Great Books Week: Day 3: What childhood book captured your imagination? Day 4: What book or books do you read over and over?

Well, I’m way behind on this year’s Great Books Week — it’s already day 4 and I haven’t posted anything, so here is a combined day3, day 4 post: What childhood books captured your imagination, and what book or books do you read over and over.

There were three books that stood out for me as a kid:

The Landmark “Life of Saint Patrick,” James M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan,” and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” I read all three of them over and over growing up.

I’m not quite sure why the “Life of Saint Patrick” captured my imagination the way it did –I was raised Jewish, so it certainly wasn’t for religious reasons — but it did, and to this day I can recall the mental pictures I had of Patrick and the Druids.

I’ve always loved fantasy and sci fi, so it’s no surprise that I loved “Peter Pan” and “Alice in Wonderland.” I pretty much gave up “Peter” by age 14 or so, but continued to reread “Alice” regularly all through college. In fact, I’d reread it every exam time as I would give upit’s no surprise that I loved “Peter Pan” and “Alice in Wonderland.” I pretty much gave up “Peter” by age 14 or so, but continued to reread “Alice” regularly all through college. In fact, I’d reread it every exam time as I would give up going to the library and thus suffer from book withdrawal. Book withdrawal, by the way, is a terrible thing. I eventually bought “The Annotated Alice,” which I still have. I read “Alice” to all three of my sons, but it failed to capture their imagination the way it did mine.

As a grown up, I do still reread books. I find myself going back to the old Robert A. Heinlein’s. Some of my favorites are “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel,” “Red Planet,” “Space Cadet,” “Starship Troopers,” “Citizen of the Galaxy,” and actually quite a few more.

I also reread periodically some of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Darkover series, and some other sci fi favorites whose names I can’t remember (need to go get more coffee).

How about you? And do check out the Great Books Week blog