Thursday, March 03, 2011

World Book Day!

I'm back, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! I have not fallen off my chair today, nor flashed any builders, and the ick seems to have left the building. It's all up from here, baby!

Anyway, it's hard to be down on a day that celebrates books! Today is World Book Day (in the UK, at least, which seems to defeat the purpose of the word 'world', but I digress...).

I do love me some book. And I'd like to know:

If you could give any book, ever published, to your 13-year-old self, what would it be?

58 comments:

  1. I'd have to say 'Prep' by Curtis Sittenfeld. I adore this book now and I think it would have made me realise that I wasn't the only one to feel so out of place, all the time!

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  2. Yay for fantastic World Book Day!!!

    There are several books I'd hand myself when I was 13! Far too many to count, but definitely some to just understand that changing your image doesn't change what's underneath, even if I didn't get it until I was grown!

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  3. I am an uber fantasy guy... At thirteen I would have love the Harry Potter series.

    I had Tolkien, who is brilliant, but long winded.

    GLAD you're feeling better, Talli!

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  4. Jen, I hear you! :)

    Michael, shame Harry wasn't around when I was 13, either. I have a feeling I'd have loved the escapism!

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  6. Yes, I misread the age as 18! So, a younger selection -

    Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Loved that book!

    :D

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  7. Ruth, I was very impressed by your former 13-year-old self!

    I've not heard of this book - must check it out!

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  8. Oh goodness, how difficult, a library full, as already an avid reader by then.

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  9. Probably The Princess Diaries. I haven't read it, but I just started my first Meg Cabot book today and love it so far (it's Insatiable, btw). I'm sure at 13 I would've enjoyed Princess Diaries.

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  10. The Wall Street Journal.

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  11. I didn't start reading Jane Austen until University (I know!) so I'd have to say Pride and Prejudice. 13year-old me would have loved it!
    Happy World Book Day! Glad you're feeling better!

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  12. He's Just Not That Into You.

    Would have saved me alot of time!

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  13. I am sure the builders are very disappointed! Glad you are feeling better.

    World Book Day..is there a Hallmark card for that? Bet there isn't, but there should be...seems to me it would be a better day to exploit...to encourage the act of reading. Slowly getting of the soapbox. Slowly!

    I was reading books a little beyond. At 13 I read Désirée by Annemarie Selinko. My mother bought it through one of those mailing book clubs and had just finished it. I picked it up and loved it. It started me on a French Revolution kick, so I suppose the book would have to be The Tale of Two Cities.

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  14. I'd enthrall and alarm my thirteen year old self with How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.

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  15. I would give myself The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman. It would get me off to a great start and motivate me at a young age! Yay for World Book day! I'm on my wat to B&N to celebrate!

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  16. Probably anything by Jonathan Carroll. He blows my mind daily.

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  17. Talli, interesting, my 13 year old wanted to read Wuthering Heights recently so I re read it first to make sure it was ok, so I would have to say that would be my choice.
    I would include 'Catcher in the Rye' also.

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  18. Great question! I think I would have given 13-year-old me The Chronicles of Narnia series. I didn't read those until I was an adult and I love them.

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  19. I'll cheat and say THE QUEEN'S THIEF series by Megan Whalen Turner. I read the first book in high school, but didn't read the others until later -- and I think my 13-year-old self would've adored it as much as I do now. :)

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  20. You were only gone for like a day, right?

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  21. That's a tricky question! I'm thinking A Bridge to Terabithia, although I think I could have read that at 10yrs old too. Just a beautiful story of learning to understand the sadness and beauty of life.

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  22. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Which was handed to my 13 year old self by another - the perfect book for me at the time.

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  23. Terry Brooks' books. Don't think I found them until I was sixteen. (Or my own, just to show the younger me that it really would happen!)

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  24. THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND by Jules Verne. I got to it a year later, and it gave me a sense of wonder and the message that with the ingenuity of the mind and strength of will almost anything is possible.

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  25. This is a really difficult one because at 13 I had little interest in books, unless they contained the lyrics to the entire top 100 chart songs. I was so obsessed with music and so turned off by English Lit at school that I forgot all about reading for pleasure until I was about 16.

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  26. It's odd you should say age 13. That's the age I read To Kill A Mockingbird and it was the perfect book.

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  27. Probably My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It's such a wonderful novel and would've given 13-year-old me a lot of perspective. I ended up reading it in high school.

    ~TRA

    http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com

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  28. My 13 year old self? Probably Pride and Prejudice because I didn't read them (and fall in love with) Austen novels until my mid-thirties.

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  29. Hi, Happy World Book Day!

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  30. Well, when I was thirteen I loved Ray Bradbury and Madeleine L'Engle. I think they would still stand up today for a thirteen-year-old. But there are so many wonderful books out there today, too. Among today's books, I'd pick anything by Kate DiCamillo. Also Meg Medina's Milagros and Jennifer Cervantes's Tortilla Sun were great reads I read recently.

