*A note from the webmistress:
While these books
are by no means a comprehensive list of my favorites, they are the
ones which remain most vividly in my youthful memory as being
encouraging to one's imagination and individuality, or as having a
particularly life-affirming message, even a pagan flavor. The chapter
"Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in The Wind in the Willows
still gives me the numinous chills.
All of these books
were in some way influential to my spiritual development -- some of
them directly so, like Prince Ombra. I am collecting many of
them in hardcover, as I believe they should hold a very special place
in my personal library.
All of them would
be extremely enjoyable for adults to read, as well as young people.
And if you've seen the movie, forget it, and read the book
(especially Bambi, which Disney characteristically cutesyfied,
and National Velvet, which is a stark, strange, moody novel
good enough for adults). The film of The Secret Garden
is an exception -- one of the finest film adaptations of a novel I've
ever seen.
