This meme showed up on Joel's blog I Would Rather Be Reading the other day, and I really like the idea. I happily opened up a new blog post and drew a blank. Coming up with ten books was way more difficult than I though it would be. If I enjoy a book, I often enjoy it ten times more the second time around. But, as with anytime I'm stuck in a Zelda game, I walked away for a few hours days and the titles came to me!
1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I first read this when I was in 7th grade. While I loved what I understood, I didn’t understand most of it because I was a fairly sheltered 12 year old. I wish I could come across some of the reveals with fresh eyes and a 30 year old’s understanding of the world rather than a 12-year-old's.
2. Persuasion by Jane Austen
At the moment, this is my favorite book of all time. (It changes places with Pride and Prejudice depending on my stage of life.) While I didn’t read it as early as I read Jane Eyre, I read it earlier than I think I was able to understand quite what was going on other than the broad strokes of the story.
I know this is cliché. I actually remember the first time I encountered Harry
Potter. I was in fifth grade. We were supposed to be discussing Tuck Everlasting I think, but my teacher said “Today, I’m going to read you the first chapter of this really amazing book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” I remember running home from school and calling to my mom, “Mom, mom! We have to go buy this amazing book called Harry Potter. It’s so good we’re going to want to own it so let’s just skip the library step and buy it!” I remember how every time a new release came out, I’d read all the books published up to the new one (meaning I’ve read Sorcerer’s Stone more than any other of the books.) And each time the new book came, I’d read it as fast as possible so I could hand it off to my sibling. I remember reading the seventh book in the middle of the night because my sister had dibs on it during waking hours. I got to the scene where Harry is walking into the woods and I had to get up and walk around the house to calm down because I was freaking out so much! I honestly wouldn’t have my Harry Potter Experience any other way. But sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to read all the books one after another without the hype and theorizing. 
4. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I’ve only read this book once – when I was a freshman in high school. I fell in absolute love with it. In fact, I’m fairly certain I’m the only kid in the class who liked it. I’m currently working through all of Dickens, so it’s in the plan to read it again within the next few years, but I really wish I could experience it having no idea what’s going to happen next!
5. Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery.
Out of the eight books in the series, the first three are my favorite. While I was the right age for these, and while I find Anne Shirley such a lovely character and a good friend, I’d really like to see her with fresh eyes again.
6. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
I love this trilogy. I first encountered it in audiobook form when I was a shelver. Listening to books prevented me from reading the books I was putting
away. I loved the books, but I wish my first time with them had been reading rather than listening while distracted.
7. Sabriel by Garth Nix: This is another book I came across as a shelver. I listened to it and really enjoyed the story, though I wish my first encounter had been by print rather than audio. The others in the trilogy are decent as well, but I enjoy Sabriel more.
8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I read this book while pumping in the supply closet at work. I fell in love with it! Of course, I was also reading it in the early stages of going back to work after a pregnancy, so I mainly remember it as being a surreal experience. I’d like to experience the book again with a more grounded mind.
9. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke: This doorstop of a book is Jane Austen meets Charles Dickens meets fantasy. Amazing. I know I’ll be rereading it again, but oh boy do I wish I could read it the first time again just to get the revelations.
10. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen: This book is one of those serendipitous encounters. In eighth grade, we had to read a historical fiction book. The school librarian pulled a cart for us to choose from. I was VERY interested in another book, but was too slow and watched as someone else checked it out. I browsed the cart and petulantly picked this one up because of the Sleeping Beauty title. I devoured the book in a single night, read it again over the course of the week, and wrote quite possibly my best book report ever. I've reread the book many times, and I got my copy signed by the author herself when I saw her give a presentation on the importance of fairy tales. The book has changed meanings so many times as I've reread it over the last 20 years or so. But a part of me really wants the experience of discovering just how the story of Sleeping Beauty connects to the horrors of the Holocaust.
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