Books I'd Like To Read Again For The First Time

You know the kind of book that kept you up all night, or that made you think in a whole new way. Maybe you still love it, but it's lost that first read feeling, or maybe you have read it again years later and wonder sadly why it no longer resonates. But here's my list of books that I wish I could read for the very first time all over again:

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Read this huge huge book in one night, unable to go to bed with it unfinished. I recall watching the sun come up through the windows and realizing I would have to go to my university classes soon, but being so mesmerized by the way she brought the Arthurian legend to life, that I really didn;t care.

Howard's End by EM Forster - This introduced me to the intellectual world of the Shlegel sisters and the way their world danced in and out of reality before colliding with it struck me qith some force. Also, I love the old house, Howard's End itself, and wonder if that is part of the reason I live where I do?

Flambards by KM PEyton - Horse mad at 8, I devoured these books feeling so grown up and sophisticated reading about what seemed to me to be the glamourous life of Christina and the decaying mansion she called home as the Great War approached.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding - Started this maybe for a grade 8 class and finished it in one go, sitting so long my hands were cold and stiff and when I looked up I was surprised to find darkness had fallen. I went downstairs seeking family, warmth and familiarity...anything to get rid of the strange feeling that lingered after the book was done.

Anne of Green Gables/Emily of New Moon by LM Montgomery - I went on an Anne/Emily kick in the summer of 1982, when my best friend for the UK came for a visit and we went to PEI for two weeks. I was 12, Anne was new to me, and the two trilogies were an easy way to while away the evenings in a tent.

Atonement by Ian McEwan. You can never recapture the first time you read this languidly deceptive book. Sent chills down my spine.

To Serve Them All My Days by RF Delderfield - One of my first "grown up" books that started my love affair with the whole Edwardian period of rural Britain

The Princess Bride by William Goldman - Witty and clever, it was the movie and more (a rarity too in that I saw the movie first, and love both equally).

The Sunne In Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman - Richard III, need I say more.

Honourable Mentions: The Wine of Angels (Merrily Watkins detective series), The Road (except I won't read it again - too much for me, but brilliant), The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter. Also some books that were among my early reads and got right into my soul so I can't recall a time without them ie: King Arthur legends, Robin Hood.