I suppose I would have to say that the first book to influence me was Little Women by Louisa M Alcott but then their have been many that helped shape my views and delighted or informed me.The list would be endless and of course it is an ongoing process.I have worked among books since I was 16 and the first library I worked in was my university,I just spent my lunch breaks pouring through the stock.Biographies,art books,poetry travel,natural history it was all there to be had free! Being read to as a child and then again as an adult has been an intimate experience.Every Autumn I yearn for Lord Of The Rings,it is the setting out into the unkown landscape of the imagination that draws me.! Well if I go on we shall all starve here so I am away to the kitchen!
Oh lord that is a tough one. I would say "A hovel in the hills" by Elizabeth West. Her true story of how she and husband Alan, escaped the "rat race" by buying a derelict cottage in North Wales and their quest for self sufficiency. I have re-read it several times and just love her "mend and make do" outlook to a simpler more rewarding life.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting choice ,I enjoyed that one too. I also like the idea of that kind of life.The idealized family life in Little Women also had that aspect to it.However I think I yearned for a big family and an old house with an attic.!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kath!
I was typing In The Country of Last Things by Paul Auster but I change my mind, definitely Holy The Firm by Annie Dillard.
ReplyDeleteOh this book maybe didn't change my life but made such a huge impression in my mind that I couldn't "shake" it for a long time. I was in high school and we had to read The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski for an english class. I guess it intrigued me and disgusted me all at the same time and really couldn't forget about it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your interesting comments.,I shall look up your choices !
ReplyDeletewell Angela, I went to a catholic high school 30 years ago and I have to say that it sort of shocked me that the nuns allowed our teacher to let us read this book.
ReplyDeletei had two, angela: the first two books i remember reading, fresh from saturday afternoons at the library:
ReplyDeleteanne of green gables
&
a tearjerker called 'nobody's boy"
it was the first time of many i would feel deeply cry deeply while reading :)
What a beautiful blog; love all your autumn images below and even the image son the side bar.
ReplyDeleteThe book that made the most profound impact on me ever was "Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield. When I read it as a young woman, it felt like coming home. Suddenly the world made sense.
Thank you so much for your visit and a kind comment, please come back again.;)
xoxo
OOOh, so difficult, but as a teen, 3 books really caught my imagination, "My family & other animals" by Gerald Durrell. "Cider with Rosie" by Laurie Lee & & " The Country child" by Alisson Uttley, a wonderfully old fashioned day to day life of a little girl living in the country at the end of the 19th century, memories of things long past. Of course the lord of the rings is another fave, it goes without saying. Lately my most memorable book was "the time travellers wife". I do love books, a visit to the library when i was a child was always such a treat to me. I am such an avid reader, so having to choose is very, very hard!! x
ReplyDeleteAll Alison Uttley's books are wonderful,many people do not realise that she wrote many books for adults as well as children.Lark Rise to Candleford,however, had the greatest impact on me.Strangely enough it was recommended to me by my dentist when I was 30 and ever since I have been fascinated by the domestic side of our history.This book led me on to the Alison Uttley books and many others of a similar nature.
ReplyDeleteI always hope it's going to be whatever I'm reading at the moment! (Come back home soon - the house is full of men!)
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