As I step into my twilight years, I find myself thinking a lot about those books I read between the ages of, say, 11–17. These books imprinted themselves on me indelibly, leaving a deep mark on my soul which is incomparable to anything I ever learned at school during those years. I have memories of reading these books, talking about them, and referring back to them, again and again. And again.

These books are always with me, hovering right on the edges of my brain. They’re not the only books I read in those years, but they’re the ones that stand out sharply. The books which made me understand why things are the way they are, which impact the way I behave, treat others, my worldview, my values.

It’s a completely random half-list. In no particular order:

The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien.

Brideshead Revisted, Evelyn Waugh.

God Knows, Joseph Heller.

The Women’s Room, Marilyn French. 

The Wind’s Eye, Robert Westall. 

The Prince-in-Waiting Trilogy, John Christopher.

The Narnia series, C. S. Lewis.

 The Five Children and It, E. Nesbit.

 Desirée, Ann-Marie Selinko.

The Anti-Death League, Kingsley Amis.

Do you have a list like this? Do you relate to any of these books?