Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Books That Live in My Head Rent-Free  

These are books I think about often that have had some sort of impact on me when I read them. To be fair, I’ve forgotten many of the details of some of these books because I read them a long time ago, but I still remember that they made an impression on me and I do intend to reread the ones I don’t remember.

Top Ten Books That Live in My Head Rent-Free

1. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins – I’ve reread these series so often, it’s the most vivid story in my mind and yet I still cry over it every single time. In fact, the more I read it, the more I get out of it, and it’s not just living rent-free in my head, it’s living rent-free in my heart.
2. Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee – I first read this book probably more than 20 years ago now and I still think about it all the time. In a hedonistic world where the physical body is exchangeable and if it dies, you just get reborn in another body, it’s hard to find meaning in life, but I remember it being a beautiful exploration of finding meaning in life anyway and I really want to reread it soon.
3. The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan – So I did actually reread this one recently, and one of the things that I was thinking about most was how my POV has changed since the first time I read it. The first time, I was looking at it from the POV of the caregiver because my father had passed away not long before. The most recent time I read it, I was looking at it from the POV of the dying person because I had been having medical issues and was much more conscious of my own mortality. It definitely lives rent-free in my head!
4. Pet Sematary by Stephen King – It’s one of his most haunting works and tragic stories. It lives rent-free in my head because I constantly wonder what I would do if I was in his position. It’s easy to say I wouldn’t make the same mistakes but I can’t know for sure and I don’t think I would ever want to find out.
5. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – Oh, this one still hurts. It’s a relatively recent read and I still get quiet any time anyone mentions this book or whenever I get reminded of it. You read the book already knowing it doesn’t end well, yet throughout the book, there are wonderful moments and you feel all the happy feelings only to know it doesn’t last.
6. Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood – I read this one a long time ago so I don’t remember much about it, but I think about it often and it’s very high on my reread list. What I remember is that it resonated very strongly with me about how female friendships was like for me growing up, and it was healing in a way. I’m curious about how it holds up now that we are so much better about not pitting women against each other.
7. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – This book was such a masterpiece and I think about it often. The relationships between the mothers and daughters, the class and privilege divide, the bias and prejudices against people who are less privileged. All of the characters in this book are flawed in one way or another, and very much human, and in a way we see the worst of people here who are trying their best. It’s very evocative.
8. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – This is one of my favorite books that I have read and reread a dozen times over. I feel like everyone loves a good revenge story, especially when the protagonist starts off as such a young, naive, and loveable character who is so unfairly wronged in the worst way. This is another story that still gets me no matter how many times I read it, and I am still getting new perspectives from it every time.
9. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin – You know, I won’t lie; one of the biggest reasons this series lives rent-free in my head is because I still really want to know what happens next and if we will ever get the rest of the books. I haven’t lost hope. But in all fairness, it’s still so good just up to where it’s at now. I love the characters, I think about them often, and I’m still worrying about them.
10. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber – This is another one that I would like to reread soon. I don’t remember much about it but I do remember thinking that it was something everybody in a committed relationship should read. That’s really saying something because the couple in the story spend years apart on different galaxies! I’m very curious to reread it now that I’m approaching 20 years with my husband.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?