One Month Blogging Challenge – Day 10 (My favorite books)

Dearest friends,

Please don’t forget that I’m doing this challenge with Maggie and Angela, so be sure to go over to their blogs and check their answers to the challenge. Today, you have the chance to know what their favorite books are.

I’ve been reading since I can remember. I’ve had always loved books. It become a passion when I was about sixteen. That’s when I made my first library card. It was on my Summer vacation. I didn’t have much to do and nowhere to go, as my mother was working all Summer. I needed to take two buses to get there but that didn’t stop me at all. I would go once a week and bring 10 books. That was the number the library would allow. 5 fiction and 5 non-fiction. For non-fiction I would usually get health related books, general knowledge and facts books, History and science related books. Fiction, always a few novels. Books were really good friends of mine. I would always have a book on me. Teachers would get mad because they would catch me reading in class. When it came to subjects such as Literature and Portuguese, I would be one of the few who would actually read the book. Sometimes I had read it the Summer before, and would read it again once it was assigned to us. When the time to choose where I wanted to go for college, I knew that Literature had to be part of it. So I decided on my degree (Languages, Literature and Cultures) because it seemed that it had everything I was interested in and good at. Once in college, I realized I was really good at English and that I was drawn to all of the American history, literature and culture courses, so I decided that would be my Major. American Studies. I still loved English authors and culture, so English Studies became my minor. Funny story, I had first chosen it to be the other way around, but then I changed according to my interests. My school’s library is the second best in the country and has a wide range of books in English. And so, first year of college, I began to read everything in the original language (for English and American works), no translations. Yes, even Shakespeare. I believe that reading in English helped me in becoming fluent. When I started university I was at a B2 level and I got to a C2, which the native equivalent. And then teaching came into my life.

I needed to tell you this little story, of how I feel in love with books. Now, finally, I’ll get to my favorites.

My favorite books: (and authors)

• Every single one of Jane Austen’s novels

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

— Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

Please consider this as my birthday gift. Please?

 

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”

― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

 

Such a warm and familiar novel. It makes my heart happy!

 

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

“He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

 

Probably my favorite ever. I’ve read it so many times I know some quotes by heart

 

• Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

“Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them.”

― Margaret Mitchell, Gone With The Wind

 

Oh Scarlet…

 

 

• The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

 

I named a cat after this one. Gatsby lives very happily at my mother’s house

 

• O Primo Basílio by Eça de Queirós

One of my favorite Portuguese novels

 

• Ensaio sobre a Cegueira by José Saramago

You might know “Blindness” because it become a movie a few years ago

 

• La Casa de los Espíritos by Isabelle Allende

Will never get tired of this one!

 

Authors worth mentioning:

Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet; Macbeth; The Tempest; Midsummer night’s dream

D.H.Lawrence – Women in Love; Sons and Lovers

Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe; Moll Flanders

Charlotte Brontë – Jane Eyre

Jack Kerouac – On The Road

Jodie Picoult – My Sister’s Keeper; The Pact; Handle With Care

Danielle Steele – No Greater Love; Sisters

Dorothy Koomson – My Best Friend’s Girl; The Rose Petal Beach; Goodnight Beautiful

Daphnee du Maurier – Rebecca

Pearl S. Buck – The Good Earth; East Wind: West Wind

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How many of them have you read? Do we share any favorites?

(All pictures are from Google images)