bookmeme! et cetera!

[dira]

From lomedet, among others:

"This can be a quick one. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes."

(And like she said browngirl said, these are, ahaha, not always recommendations.)

1. Baby Island - Carol Ryrie Brink
2. A Place Called Home - Lori Wick
3. The Conquest - Jude Deveraux
4. Good Night, Mr. Tom - Michelle Magorian
5. The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
6. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
7. The Vor Game - Lois McMaster Bujold
8. Deerskin - Robin McKinley
9. The Immortals - Tracy Hickman
10. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
11. An Exchange of Hostages - Susan R. Matthews
12. Murder at the War - Mary Monica Pulver
13. The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
14. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
15. Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes - Neil Gaiman

I have a very good memory for words and stories, so a pretty significant fraction of the books I've read will always stick with me, but I set my mind toward the formative ones. These all were important in one way or another, or represented something important--though if I hadn't realized some way into my fifteen minutes that I read all the books I'd then come up with before graduating high school, I probably would have included Watership Down instead of Sandman. (They are listed in roughly the order I first read them, because I am anal like that.)

Then, ahaha, I tried to do the same thing with fic (because for the last eight years or so most of my really memorable and formative reading has been fic). THIS SECTION OF THE MEME IS UNTESTED, PLEASE EXCUSE... EVERYTHING. As above, it's just fifteen that stick with me that I thought of in fifteen minutes, not my absolute favorites or whatever.

These are, uh, also not necessarily recs.*

1. Generations (I don't remember the author and am kind of terrified of what I will find if I go looking--it was a huge X-Files epic series, Mulder/Scully and eventually Skinner/Mrs. Scully, and there were babies and extended family and I loved it to death when I was fourteen.)
2. Guerillas by Helen
3. Kink by Rhys
4. MPREG by Rhys
5. Dancing on Glass - Em Brunson
6. Small Fry by James and Mad Poetess
7. A Critique of Pure Reason by Annakovsky
8. Tea and Biscuits by Wesleysgirl, Byrne and Magpie
9. With Six You Get Eggroll by Speranza
10. Murder Ballad by waxjism
11. Strange Loops by AuKestrel
12. Lust Over Pendle by AJ Hall
13. Parallel Connections over Symmetric Spaces by viggorlijah
14. The World Turned Upside Down by Shalott
15. Une Femme n'est pas Un Homme by fallingfortruth and spleenjournal

* By which I mostly just mean that MURDER BALLAD SCARRED ME FOR LIFE, OKAY? OKAY. I read it three weeks into discovering Due South fandom and I feel it explains a lot about me as a fic writer. Also DON'T READ THE LAST PART OF DANCING ON GLASS. AND IF YOU DO PLEASE DON'T THEN HOLD IT AGAINST ME FOR THREE OR MORE YEARS. I'M SORRY. I DIDN'T KNOW. /o\

Comments

[reginagiraffe]

I'm just now reading the sequel to The Sparrow. I'm enjoying it so far...

[dira]

I read The Sparrow and Children of God fairly close to when they came out (so: when I was in high school, and in a very different religious/spiritual place than now) and I've never reread them. I've never been sure what they would look like from this vantage point. But The Sparrow was about the fourth book to pop into my head for this list. *g*

[treewishes]

I'm so with you on the scarred for life. There is more than one Em Brunson fic that I actually had to write an ending, just for myself. /o\

So I assume you never read If You Are Prepared? Because that one broke me.

I may have to try this meme....

[dira]

I think I actually did that with Dancing on Glass, and then forgot that ending only existed in my head and recced it to strangecobwebs without sufficient warnings and SHE STILL HAS NOT FORGIVEN ME AND I DON'T REALLY BLAME HER.

Also, no, I have not read that one. I never read all that extensively in HP, and I think the only Snape/Harry I remember reading is A Stitch in Time, where they're seven years old together and Ron and Hermione take care of them and ♥ ♥ ♥

Ahem. I mean. No, I missed that one!

[montanaharper]

Because that one broke me.

Oh, God. IYAP.

You know me, right? You know that fic very rarely makes me cry? I sobbed for ages at the end if IYAP. I mean, I love it and everything, but... *sniffle*

[treewishes]

I know -- ! I *never* cry at fic. But I just read the last chapter of IYAP again, and got all teary. It's heartwrenching, but -- oh, so beautiful. *snif*

[starfish]

OMG, Baby Island! I had totally forgotten about that book! Wow. I need to do this meme.

[dira]

♥ ♥ ♥

I still have the copy I read when I was seven. Jean and Mary seemed so grown up!

[amalthia]

Was An Exchange of Hostages really good? I have the book but just haven't read it!

[dira]

I absolutely adore that book and am possibly not rational on the topic. *g*

If you, uh, have a reasonably strong stomach and a thing for morally ambiguous woobies caught between a rock and a hard place--plus some hardcore UST of the master/slave variety--then I believe you will enjoy it.

[amalthia]

It does sound like my kind of story!

[lomedet]

The Sparrow!!!

I read it right as I was starting grad school, and, for a while, it had an intense effect on the way I thought about suffering and God.

and doing this with fic is genius - perhaps I'll try. (although I'm a little scared to. I don't know what will emerge from the depths of my brain!)

[dira]

I remember trying to get my mother (who worked at a Catholic church) to read it, I think mainly because I wanted to be able to talk about it with someone approaching from approximately the same angle. In retrospect, I think that book might be party responsible for me continuing to regard myself as a Catholic for as long as I did. *g*

And, man, yeah, doing it with fic was fun! EXCEPT NOW I WANT TO REREAD EVERYTHING.

[lambourngb]

Also DON'T READ THE LAST PART OF DANCING ON GLASS. AND IF YOU DO PLEASE DON'T THEN HOLD IT AGAINST ME FOR THREE OR MORE YEARS. I'M SORRY. I DIDN'T KNOW. /o\

Man where was that warning when I needed it ? Back when I devoured everything in the Sports Night fandom... Of course, I should have known, she wrote an epic Bashir-whump that the name fails me on that also chewed me up into little pieces and then spat me out on the unforgiving fandom sidewalk.

That said, I still love the story, but I totally wrote an ending in my head as well. (I also recced the story back when I thought there was an end!)

[dira]

I think my made-up ending even had, like, role-reverse H/C, where - after Casey turns out to be TOTALLY OKAY NOW after a bone marrow transplant or whatever - Danny gets sick or has some kind of breakdown, just due to all the stress of taking care of Casey and ... and then I believe there were a lot more cuddles. And then they lived happily ever after for a very long time, THE END.

...or it could end wherever it actually ended. /o\

[strangecobwebs]

*sigh* I guess I forgive you...

[dira]

*beams*

You're the best.