The books that made life worth reading

As a lifetime reader, I have a lot to say about books, the importance of reading, and my own personal experience about finding joy through books; however, since Mrs. Nester has only requested a description of four. I will have to limit my wide array, down to the most impactful, life-changing, and memorable books. 

 Mouse with a Blackberry: When I was two years old I had an obsession with books…well, with my mother reading me books. In particular I loved the book The Blackberry Mouse, or as I called it “Mouse with a Blackberry.”

It tells the story of Mouse and his blackberry bush. He loved his blackberries, but he was greedy with them. As countless neighborhood friends came by requesting a blackberry, he always said no.

Then when the mean Mr. Fox tried to steal his blackberries he was left helpless, but his friends came to the rescue and saved the blackberries by fighting off the nasty thief.

After his blackberries were returned, Mouse felt so awful that he had been rude to his friends, so he hosted a blackberry party and all his friends came. They had blackberry jam and tarts, and every summer after, when his blackberries bloomed, Mouse hosted a blackberry party for his friends.

Narnia: I was very much my father’s child when I was little, and so my favorite thing to do was watch the Narnia movies with him (he LOVED C.S. Lewis). When I was, I think, 10 my father gifted me his old Narnia books. I read them with such vigor and excitement that I literally wore out the spine. To this day I have dreams that I am in Narnia fighting the White Witch alongside the Pevensie siblings, and C.S. Lewis remains one of my favorite writers.

I read many other book series as a kid, but there is something so distinctly different about this one. It contains talking animals, christian references, but it doesn’t just follow one set of characters. This book series details so many different time frames, from the creation of Narnia to its destruction. It has so many characters, in fact, that at the front of each book there is a three-four page list of character descriptions. 

With the reading of these books (and the watching of the movies) came my first crush, Edmund Pevensie; my first daredevil moment, I was a skater girl for a year;  and my first heartbreak, the Pevensies had to leave and never return. My shouts of “they belong there” changed nothing: the books were written long before my birth.

A Separate Peace: Mrs. Hitt, wherever you are, you and this book changed my life. I am a reader because of this book. In the middle of the pandemic I read this book. I had given up on reading, and this book changed everything. I read a single chapter, and then I finished the rest in a single day.

A Separate Peace is the journey of main character Gene on his way through boarding school, friendship, and competition with his best friend Phineas. Along the way Phineas dies, Gene deals with guilt, and you watch as a boy turns back into a child and then into a man. The betrayal, the sadness, and just everything about it still draws me in today.

It has every quality a book should, boarding school, check; cute boys, check; death, check; sadness, check. The darkness and the relatability that tie together to make this book so wonderful is breathtaking. The skill John Knowles had to have in order to write this so perfectly is astonishing. I will forever be jealous of his talent, which as he taught us, is not a good thing to be.

People always say they would give anything to read a book again for the first time, this is that book. This is my book. If I had to sell my house, family, and dogs to re-read this book I would do it. (Anything but my Harry Styles collection.)

It is not even the death that is the impactful part of the book, it is the emotions and feelings that Gene went through after the fact that make this book so extraordinary. 10 out of 10 stars.

Looking For Alaska: Room 43, Miles Halter’s own personal prison. Just down the hall from the cigarette smoking, book collecting, and mentally unstable Alaska Young. This past summer I stole Looking For Alaska from Emily one random day while I was at her house. I read this old, smelly, perfect book in a total of 6 hours. John Greene, I love you.

His ability to write a male character that I was able to relate to is mind boggling. I have never related to a male character in all my life, had a crush on them yes, but never related to them. When I tell you I sobbed for my man, Miles, I mean I shook the whole house, the ground moved, and it was noted by seismic charts. My heart still has a tear in it from the emotions I went through with this book. My inability to put it down meant I went from smiling and laughing, to considering state assisted suicide in less than 2 hours. This book embodies some sort of distant life in my head that I truly believe I have lived through.

The realness is what dragged me in, or rather, the plain description that life sucked. As I first began to read it, it was Alaska that I was drawn to; the way she collected books throughout her life that if she hadn’t read yet she at least planned to. I love this because I am also guilty of collecting books.

Then she was a smoker. Now, while I am not a smoker, I definitely was in a past life because all I have to do is see the word cigarette and I get excited. I had cigarettes and books, I was already invested, and then Johnny had to go and throw in a curly-headed, brunette boy with a fascination for the girl next door and the meaning of life. It was as if he crawled into my brain, looked at my dreams awhile, and plagiarized each one. (You’re welcome, John…just by the way.)

We had roomie Chip, we were doing good in our classes, everything was great, and then freaking John decided to turn it into a total car crash (poor choice of words) and be a turd-butt. I hate this book. I also love it so much and would sell my soul for this book. It changed my life, my morals, and even my perspective. Slay, Johnny Boy, slay.