many!
Gwen - welcome and thanks for the follow!! :)
These are all books I've read over and over - I hope you enjoy them!
Yes, I've read Lord of the Rings many times now and I think I might read it again, I love it so much :)
Lynda - LotR is well worth reading multiple times! It's so well done :)
Love your list of favourite books! Agatha Christie, Tolkien and LM Montgomery would be on my list too! I think I'd cheat and lump all my favourite MG/YA together into one :-)
i LOVE that you put Never Cry Wolf on here...it's is one of my childhood favorites. And I loved that you quoted Anne of Green Gables for another book description!
I loved NEVER CRY WOLF, too. And Anne? Of course!
Lord of the Rings will always take my number 1 slot. I use THE GIVER in my classroom - it sparks amazing discussions from the kids.
Deniz - that's a great idea! It was too hard to pick more contemporary ones - there are so many good ones! :)
Lydia - thanks! Mowat has written so many great books - but I think that's my favourite of his :)
Anne is eminently quotable, isn't she? :)
Ali - I'm so glad to hear of so many people knowing Never Cry Wolf - it's a fabulous book with an great message! :)
Leslie - me too! The Giver has so many great discussion points - it's hard to STOP the kids talking!!
And LotR is so great!!
Wow! You are great at writing pitches! :D I could (and do) read HP over and over. Well, most of the time I listen, but you know. He he he.
When I first discovered Agatha Christie books as a teenager it was like discovering a whole new world. They intrigued me. The book you've chosen had a very different title when I was a kid but pc has banned it. Another favourite is Murder on the Orient Express.
Lisa - Thanks! I LOVE Harry as well - definitely high up on my list. If I had a bit more time, I'd re-read the series before I see the movie!
Rosalind - I'd forgotten that! I love Murder on the OE too. I read that to one or 2 of my Grade 8 classes as well. They loved it! :)
Just missed the deadline. I'll check back again. LOVED "Anne of Green Gables" and (sap) "Wizard of Oz."
THE LORD OF THE RINGS is probably more read than the Bible :) WHich,as an atheist, I actually love and support :)
Anne of Green Gables used to be my favorite book as a kid. :) And The Giver is pretty awesome too.
Thanks for sharing!
~TRA
http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
I have never heard of Never Cry Wolf, but it sounds like a great book. I'll have to check it out!
One book I love to read over and over again is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi.
Heidi - I love the Wizard of Oz - my favourite movie of all time! I sing "if I only had a brain" with my students all the time! :)
Dezzy - I'm right with you on that one! :) LOVE Tolkein!
Red Angel - thanks! I love both of those. I reread Anne a few months back and she still holds all that magic for me! :)
Golden Eagle - I LOVE Charlotte Doyle too! It's such a great plot and the characters are terrific!
I think you'd enjoy Never Cry Wolf too!
Wow, great picks, Jemi. You should now be a pro at summing up all your stuff in one sentence each. ;)
Tara - thanks! I wish it was as easy for our own stuff!! :)
I haven't read any of these books - hanging head in shame. I must read LOTR!
Ellie Garratt
Ellie - LotR is fabulous!!! Such great characters and action :)
To this day, The Giver is one of my all-time favorite books. It's just unbelievably well-written. The economy of phrasing, how each word is the perfect word and no more... augh. I could read that book endlessly and not get tired of it!
Meagan - I agree - The Giver is absolute magic. My students always love it when I read it :)
This is so hard to do!
I was just tagged in a - 5 books that have changed your life...
It's way too hard!!!
xx
Michelle - you're so right! There are dozens and dozens of books that have been so important to me over the years! It's impossible to narrow it down to just 5 :)
Hi, great list of books! I used to read Agatha Christie books a lot too!
Nas - thanks! I read a TON of Christie's books growing up. She was totally brilliant! :)
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