The Life of Bagel, in books

This is my lifespan, to be judged by the books I read at the various points in my life. Obviously this lifespan starts roughly around age 7 when I first started reading longer chapter books. The first "big" book I ever read all the way through by myself was "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein. I like to think this book foreshadows one of the major themes of the rest of my life: my fascination with all things Judaism-related.



Once I got over the hurdle from reading "little" books to reading "big" books, I turned into a reading whore. I read anything and everything. I was also a competitive reader in this period. During the summers, my sisters and I would participate in the library-sponsored program that encourages kids to read in the summer. You got various prizes for reading X number of books. Lil Hamilton and I used to "cheat" - we would read our weight in the following books which present the same sort of literary challenge as reading a cereal box:



I quickly grew tired of the Babysitter's Club Little Sister series and then I entered what I consider to be a dark period of my life. The dark period was characterized by all of the following: my very first boyfriend (he broke up with me after two days because I was too scared to talk to him); a boy haircut that lost me significant standing in the 6th grade social hierarchy; my brilliant plan that I was going to write my own book ~ I started several books but never finished one (for the record, every book that I started had within the very first chapter a "long, passionate kiss"); and these books:


There are very few things I did during that period of my life that I am proud of. So let's move on... The next book I recall reading after my dark period remains my favorite book to this day. It also repeats the Judaism-theme:



"The Chosen" began a phase of my "coming of age" obsessions. I read a lot of "coming of age" books while I finished up junior high. Including all of the following:






I choose to end my lifespan in books here. When I went from junior high to high school, I started to fail in my reading choices. I continued to read "good" books - books that I'm not ashamed to admit I read. However, I also somehow failed to read all sorts of "classic" books I apparently should have read. Examples include: Pride & Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, A Clockwork Orange, 1984, Gone with the Wind, Crime & Punishment, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Lord of the Flies, Sense and Sensibility, and the list goes on and on.

For eight years, I had no idea how far I was getting behind in terms of literary prowess until my oldest sister showed up at my college graduation. One night, she turned a lovely shade of drunk and went around telling everyone at our graduation party: "Hi! I'm Bagel's sister. And did you know she hasn't read Catcher in the Rye?" Thanks, Big Colle, love you too.

I have wonderful ambitions of getting caught up on my ineptitude, just as soon as I finish law school. If you have any recommendations of classics I should read, leave them in the comments.