These are my heart books
I’ve been Reading in Bed for fifteen years. After five years, I offered some blogging wisdom. After ten, I shared some of my favourite blogging moments. Now, inspired by Weezer’s “Heart Songs“, a Red Album track that was deemed “cringe*” by my 14-year-old (he’s a Pinkerton fan), I present to you my heart books. To paraphrase Rivers Cuomo, these are the books I keep readin’.
Early works (or: Wuthering Heights and things like Wuthering Heights)
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: If I had to pick one, it would be this one. I read this when I was 16 and in love for the first time; I didn’t have a chance.
- The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence: turned me into a “real” reader, whatever that means. Read around the same time as WH, without the benefit of seeming relatable, it had to stand on the strength of the writing.
- Villette by Charlotte Brontë: If pressed, I will admit that this is a better book than WH.
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez: This is what people think WH is: a sweeping epic romance.
- The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber: If you must insert grittiness into your Victorian novels, do it right. You hear me, Ms. Fennell?
Later works (or: things I read after starting the blog/having kids)
- The Bear by Claire Cameron: Completely riveting and changed my mindset about that old “kids are resilient” saying.
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: Proved to myself that I could still read a book after a severe case of baby brain.
- Rooster and Coq by Ali Bryan: Rooster is hilarious if you have young kids and the sequel kept me sane(ish) the night after my house burned down.
- The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje: A minor work but happens to contain one of my favourite lines in all of literature. And a child narrator that I can get on board with, no pun intended (he’s on a boat)
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: A major work with the best opening line in literature.
*The only cringe part for me is when he sings “Debbie Gibson/Tell me that you think/We’re all alone” because obviously that was Tiffany. I know this is a joke, but as a Debbie Gibson girl, it’s not funny!
Reading in Bed 
Hard to believe it’s been 15 years (not followed for that long but time makes no sense). Also I had to check with Bear book that was, not the one I thought it was.
I almost included “(no, not that one)” in the title!
Congratulations, fifteen years is a huge achievement!
I like that we’re getting the presents – the gift of your best ever books.
Thank you!
Congratulations on 15 years! I was the same with Wuthering Heights – plus I shared her bloody name!
Thank you! Oh yes I bet that made it even more intense for you 🙂
Always thrilled to meet a fellow Villette lover! Maybe it says something about the difference between your teenage self and mine that this was the Bronte that really spoke to me when I was 16… I was a pretty miserable person!
Villette at 16 would have been a trip. I took a big liberty including it in the “old works” section here, as I read it in my 30s! It just fit better this way.
You’ve got two of my favourites here too. Love in the Time of…. and Crimson Petal… WH – I couldn’t bear to see the new film. I hope Ms Fennell is listening to you Laura but my heart misgives!
She certainly did not listen to me. I had to go see it… it’s awful…. but fun, mostly because I saw it with another Bronte-appreciator and we could make fun of it 🙂
Well done for coping. I decided not to try 🙂
Big ups to Villette, and The Crimson Petal and the White, and Wolf Hall. (And I’m glad you, too, imprinted on Wuthering Heights. People are either mean or tragically misinformed about that book.) You’ve got me interested in the Claire Cameron, which I’d never heard of but which sounds terrific.
I don’t think she’s broken through outside of Canada and, much like WH, it sort of imprinted on me due to my kids being similarly aged to the ones in the story BUT I still think it’s really good, obviously!
15 years, wow, that’s an accomplishment! Agree with you over Wolf Hall and I must read Love in the time of Cholera!
You must indeed!
I’ve read Villette but not Emily’s novel, though I’ve a copy of the latter to finally read this summer. (Needless to say I shan’t be watching the recent film travesty beforehand, nor possibly afterwards. Huge congrats on 15 years – I think this April marks my 14th, so I’m not far behind you!
The movie is terrible, but fun if you can take it with a grain of salt and/or forget it’s based on anything!
Wow, 15 years! Well done! The Stone Angel, Villette and The Crimson Petal and the White are all great reads. I’ve been intrigued about The Bear by Claire Cameron because I found out she wrote a memoir about bear attacks (as I was digging around for context for my review of Black Bear by Trina Moyles).
Yes I heard about her new book and I will have to read it. The Bear opens with a similar attack and I’ve never forgotten reading it…
Congratulations on 15 years! I love Wuthering Heights too. I have been thinking about it recently and discovered that perhaps I love it so much because I also read it when I was just a (clueless) teenager. I think it would have had a different impression on me had I read it for the first time as a mature adult (and nostalgia plays the part, of course).
Absolutely, I’m so thankful that I was forced to read it at 16! It “changed my brain chemistry”, as the kids say 🙂
Congratulations on 15 years! I am determined that this year is the year I will finally read Wolf Hall, so I am very glad to see it on your list and it makes me all the more determined to get to it soon.
It is so, so worth it. And endlessly re-readable!
Villette (the only Brontë book I’ve ever liked), Love in the Time of Cholera, The Crimson Petal and the White and Wolf Hall are all big ticks for me. As is Weezer. I was challenged once to read Infinite Jest by someone who couldn’t be bothered reading it for himself. So far I’ve ignored his gauntlet. I’ll read your review, to see what I might be missing. Happy 15th!
Ha! I was definitely proving something to myself, reading IJ while on maternity leave with a toddler and a newborn. I would still recommend it though, there’s certainly nothing else like it.
I’ve not ruled it out but I got a strong feeling from your review and others’ comments that I’ll need to be in the right headspace and ready for the weirdness. Maybe even engineer a mild illness so I don’t have to think about anything else?