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!