“All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes — characters even — caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.” – Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale
I have loved to read since I was a little girl. I was always encouraged to read. I remember the time in elementary school when they called my mother because I wasn’t checking out books from the library. The elementary school library was divided into two sections. The section to the left was for students in third grade and below. The section to the right was for fourth and fifth grade students. I wanted to check out from that section, however, I was only in third grade. At that time, I wanted to become lost in worlds beyond the basic children’s books.
I have continued to the love the worlds of books. What draws me most to books? I always thought it was plot. When I go to a book store and look for a book, the first thing I do is read the plot synopsis. However, it is not just the plot of the book that holds me to the book. I have come to believe that the best books are those that have intriguing characters and settings. Looking back over my grad school work, I found that of the 40+ papers that I had written, more than half of them detail some kind of analysis on character and/or setting.
For me, if a character comes alive in a book – meaning that I can identify with that character or that character is someone who I wish to become then that character is a part of a good book. If I can visualize a setting and see how it interweaves with characters and the events of a plot, then that setting is part of good book.
I started this blog this summer to share thoughts on books and writing. I took a little break from posting to think about where I wanted to take this blog at this point. Since I want the primary focus of this blog to be on literature and the love of literature, I decided that it was worth sharing my top ten favorite books and why I love them. In doing so, I hope to show why reading and writing is so important to me, and perhaps to get a reader to explore the world of a new book. For the next week or so, my posts will be my top ten books. The list is varied – fiction, nonfiction, classic, contemporary, popular, children’s. I guarantee I will say something about their characters and settings.
The Flitting Butterfly 