From: maggie_bo at comcast.net <maggie_bo>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 21:51:11 +0000

"Reading made many things tolerable, and that in itself was life-changing."

  How true! Like many of you, it is difficult for me to classify any one book as positively "life-changing" in a dramatic way. Yet, books were one of the biggest parts of my childhood; they gave me comfort, hope, and inspiration; they kept me company when I was lonely and helped me imagine who I wanted to become.

Some favorites:

I read Watership Down upwards of 20 times from the time I was in 6th grade through high school. Why? To this day I'm not sure. I can't put my finger on what in that book obviously spoke to me so deeply. But I did love those rabbits.

I adored the Anne of Green Gables books. Her ability find excitement and wonder in the everday through the use of imagination was inspiring to me.

A book called Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp was another favorite. It's a ghost story, set in the early 1900s, with some romance tossed in for good measure. After I read it at the age of 10, I deemed it my favorite book of all time. Interestingly, a few years ago I went on Amazon to order it since I had lost my copy after lending it out, and discovered review after review of women writing in to say how this was their ABSOLUTE FAVORITE book from childhood.

I'll add my vote for A Wrinkle in Time, too. And I loved Franny and Zoey (even more than the more popular Catcher in the Rye) as a teen. And so many more . . .

Maggie Bokelman SLIS University of Wisconsin graduate
Received on Wed 24 May 2006 04:51:11 PM CDT