Molly over at Ten Block Walk has started a great discussion about the books we'd go back in time to give our younger selves if we could. If it were me, I think I'd stealth stalk my teenage self, leaving single books in unmarked, brown paper wrapped parcels. One on the back step, one on my pillow, one in my locker on that first day of high school...And the deliveries would have to start with Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti. I read that book a couple of years ago and just could not get over how I wish every teenage girl could read it. Like if they did it would help them know who they are and avoid a fair chunk of unnecessary pain. It's a beautiful book and one I highly recommend. Follow-up dropoffs would include The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White (because EEW books rock), Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher (because it would have made me think about things I wasn't thinking about then but should have been), An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (because 14-year-old Angie was in desperate need of a good laugh), and the complete Harry Potter series (because I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven). What books would you love to have read then? Go check out the discussion and leave a comment!
It seems a long time ago now that I first read Shiver -- the first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. But looking back I started it on the plane ride to BEA and finished it there in the conference center, fingers gripping the cover tightly, while sitting on the floor in one of the many autograph lines. And now it's May again and BEA is right around the corner and I emerge from my recent and nasty reading slump stupor to find a copy of Linger sitting in my mailbox like a glove thrown down in the dirt. "I will be the one to pull you out," it whispers to me slyly. "Just open me up and take a sip. I promise--one sip is all it will take." And I look at it with fear and longing written all over my face. "You promise?" I ask intently. "Because it's been a long walk in the cold and I'm not sure I can take another disappointment." "Just open me up," it says, confidence written all over its cover. And so I do. And everythin...
How cool. I have a Deb Caletti book at home that I should read - I've never read any of her stuff!
ReplyDeleteThis is something thats crossed my mind more than once. Strangly, in my late teenage years I had a little Angie-Fairy that would drop books of every kind off in different areas of my life in accordance with what was going at the time. So in a way, you were probably doing for me, what you wished you could do for yourself years ago... How lucky am I?
ReplyDeleteJanssen, I really love her stuff. She writes with such humor and insight. Not just fluff.
ReplyDeleteElisa, I re-live vicariously through your reading, don't I? Lol. You put up with my book pushing like no other.
The Outsiders. It's been a very very long time.
ReplyDeleteStay golden Ponyboy.
Jenny Girl, ooh, good call. Such a wonderful book. Stay cool, Sodapop.
ReplyDelete