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I’ve read a lot of books over the years. I’ve probably read thousands of books by authors writing several thousand years ago to the most recently published books. However, only a handful of books have left a lasting impression on me.
Books that leave a lasting impression are few and far between. I’m not sure exactly what makes a book leave a lasting impression on the reader, but in my eyes, those are the books that warrant five stars and should be read over and over.
Some of the books that have left a lasting impression on me are:
Lord of the Rings
Ivanhoe
Ender’s Game
The Secret Garden
Chronicles of Narnia
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Anne of Green Gables
The Fault in Our Stars
Les Miserables
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
All of these books have stuck with me in some way beyond the time it took to read them. Either it shaped how I present myself or think of myself or it left me thinking about the story long after I finished reading it. Some of the books were so magical that I still wish to visit the universe to this day even though I know the books are completely fictional.
Some of these books I probably just happened to read at the perfect time. I read The Fault in Our Stars right after my grandmother (in-law, but we were close) died of cancer. If I had read it before she died, it might not have spoke to me as much.
For some reason, although I loved the Harry Potter series and spend many an hour reading/dreaming fanfiction between books, it didn’t stick with me in the same way as the other books on my list. It’s the same story with Jane Austen’s stories. The books on this list touched me (or in some cases punched me) personally, which is what I dub five-star books. I felt different after reading them- more human and more emotional. I believe stories like Jane Austen books and Harry Potter are great books, but they didn’t evoke five-star responses in me personally.
What makes reading so fun is that one person can have a five-star response to almost any book. That is what makes reviewing books so subjective and so difficult. I think every writer’s goal is to write a book that leaves a lasting impression, but not every author will be able to make every reader feel as deeply as they wish.
So today, I’m asking you: what books have left a lasting impression on you? What are your personal five-star books? Do you think anything specifically will guarantee that a book pull emotions from the reader?
Lit Lover’s Link Party
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This Week’s Lit Lover Features
Last week, I was fascinated by these words that Elizabeth shared with us. I didn’t even know all of them!
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I think books I read as a child, which I usually read multiple times, are what made a lasting impression. They may not all be 5-star, but something about them taught me something or made me think a certain way about something. Anne of GG, Little House series, Nancy Drew’s independence from her boyfriend Ned, Harriet the Spy comfortable being alone in her own skin, these are the books/characters I think of when you ask what made an impression.
Great post!
Thanks Elizabeth! I think books do tend to leave more of an impression on children for the most part. A lot of the books on my list I read when I was a kid!
I just saw the link. Thanks for the shout out!
So many books, such little time! Some of my favs are old classics like Dickens and Shakespeare.
Books by those authors are definitely classics for a reason.
There are so many! The Secret Garden, To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, Cold Mountain, To Dance with the White Dog, anything Nancy Drew! (to name a few)
Nice list! I agree those are all excellent books!
Some of these I have read and 100% agree with you! There are also some that’s on your list that is on my to read list. I’d add The Book Thief, The Hiding Place, The Shack, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Outsiders, and To Kill A Mockingbird.
Good ones! I really found The Hiding Place thought provoking.
Oh my, there are many books that stick with me but in the end I always come back to The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. It’s a magic, light versus dark, throw in some King Arthur and Merlin in YA and it’s magic. It was written in 1970s I think too, but I never feel it was dated. The books in the series were the only once I carried through 3 countries because I couldn’t bear to be parted from them.
Hi Verushka, typically we add the posts to the inlinks tool above to keep things clean, but thanks for sharing your links (I added them to the list)! The Dark is Rising series is a good one, for sure!
The post I linked up is on a related topic. You’ve definitely listed some powerful books.
Ha! I love your title.
Ann of Green Gables and the Little House on the Prairie books are ones that I loved as a child and STILL love to reread as an adult!
Oh, I could have added Little House on the Prairie! That series WAS my childhood. Some of the first books I read on my own.
I just finished reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and it’s one of the saddest, most haunting books I’ve ever read. I’ve read plenty of WW2 books, and even Holocaust books, but this is up there with the most intense and most realistic in its telling of the horrors of that war.
Esther
https://blog.cuteheads.com
Interesting Esther! I don’t typically read books like that, but sometimes they are good to help us remember what we are capable of.
A few of those would be on my list as well–Wuthering Heights is definitely the one I keep coming back to as it was the first piece of “literature” I read and enjoyed and had me wanting to read more. I adored Les Miserables and The Time Traveler’s Wife still stirs me up.
All of these stories I found “haunting” in some way. Maybe the tinge of sadness to them all?
I agree with all but Wuthering Heights! God, I hate that book.