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I'm doing that old December talking meme, but for May! Feel free to ask me something; I have lots of empty days.

May 10th: "Favourite book from your teens that's still somehow with you?" for

verdande_mi.

A lot of the books I was obsessed with as a teen I no longer have quite the same feelings for. Of course I had an Anne Rice phase (because, really, who didn't that phase?), but I haven't reread any of her books in years and no longer feel the same degree of affection for the characters or world. Similarly, I had a very intense Robin Hobb phase– I reread my copy of her first trilogy until it literally fell apart and I had to tape the covers back on– but I was disappointed and put off by her more recent books, not to mention her personal behavior. She, like Anne Rice actually, is extremely vocal about her dislike of fanfiction, as well as speaking out against treating mental illnesses with medication, because it "stifles creativity" or some nonsense.

Some individual books I loved were Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible (about a family of American missionaries in the Belgian Congo in the 1960s), Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Changeling (about two friends, one from an abusive family, and their fantasy world), and probably more that I'm forgetting. But though I still feel fond of them, I haven't actually reread them in a very long time.

But the question is about books that are still with me! And the first thing that occurs to me is Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I think I first started reading them when I was 13 or so, randomly pulling off one from the middle of the series from a library shelf. And then I was hooked; I love his comedy, of course, but I also love the sense of humanism and morals and worldview that come through the stories. They've probably influenced my own ideas about these things to an embarrassing extent. One of my favorite scenes in this one, from Hogfather, between Death (as in, The Grim Reaper, who always speaks in all capitals) and his mortal, normal (well, mostly) granddaughter Susan:

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

AH SO GOOD. If you have somehow not read the Discworld series, I recommend you do so immediately. My favorites are Hogfather and Small Gods, but there's very few bad ones out of forty-so books.