Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
I’ve stuck to six books for this week’s topic, partly for time constraints and partly because I really restricted myself to books I read quite a long time ago, that I want to reread at some point. This was such a fun topic though, and it’s fun to dive so far back, as usually I stick to my more recent reads for these sort of lists.
Top Ten Books I’m Worried I Might Not Love the Second Time Around
Genre: Historical
Age: Children
Published: January 1st, 1973
I adored this book as a kid, totally taken in with Carrie’s story. It helped I was drawn to stories about evacuees anyway, but this had the additional draw of actually being set in Wales! I hadn’t read many books in my own country at that point, and this was a revelation of the sort only kids can get. Although I’ve been tempted to get a copy and reread this over the years, the worry of whether or not I’d enjoy it as much as always at the back of my mind.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Genre: Fantasy
Age: Children
Published: January 1st, 1956
I had all of these books as a kid, in a small book set, and I read them over and over, sometimes in order, sometimes picking out particular ones, and though I can still acknowledge how great they were, there is a part of me that worries if I read them now, it might hit too differently. I’m not sure, but they’re definitely ones I do want to read again, at some point, still.
Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper
Genre: Paranormal
Age: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Published: January 1st, 2005
As far as I remember, this book fell into a high Middle Grade, young Young Adult age range, and it hit me right in the exact spot when I could fully appreciate it. I still remember coming across it the library, and eagerly grabbing it. I never managed to finish the Vampirates series though, and I’ve often considered going back and doing just that, but I’m not sure how it might feel now.
Love You to Death by Meg Cabot
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age: Young Adult
Published: November 1st, 2000
Meg Cabot initially wrote these books under a penname, along with the Missing series, to keep them separated from her less paranormal works, but by the time I picked this up it was under Cabot’s name rather than the penname, and I read it because I’d enjoyed Princess Diaries, but I was kind of crossing into more of a “ooo vampires, ghosts and werewolves, oh my” teenage phase, so this was something I eagerly picked up. Again, I never got around to finishing the series, but I do still have my copy of this, and it’s tempting to try it again, but like the ones mentioned before, I do wonder if it would be as good the next time around.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Genre: Sci-Fi
Age: Young Adult
Published: September 14th, 2008
I devoured this series. It got recommended to me when I was in uni, and when I finished the first one on the train home and had a fairly long stop over between trains, I picked up both 2 and 3 at the train station. I finished the whole series before I went back to uni after the weekend. It’s often crossed my mind about returning to it with ‘fresh’ eyes, but part of me always hesitates.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Genre: Sci-Fi
Age: Young Adult
Published: August 16th, 2011
This one is a bit different from the other books on the list – I was older when I read it, back in 2014, and though I really enjoyed it when I first picked it up, though I have wondered about rereading it over the years, I think over the last 10 years I have learnt more, experienced more, and this is one of those books I really don’t think would hold up if I were to read it now, considering some of the portrayals of women in it and certain events over the last decade. I don’t think there’s anything massively wrong with the book, or with Cline, but I think this book is very much a early 2010s one that I wouldn’t get the same enjoyment out of now.
Have you reread books from your childhood/teen years? How did you find the experience? I admit, I don’t reread a whole lot, but this post has made me consider trying some of these again. Do many of the books you remember fondly hold up?
Unwrapping Words 