Top Ten Books I Want to Reread

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. You can find upcoming topics at their Top Ten Tuesday page.

1. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

Every time I am asked what my favorite novel is, I say Crimson Petal without hesitation. This book blew me away when I first read it, and I have never had a book draw me in like this one did before or since. However, it's been six years since I've read it and my memory is getting hazy. I can only remember some little details of the characters now and not much else. I have to reread it soon so that I can have the pleasure of reliving the experience, and also so that I can start talking it up to my friends and have something more to say than "It's amazing! Read it!"

2. Abarat and Days of Magic, Nights of War  by Clive Barker

I love everything about this series. The characters are amazing, the fantasy world is fascinating and unique, and the original artwork is beautiful and the icing on the cake. The third book, Absolute Midnight, is coming out in April (well, hopefully it is--the release date has been pushed back about nine dozen times), and I definitely need to reread this series before then.

3. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Fantastic book! At the time I was reading this book, I hadn't added a book to my favorites list in what felt like years, but I added The Namesake immediately after finishing it. Gogol is one of my favorite characters in literary fiction. Plus, I was a huge fan of Russian literature before I even read this book, and I love how big of a part Russian lit played in this novel. It made me want to reread Gogol's short stories (so I guess I'm unofficially adding that collection to this list).

4. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

This book always makes it on my top five favorites list, no contest. I knew I had found a new author that I could read everything by him and love every single book. I want to make a confession to you all, though--I only read the first 2/3 of this book. I don't know what happened. I think I just got distracted and before I knew it, the book was due back at the library and I returned it unfinished. I planned to get back to it as soon as possible once I finished the huge stack of books on my nightstand, but I never did. I bought my own copy a couple of years ago. Now I just need to find the time to read it again, all the way to the end this time.

5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I had to read this book for my ninth grade English class and I hated it. However, so many people say it's their favorite Dickens, and I just want to see if my feelings have changed about it or not. I may have just been too young to enjoy it or it could have been the fact that I was reading it for school under a deadline or it could have been because I thought Estella was such a b****. Regardless of why I disliked it the first time, I want to give it a fair shake before I definitively say whether or not I hate this novel.

6. An Alchemy of Mind by Diane Ackerman

I've already read this novel three times (I think that's the most I've ever read one book), and I will be rereading it again (and again). This book started my obsession with all things neuro. And I am so jealous of Ackerman who gets to travel all around the world, observing different species (I mean, she actually plays with baby seals. I want to do that!). I almost stole this book from my high school library. I figured no one would miss it seeing as that I was the only person who had checked it out the entire four years I was there. My conscience wouldn't allow it then, but now I regret not doing it. It would have made a nice souvenir.

7. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

This novel made me want to get out my pen and write and write and write (or, more accurately, get out my laptop and type and type and type. This is the 21st century after all). I never had a book inspire that kind of desire to create before. I'll be looking towards this book as my muse for some time to come.

8. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This is another book that was assigned reading in my ninth grade English class. This one, however, I loved. But since it's been nearly seven years since I read it, all that I know of P&P comes from the Keira Knightley movie (which I also love). I want to get reaquainted with the book now and not rely so much on the film adaptation, no matter how well it may have stayed true to the novel.

9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

This is the first classic I can ever remember reading for pleasure. My public library had a really pretty pastel pink Oxford World Classics Hardcover, and I fell in love with it (both the story and the lovely pocket-sized book). I now have my own miniature-sized Jane Eyre, which I will have to make time to read real soon since I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't watch the movie until I do, and I really want to watch the movie.

10. Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong

It's been a year since I finished The Awakening, and I've been dying to go back and read this series all over again ever since I closed that last book. I love Chloe. She's one of the best, most down-to-earth heroines in YA lit. And Chloe and Derek's relationship is so different from any of other romances that I've come across in the genre. I think this is a series that I can read again and again and not get tired of it.



I could add a bunch more books to this list. I'm really enjoy rereading favorites, though I don't reread more than two or three books a year. It's just so hard to make the decision to read a book I've already read, no matter how much I love it, when there are so many amazing unread books out there. Rereading is particularly a problem for me because so many of my favorite books are really long, which is the main reason why I still haven't gotten to The Crimson Petal and the White (894 pages) and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (613 pages) yet.