Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic.  Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by  The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here.  This week’s topic is:

Ten books that are linked to specific moments in my life:

This is a tough one isn’t it.  For some reason I tend to have more association with songs than with books but there are a few that spring to mind so lets see if any others come to me as I go along:

1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  Unsurprisingly I had a ‘thing’ for rereading this around Christmas – so it obviously reminds me of the festive season.  And I now want to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol.
2. Dressed to Kill – I read this one when on holiday in Cornwall with my family.  It just stuck with me for some reason.  I didn’t even know who’d written it until I went to search for it on Goodreads – apparently Brian DePalma wrote it and I’m not entirely sure whether it was based on the film.  Anyway, it brings to mind that particular holiday specifically because I don’t think we all went away together again after that – my brother was older and started holidaying with friends and my sister moved to Brighton.
3. Another holiday read was The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons.  This book was at the recommendation of a friend and colleague.  I was glued to the page reading this, practically didn’t talk to my husband or kids for a week.  I did feel a bit rude but I couldn’t help it.
4. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind.  I read this when I was about 14/15 and I was going through a massive girly romantic period and had a crush on – wait for it – the boy next door!  For goodness sake.  Anyway, he actually asked me out – probably because I’d been not so surreptitiously spying on him, – I ran a mile.  I was so embarrassed I think it took about a month for me to step outside the house.
5. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien – I have reread this more recently but the first time was in English class at school and it was a perfectly horrible experience because we were all made to stand up and read chapters in front of the whole class.  I was mortified – and frankly I didn’t have the first clue what the book was about because I spent the whole time just trying to hide and not be chosen to read next rather than listening to the story.
6. Firebrand by Gillian Philip was one of the first books that I ever reviewed on my blog and I remember it very clearly.  It was over  the Christmas period – between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day when I read it – and I loved it.  The thing that really stood out was that the author commented on my post and I was so damned pleased that I nearly had a kitten (I also wished that I’d written a much better review but them’s the breaks – who knew that an author might look at my inept scribbles).
7. The Far Pavillions by MM Kaye – this book has a story attached.  Basically, I was in my second job, it wasn’t well paid, and all the books that I read on the way to work came from either my dad’s or brother’s book shelves – I just used to help myself.  It was a strange and eclectic way of reading, one week Great Expectations by Dickens, the next The Warriors by Sol Yurrick.  Anyhow, I dashed into my brother’s room to grab a book one morning and it was The Far Pavillions – I thought, ‘hello, this doesn’t look like his usual read’ but I liked the look of it so off it went into my bag.  I’d been reading it for a few days and came home from work one evening to my brother and dad having a big old argument.  Basically, my brother bought the book for my dad’s birthday and it’d gone missing out of his room.  Of course I overheard and felt immediately sheepish – especially as it had been living in my bag for almost a week and was a bit beaten up and covered in crumbs by then – whoops, sorry!
8. Beauty and the Beast – this was one of the tales in a story book that I used to read to my children at night.  I loved reading this one so it was frequently chosen.
9. In terms of childhood books – I used to have a book that had about 10 stories in it – I have no idea what the book was called or who wrote the stories but I absolutely loved that book and so wish that I knew what it was – strangely enough I can recall the cover.  Anyway, two of the stories that always used to stand out for me in particular was (1) a girl building a sandcastle on the beach.  She falls asleep and dreams that she’s shrunk and is inside the castle, she looks out and the sea is coming in and the walls are crumbling down – I loved that story and the illustrations which I was absolutely fascinated with.  (2) a young child (can’t remember if a girl or boy) – drawing characters in a book but not drawing them very well – the characters came to life right off the page and started arguing with the child because one leg was longer than the other or they only had one eye, etc.  etc, again, I was just transfixed.  Ahh, dear old childhood memories.
10. ….. left blank for you to tell me your book with attached memories.