Books I Want to Read for the First Time (Again)

Inspired by Epic Reads’ 78^th episode of Tea Time, Fandom Fun!, I am going to share with you the books I would most like to read again for the first time. On a side note, if you don’t watch Epic Reads’ YouTube channel you’re seriously missing out – lots of YA goodness in them.

Without further ado, the four books I most wish I could read again for the time:

Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone, JK Rowling

My mum bought me the first three books for the Christmas before Goblet of Fire was released and I wasn’t interested. I’ve always been a contemp girl and the idea of a magic school? Nah, not for me. Then we had the first chapter read to us at school and I was mesmerised. Not only did it make me a lover of fantasy, it also got my sister into reading after I bribed her to read just the first book (she read all of them in two weeks!).

How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff

                      

I know I talk about this book all the time but I really, really mean everything I say about it. It’s brave, beautiful, heart-breaking and completely shocking; in story and style. I read this back in 2006 and I’ve read it about five times since. I want to experience the discomfort of the narrative style, the horror at the war, the blossoming and discomforting romance between Daisy and Edmund, the fear that it won’t turn out okay in the end. Argh, such a wonderful book that I want to throw it at people.

Graceling, Kristin Cashore

A feminist, epic fantasy with unparalleled world building and characters that burrow right into your heart: what more could you wish for?! I went into this book knowing that everyone loved it, but realising my strange relationship with epic fantasy meant I could easily end up hating it. I just remember starting it and then looking up and it being nearly 1am and I had moved to the other end of my bed in search of a new reading position. This was a case of falling unexpectedly, and head over heels, in love with a book.

Twilight, Stephenie Meyer

Now this would be for purely experimental reasons. When I first read Twilight way back when (just after New Moon had come out) it didn’t have the stigma that it does now, and I fell hard. The feeling of being fully ensconced in a world and in characters hadn’t hit me that hard since Harry Potter and I honestly don’t know if it has since, not to that extent, at least. At the time didn’t pick up on the borderline sociopathic actions of Edward, the controlling relationship and the complete lack of strength in Bella and I wonder if I went in blind now – seven years and a English Lit and Creative Writing degree later – how I would react to this story. I wonder...and yet I wouldn’t want to change my experience of reading this series for the world.

What would you read again for the first time? Do you worry it would change your feelings for that book?

Sophie