my favourite books, a history of

Stacey, we both know I'm the waffler in this relationship, but I challenge you to whittle your books down to less than this. This is a hard topic!!

This list is excluding all seven Harry Potter books, because they are of course favourites of mine. And all Enid Blyton books. I think that I have favourite books from each different period in my life. I'm trying to work out whether favourite books are subject to age or whether I will love them forever and as a result I've been rereading a lot of books lately. I think I'd still enjoy the whimsy of The Faraway Tree and stuff, and wish I could be the sixth in the Famous Five and drink warm blackberry cordial with the Secret Seven.. I'll have to wait til I have kids to relive those glory days.

let's start with Raincheck on Timbuktu by Kirsten Murphy. There's not really much to the story, it's just about a few friends going through year eleven together, the protagonist's mum gets breast cancer and her friend has a dodgy boyfriend. Friends become enemies, enemies become friends and so on. There's a boy involved. Nobody knows what they want to do with their life/after high school (do we ever??). There are heaps of books like it, I suppose, but it's just so clever. There are jokes about Lisa McCune not winning a gold logie.. I just liked how colloquial the humour was. I've read another book by Kristen Murphy and sadly it's pretty much the same, except deals with boys. I can't decide whether that's really a bad thing. It's good to know that I could depend on her for similar literature. This book was my all time favourite as a 14 year old. Other favourites at the time include: Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty, Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude Get a Life by Maureen McCarthy and Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta.

So then favourite would be something like.. The Bell Jar. Which I don't have to explain. And simultaneously, Catcher in the Rye & The Perks of Being a Wallflower (by Stephen Chbowsky). It's evident what phase I was going through at this time, is it not? I recently read Perks again and devoured it in one whole sitting. Charlie the protagonist has that same thing that Holden has (and that he himself admires in books) in Catcher in the Rye, the kind of voice that makes you just want to be his friend, and a slightly skewed way of looking at the world.

Also a lingering favourite from my mid-teens is Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody. It's like a sci-fi fantasy series set far in the future where Earth has been ruined by people of our generation (or a bit beyond, but essentially computers/machines).. but none of the technology has survived, it's all been hidden away or is underwater or in caves underground etc. There's a bunch of youngens who have "special powers", presumably gifts from a type of nuclear fallout, that have estranged them from the normal folk. They all reside at Obernewtyn where they live harmoniously and learn how to control/use their powers. The series starts relatively simply, but becomes incredibly complex. The thing that keeps me coming back is the gradual revelations about how we destroyed the Earth with our machines. The Obernewtyn kids just have no idea what our existence is like and it's really interesting how they learn about computers and stuff. I say lingering because there are books still being released. Think back to when we knew there were more Harry Potter books to come. Good times.

Current favourites (this is probably what Stacey wanted me to write about, but I don't care, this is my damn blog and I'll write what I want). I read The Hours by Michael Cunningham a few years ago and adored it. Probably because somewhere between Sylvia Plath and JD Salinger I read a few Virginia Woolf books and fell in love with her. The film is also quite good and Nicole Kidman is virtually unrecognisable in it! Hooray! Plus Meryl is the best and we all know it. Sophie's World is an incredible read as well, it kinda turned my mind inside out.

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido was a book loaned to me recently, a book that made me gasp and imbued me with all those goodly imbuements that books should imbue one with. I think I have a soft spot for books that are journeys of self discovery peppered with romance and travel, because that's essentially what this book is. I love love loved it, it made me get teary on the train and yes, it was "unputdownable". Oh GOD and of course, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera was a summer read and oh my god was it a favourite. I can't believe I nearly forgot it. It was just fantastic, full of passages that made me go "YES!! that is IT", clever, insightful, scary, beautiful, apt in every single way. Just so calm about the things that shake me to my very core. We finally arrive at my probable current favourite book.

I have loved many more books in my time but I best leave it there. Perhaps it would have been more of a challenge to write about books that weren't favourites.. Then again, I don't think I choose books that I don't think I'll like.