Belle Brita

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My Top Ten Life-Changing Books

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10 of the most influential books on my life

A few people on Facebook tagged me in that meme that’s been going around, “10 Books That Have Stayed with You.” Clearly I couldn’t just list the books in my own Facebook status when I have a whole blog available to me.

These books are not in any particular order. Each one is written out as it came to me.

The Entire Harry Potter series

Yes, I’m counting this as one book (and if you follow the link in the first paragraph, so did everyone else). I can thank Kari and Steve, an unnatural ability to speed-read, and the Greenwood library’s book limit for introducing me to Harry Potter. For the Millennium, my family drove out to Denver to celebrate the holidays with my mom’s family. By Christmas Eve, I had already finished the 25 library books I’d brought with me. Luckily, Kari and Steve gave our family the first three Harry Potter books for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and I’ve been hooked ever since. The magic of Harry Potter has had such an influence on my life that my best presents from Dan have all been related to Harry Potter. And he proposed with a hollowed-out Harry Potter book.

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Little Women

I first read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women in the 3rd grade. I read a lot of books that year, but Little Women was the longest. At that age, I was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, and I was on a very high dosage of prednisone. I was scared, I was fat, and I took solace in books. It was better for kids to know me as a reader than as the fat, sick kid. Only as an adult do I realize that kids liked me because I was nice, not because I was smart and a good reader.

Candide

Candide might be the only piece of French literature that I read in my French classes and understood really well. French poetry? Totally lost. French theatre? I grasped a bit here and there after careful study. But Candide? Hilarious! And with the help of my professor and peers, I even understood the social commentary.

The Chronicles of Narnia

This also counts as one book. I first read these in elementary school and enjoyed them just as fantastical adventures. The only allegory I really grasped was Aslan as God. I’ve understood more and more as I’ve reread these over the years. They’ve shaped my personal theology and relationship with God more than any nonfiction devotional.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Out of all the books my high school forced me to read, To Kill a Mockingbird was my favorite. I reread it for funsies multiple times. The movie is one of the few films that is as good as the book, which is almost impossible with a book that incredible.

Jesus Feminist

Sarah Bessey found the words to describe the inexplicable way that my faith and my feminism are intertwined.

A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Rachel Held Evans spent a year living biblically, alternately attempting to follow both the spirit and letter of the law. Like with all great books, I laughed. I cried. My life changed.

The Virgin’s Lover

My parents gave me this Philippa Gregory novel about Queen Elizabeth I for Christmas my freshman year of college. I have since then purchased almost all of her novels. Her Tudor-era novels I’ve read multiple times each. In fact, Philippa Gregory has been my favorite author now for years.

A Writer’s Paris

I bought this book in my first few weeks of living in Le Vésinet. I read it in different parks in Paris. There’s nothing quite like reading a book about writing in Paris while actually in Paris. This book inspired me to take a writing class in the spring at Shakespeare & Co., my favorite bookstore.

Many Waters

I love all of Madeleine l’Engle’s books, but Many Waters is my favorite. This was my first time reading a fictional account of a Bible story. While I had often thought to myself, “What about the women?” while reading the Bible, Many Waters was my first time realizing others had the same questions.

Did you participate in this Facebook meme? What books have stayed with you over the years? Linking up with The Circle for my own variation on my favorite books.

Comments

    • Brita Long says

      I thought I was the only one! I feel like the books that are NOT “A Wrinkle in Time” get overshadowed because the first one is so famous. The whole series is pretty spectacular, so I could have included it as one, but Many Waters affected me more than the other books.

  2. Anne says

    I love that Harry Potter has extra life significance with an engagement proposal. And I love To Kill a Mockingbird too.

  3. Christina says

    I love many of these as well. My favorite book of all time is in the same series as “Many Waters”– “A swiftly tilting planet.”. My copy’s pages are falling out. I also love Elizabeth George Speare’s books– especially “The Bronze Bow.”

    You might enjoy “Girl Meets God” by Lauren Winner– a memoir of a Brooklyn smart girl, passionate Orthodox Jew who becomes a believer. And in that same vein is “Surprised by Oxford.” Also, have you read “A Severe Mercy” by Sheldon Vanauken? CS Lewis led him to Christ and this is his love story, a travelogue and his conversion story.

    • Brita Long says

      Thank you for the book recommendations! I know we love many of the same books (coughwe’renerdscough), so I trust your judgment.

      I really need to reread the entire series. I’ve only read “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” once. Believe it or not, it was so hard to track down in a library!!! So I kept reading and rereading all the others, but it took me YEARS to read that one. My parents owned weathered and dog-eared copies of all except for “A Swiftly Tilting Planet,” which I eventually received permission to buy with their money.

      Maybe for Christmas I’ll ask for the entire collection for myself.

    • Brita Long says

      I’ve read Little Men, but not Jo’s Boys. I think I own Jo’s Boys, but I didn’t get a copy until I was at the age that school books dominated my reading. I’m blogging from my couch right now, and I just glanced over at our book collection. Yes, I do indeed own Jo’s Boys. I should read that this year!

    • Brita Long says

      You should! Rachel Held Evans is an amazing writer. I will probably reread her book next year. When I read it the first time, it was so meaningful to me that I read it very slowly, and I read each chapter twice, giving me plenty of time to contemplate her words.

  8. Leah Mancl says

    Harry Potter has made such a difference in my life too. They were the first books that I was super excited to read and really developed my love for all things reading. Thanks for sharing!

  9. Rachel G says

    Of these, I’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, and The Chronicles of Narnia. C.S. Lewis is probably my favorite author of all time, I love his books, the non-fiction and the very strange science-fiction included.

    • Brita Long says

      Ooh, I haven’t read any of his strange science fiction. I did read The Screwtape Letters this summer. Genius. I need to read more of his non-fiction too.

  10. Kiki says

    Ooh, Little Women and To Kill a Mockingbird. Definitely great reads. 🙂 I actually feel like I need to re-read both of those books because I read them for classes and while I loved them, I feel like I need to re-read them for purely enjoyment purposes, you know?

    Thanks for linking up!

  12. TexErin says

    I keep meaning to read Rachel Held Evans, but I want to be in the right frame of mind. I’ve been reading so much lately for escapism and not to make me think. I need to think with her book.

    • Brita Long says

      If you want to wait until September, I’m going to a monthly blog series on it for a year! Basically I’m going to attempt my own year of biblical womanhood, in a way less intense way, with a monthly chapter review. She starts in October, so each month I’ll take inspiration from her book.