In 2013 I first put together my top 10 favorite books, with the qualification that I had to have actually read them recently, not just childhood favorites that I vaguely remember as being awesome (because re-reading old favorites can sometimes be a rude awakening, am I right?).
It’s probably a good time to revisit the list every once in awhile, and with another year of reading recently wrapped up, now seems like a good time!
So here’s my extremely scientific way to go about compiling this list:
1. From six (!) years of reading logs, I gathered a list of all the books with A+ grades (120 total)
2. I made another list of all my favorites from the A+ books (30 total)
3. I culled the list again (16 remaining)
4. Then I rearranged the list until I was satisfied with only ten (it was hard!)
It’s not a totally fail-proof process, but it’s a good representative of books I’ve read recently enough to remember as having an impact… and hey, it’s my list after all – totally biased, personal, and just the way I like it!
So without further ado…
My Top Ten Favorite Books
1. The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery
2. A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote
3. Operating Instructions, by Anne Lamott
4. Tiny Beautiful Things, by Cheryl Strayed
5. Humans of New York: Stories, by Brandon Stanton
6. Dear Enemy, by Jean Webster
7. A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeleine L’Engle
8. Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth E. Wein
9. The Annotated Persuasion, by Jane Austen and edited by David Shappard
10. My Real Children, by Jo Walton
…
It’s always fun to take a look back at the books I loved throughout the years, and although the A+ ratings were sometimes surprising a couple years after the fact, I think this list represents my past and current reading preferences – a mix of classic, contemporary, young adult fiction, and children’s literature. Although the majority are favorites that I’ve read and re-read for years, there are a few that I’ve only discovered in the past year… and what a nice realization that my next favorite book could be right around the corner.
(Click here to see my Top 10 list from last year – a few spots have changed!)
The Amateur Librarian 