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  31. Hello, I'm the new one :-)

    There should be many more world book days. Books are the secret to escaping from the real world, books are you best friend when you are all alone, books teach you, feed you with knowledge and they give you comfort.

    I think I'd hand myself the Twilight-series. I know I would've loved it.

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  32. I agree with Michael who said the Harry Potter books. I loved reading those at age 40 but that would have been amazing at 13. As for an adult book, I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, and I think I would have loved that at age 13. The whole fantasy of having a man visiting you in a secret hideout when you are young sounds so fabulous.

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  33. Not fair Talli! There are so many. But think it would be The Lord of the Rings. It would have been right up my alley. I think Harry Potter would be a very close second.

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  34. My first published book. Not because it's the best literature out there, but so I would know I could do it, and did do it, so I wouldn't go through the years of uncertainty as a writer.

    Although that might break the space-time continuum.

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  35. Oooh, awesome question!

    I would have given my 13 year old "A Wrinkle in Time" which she had already read but I'd include my copy with all my notes and scribbles and underlines :)

    And the Harry Potter Series. Oh to grow up with those....

    Glad you're feeling better!
    ~Jen

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  36. Glad to hear you're feeling better!

    Happy World Book Day. :)

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  37. Happy world book day, I would give my own book, lol..

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  38. Yay for books!

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  39. Glad to hear you're feeling better!

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  40. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I love the way that book makes me LOVE BOOKS. :-)

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  41. Talli, this question is too hard! Much too hard! Hmmm... so many books...

    I give up. My brain hurts!

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  42. Hey Talli, the big launch is getting closer. I got sick of waiting and went and bought an ebook, but I'd still like a print copy down the track.

    Sorry you went down with the dreaded lurgy. Glad you're out of your cave again.

    BTW it's always Book Day with me, world or not!

    I'll be reviewing your book on the book review blog Reading at Dawn soon as I can fit it in. I'll let you know.

    Denise<3

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  43. Oh, and at 13 I was dreaming of Heidi, Joanna Spiri.

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  44. HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY!!!!!

    Keep flashing - tis spring afterall!!

    Anyway!! What would I give my 13 year old self? A Terry Pratchett book. Cos I didn't fall in love with his books until I was in my late 20's - the horror!

    Hope Mr TR is getting better too!

    Take care
    x

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  45. 13... 13... hmmm... I'm trying to remember what I was reading at that age. OH! That was when we were all passing around those VC Andrews Flowers in the Attic books. Not appropriate! :D

    "Matched" is probably good for 13 yos. Haven't read ATU yet... You looking for a gift? <3

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  46. Hope you have a lovely book day Talli.

    Yvonne.

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  47. Glad you're feeling better!

    Hmm... I would already have my own copies of some of my faves (Anne of GG, LotR, Hobbit) so I'd probably say Harry Potter - I was 13 many years before Harry arrived on the scene - I'd have a jump on the rest of the world!

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  48. I would give my 13 year old self Speak. It is a phenomenal book and would have helped me deal with some stuff at that age.

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  49. I was reading "Lord of the Rings" when I was thirteen. I would have loved the Harry Potter series, but there are so many books, too many to choose. Maybe Anne of Green Gables, it was a bit girly for me back then.

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  50. Can it be a book that wasn't written yet when I was 13?

    Me Talk Pretty One Day
    Great Expectations
    Twilight series (though with a warning against boy stalkers!)

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  51. Anne of Green Gables. Happy Book Day.

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  52. Glad your ick is gone.

    What would I give to my thirteen-year-old self? Hmmm. I guess Harry Potter because it may have made me write sooner.

    I read Deenie around that age, which was what I needed to read at the time. It made me understand how my mother had mis-compartmentalized my sister and me. (Is that a word?)

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  53. Glad you are feeling better. I'm going to have to say Harry Potter.

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  54. When I was thirteen, I think I was into all of those VC Andrews books, like Flowers in the Attic. I wouldn't change a thing.

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  55. Hunger Games, definitely. I think that would have inspired me to get much more serious about writing, much sooner, because I absolutely loved it.

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  56. Hi Talli .. I'd love to have had the TED videos, books etc when I was around .. what a stimulating organisation .. and the 'teachers' behind them!

    Glad you're better and the ick has departed .. it was so cold in London yesterday .. went to the Turner with a friend .. interesting books there too ..

    I'd have something called The Hating Game delivered to my older sister - so I could quickly read it in my bed, with my cat by my side .. in the luxury of a morning!

    Cheers - have a great weekend .. Hilary

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  57. I Capture the Castle. It's a charming book. I read it when I was 18 but I think at 13 I would also have thought it was wonderful and would have had five more years of fond memories.

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  58. Hi Talli. Too many books to mention. But one of them would be To Kill a Mockingbird. I wish I'd read that when I was 13.

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Coffee and wine for all!