My Three Books – Our Favourites

A Mummy Too asked the magic if a little impossible question: What are you three favourite books? The three books are divided into childhood, adulthood and parenthood.

Books have always been part of my life – I’ll read the back of a bottle of shampoo just to devour a few extra words.  I’m amazingly fortunate to come from a family where the joy of reading was at the centre of our home.  It was never a case of being made to read, we would willingly pick up a book. 

An abiding memory of my childhood is being caught with a torch reading under the covers long after I was suppose to turn the light out on a school night!

My love of reading has grown with me so much so that a mini library is increasingly becoming a ‘must’ in our hunt for a Brady bunch bunker!

I can’t help but be suspicious of people who say they either don’t read or worse – don’t see the point.  Of course reading brings you knowledge, not to mention religion and reference but more importantly sometimes there is no point, I seek those solitary afternoons where your mind doesn’t look for direction instead gets lost in layer upon layer of words and imagination – pure bliss.

Enough of me fawning over manicured and inked paper – Here are my #3 Books

Childhood

Favourite one or one hundred? This is the hardest of them all – I’ll go as far to say that the books I read defined my childhood. If nothing else they were my conversation starters, so the chatty me is down to the book silk worm as a child!

The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett.  It’s an old fashioned, solid children’s book full of drama and suspense.  It’s the first time I can remember being reluctant to watch the resulting film in case it somehow did a disservice to the author, especially as it was written in the early part of the 20^th Century. Whether you are eight or eighty there is room on your bookshelf and more importantly your heart for The Secret Garden.

Adulthood

I’m sticking my neck out with this one but Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.  This was the first book I read by Atwood and it took me to read all of her other novels before I could return to this one and make some sense of it.  The darkness and perpetual complexity even awkwardness of the story line and characters makes it more than a book. It’s a challenge and for someone who doesn’t like to be beaten, this is the best kind. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea in fact it’s fair to say that it is a fringe book. I never did like being a sheep so why would it be any different when it came to reading.

 

Parenthood

This part is pretty easy. Whilst Boo enjoyed being read to in the womb – yes I was that crazy pregnant woman talking to my bump at the airport in the hope of trying to narrow down our choice for the plane! She has been slow on the uptake since existing independently; I mean surely she is behind if she hasn’t made a dent in Shakespeare’s greatest by the time she turns one?

Baby’s Very First Touchy Feely Animal Book. It does exactly what it says, yet the real beauty is that even at such a young age there is way for Mummy and Boo to connect through reading.  I am so looking forward to bedtime reading together, and this book allows the seeds to be sown for a lifetime of reading.

 

So there you have my #3 Books. You can tell a great deal of a person by the book they’re reading, so goodness knows what my choices make me.  Even now I’m fighting the urge to go back and change my adulthood choice. What are your three books? If you’re not a parent then why not your favourite childhood, classic and modern?

Despite it being the middle of the night, I am a renewed addict so am off to bed to ready by light of my blackberry a chic lit given to me at Christmas.  Happy Reading.

P.S. Is it too late to mention Rebecca or The Time Travellers Wife or Frankenstein?!?!….