Top Ten Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week features a different list of ten books. I don't participate every week, but since I'm very into lists, I'd really like to start doing it on a more regular basis. Also, it's a great way to remind yourself of a lot of great books!

Here are my Top Ten Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time:

1. Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling – I adore these books and read them at least once a year. I remember how awesome it was reading them the first time around, before everybody knew what happened, and although every re-read is still brilliant, I miss the tension and magic of the first time.
2. Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott – I go on about this book enough for everybody who’s ever read the blog to know how much I adore it, and how it was my first experience of reading an entire book in one sitting. To this day, it’s pretty much the only book I’ve read that I can tell you every detail of what was happening the first time I read it, and during my biannual re-reads, some of the experience of being seven, sitting on the back porch, barefoot in the sun, comes back to me.
3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer – Even though I have a total love/hate relationship with these novels (what is wrong with Bella? Why the hell is she so needy, whiny, and as my little sister pointed out, so ‘anti – feminist’? If you try to explain the plot of Breaking Dawn to a person who’s never read it, you just end up sounding like a total moron..), the first time I read Twilight, I did so in one sitting. I was ill that day and it was the absolutely perfect thing to read. I was totally absorbed, and I kind of wish every book I read provided me with that experience.
4. The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett – Hilarious. That is all.
5. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – Kind of similar to the Harry Potter feeling, except that I have a lot more admiration for Tolkien’s writing style. And just before everybody lines up to kill me, I’m not saying I don’t think J.K Rowling is a total master of storytelling from a plot point of view, but her style? Not so much, for me. Why does everybody ‘say’ things all the time?? Anyway, Tolkien rocks.
6. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – See above.
7. The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton – I remember these books being the most magical when I was a child, and no matter how much I try when I re-read them now, I just don’t believe them like I did back then. And I wish that I did.
8. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor – When I read this for the first time, it blew my mind. Stylistically it was different from pretty much everything else I’d ever read, and it was (and is) so beautifully lyrical and poetic that it just sucked me in.
9. Ravenheart by David Gemmell – I cried. I cry every time I read it, but I never cry like the first time. Now I cry in a pre-emptive manner because I know what’s coming, and every time I miss the shock of having it suddenly happen. This is a big deal – it’s one of only two books to make me cry on a regular basis. Also, I had no idea at the time how much of a bonding experience Mr Gemmell's books would provide for my siblings and I. I think I pretty much owe mine and my brother's relationship to him. 
10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – I remember the feeling of reading this novel for the first time more than the actual novel, but after reading Tender is the Night and adoring it, I will be re-reading this, and part of me wishes I could go back to my old college library and read it at the corner desk there, watching the sun go down. 

Ah I love lists! Unfortunately this has just made me want to go curl up in bed with any one of the above books for the rest of the day, so that seems like a bad thing for all the housework/ dinner prep I was going to do, but oh well, I'm sick anyway, so I should be resting, right? :-)