Facebook fun with lists

Facebook was teeming with a copy-paste-and-annoy-all-your-book-and-non-book-friends-fun-thing that asked people to list ten books that meant something to them.

It went like this:

I have been challenged by XXX to list 10 books that have stayed with me for some reason. Don't think too hard. They don't need to be the "right" books or even great works of literature, just the ones that affected you in some way. Tag 10 friends, including me, so I can see your list. I would like to see lists from: XXX x 10

This was my list. Hard to make up a list when you love a million books but I just spouted out books from my memory file to my finger tips:

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
2. Little House on the Prairie (The Long Winter mostly) Laura Ingalls Wilder.
3. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
4. You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr
5. We Band of Angels by Elizabet M.Norman.
6. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
7. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
8. Revelations in the Bible. (as well as other books)
9. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
10. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
11 Every book by my author friends. (I know I am cheating here.. but it's only fair)

Then we took it a step further. Why do they mean something to us? 

It took it to a higher realm and boy howdy we had fun. 

So I wrote this: 

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis At first I read these books when I was young for fun then I found a Narnia companion which solidified my faith even more, such great books as they can be read on several levels. Which, to me, is genius.

2. Little House on the Prairie (The Long Winter mostly) Laura Ingalls Wilder. LOVED Laura and family as they taught us to get out there and go for your dreams .. the grit and determination and love they had for the land and each other to survive through all the elements of wanting to live on the prairie is phenomenal. This book in particular is a true story of what to do when life hands you a blizzard! I felt their chill and their determination to stay alive until the spring.

 3. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
THIS book was painfully long and yet after all was said and done when I closed the Kindle I wanted more. So much more. I read this over Christmas into the new year and didn't pay much attention to it then all of a sudden that strange feeling overcame me that I was reading one of the great American novels, which sounds crazy but I think some would understand what I mean. That world she created so dramatically and wonderfully through words will always stay with me.

 4. You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr
Why this resonated.. a couple move to Cali, she holds a book club for directors and producers (they want ideas for movies and she wanted to bring literature to the.) It's about a marriage, faith (Jewish) and finding our way back to where our heart lies in our faith and how it fits into our marriage. And books, lots about books.. brilliant story.

 5. We Band of Angels by Elizabet M.Norman.
This book is a book that every nurse should read. It's the historical story of military medical professionals (focusing on nurses) who had an idyllic deployment to the beautiful Philippines. WW2 breaks out and their world shatters as they have to run for the jungle. From there, their heroic efforts (while very ill themselves) in aiding the physicians in everything from wound care to surgical procedures in the wild eventually hiding out in a cave will never leave me. These people are the truest form of nursing and heroism.

 6. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
You can love people from afar on the premise of sharing books in every sense. It's a love story but the love is based on literature.

 7. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
I have yapped about this wonderful comic/narrative book about depression ad nauseum. If you have depression and/or simply need to explain it to others because they just don't get it, buy it for you and for them. It's perfect. 

 8. Revelation in the Bible. (as well as other books)
I love to know what is going to happen even if it's in symbolic language. This prompted a deep investigation into what was being told to us by God with our future. I am nosy like that.

9. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Society. The book resonates today, how we can absolutely manipulate other humans through class distinction and within that class a single subtle look. One of the best books I ever read/ This is about why we have social norms and how they hurt us on so many levels. 

 10. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
When I stopped reading for a while this was one of the books I bought used that took me to Spain a bookstore with the most rich characters and plot ever. I can't even recommend it enough I would give everyone a copy if I could. It was a perfect book to jump back into the literature world. 

 11 Every book by my author friends. (I know I am cheating here.. but it's only fair) I have good friends (and a husband of a friend) who have written books, they have stuck to my ribs, heart and soul as I know the authors and their friendships. It's like they sat me down in a coffee shop and told me a story. Love them all.

I had to cheat there, I do love them all but needed to be fair. 

The second part of this exercise was fun, not everyone participated as for one, it totally constipated everyone's wall with all the tagging going on but the lists! The lists were amazing, books I never heard of, books I wanted to re-read, and books that said BUY ME NOW DAMMIT! I was subdued into a vast gratefulness to be surrounded by book lovers from all over on my social networking home.