Welcome back to this walk down memory lane! Part 2 of this list covers mainly my high school and early college reading career. I was not a particularly happy or whole person during high school, which is why many of the books I read during this time have shaped who I am. Though I felt helpless and confused, there were characters in these books that taught me it was okay to feel this way. That it was a normal human experience. I didn’t always appreciate those lessons at the time, but I can look back and see that these books had an impact.

Note: I couldn’t figure out how to change the numbers fast enough to post when I wanted to, so pretend that the list says 10-18 instead of 1-9! (It’s the p4a, and I got distracted too easily by the joy it brings me. )

And now, onto Part 2 of this long, long list!

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

We’re back on the angst train! Even as an adult, I enjoy reading angsty YA novels. Not only was this one of the first novels I read in which a teenager admitted to going to therapy without feeling embarrassed about it, it’s also one of the first I learned had been “banned” for its honest depiction of teenagehood (which involved drinking/drugs, sex, mental illness, and gay people). 

My literature teacher at the time had us do a project for Banned Books Week in which we would do a video reading a passage from the banned book of our choice—within reason, of course. This was a Catholic school, after all. 

So of course, I decided to read part of this one for my video. This was in the 2010s, when YouTube culture was a bit different than it is now, so it was thrilling to post a video to YouTube, even an unlisted one only meant for my teacher to see. I’m sure if I went back and watched it now, I would be cringing for a week straight, but it’s still a fun memory. And I still enjoy rereading The Perks of Being a Wallflower every now and then (just without the cameras rolling).

2. Paper Towns by John Green

I actually debated which of John Green’s books to put on this list, because Paper Towns isn’t actually the first one I read. I started with An Abundance of Katherines. But Paper Towns is one of my favorite books of all time, which earns it a place on this list. 

Paper Towns isn’t a book that sparks a specific memory but rather a whole slew of memories. It makes me think of watching the Vlogbrothers in junior high and high school. It makes me think of leaning into nerdiness and loving what I love unashamedly. It makes me think of imagining others complexly and making the world suck less. 

I’ve reread this book more times than I care to count, but I’ll never get over how much I love the flawed characters. They’re teenagers who are realizing that people aren’t always what they seem, that people have many different sides and facets to them. And I think Paper Towns does this really well. Plus, it’s a road trip book, and who doesn’t love that?

3. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Those who know me know that I love outer space. It’s just so fascinating to me. I even went into college as a physics major (though I did not leave college as a physics major…).

In my high school physics class, my teacher assigned us part of this book to read. I, of course, was still in the mindset that I couldn’t just read part of a book. So I read the whole thing. It was around this time that my interest in physics was really taking off, partially thanks to my physics teacher. He would do lots of things to make it easier to understand and more fun. We even learned about the math behind black holes! (I promise, this was exciting to me!)

Reading Stephen Hawking’s writing was not easy but was definitely worth it. Finishing the book allowed me to have fruitful conversations with my physics teacher that made me feel respected as an intelligent person, not just a student. This class proved to me that a shared excitement for a topic can bridge the gap between people, can make a teacher and a student merely two people talking about something they both enjoy. 

Stephen Hawking writes in a way that respected his readers. He doesn’t assume you know everything he does and explains physics in a way that conveys his passion for the subject. That, coupled with the fun conversations I had with my teacher, made me even more excited about learning this particular science. 

Though I still like learning about physics (particularly astrophysics), I’ve never been able to rekindle that pure enjoyment I felt in high school physics class while discussing Hawking’s work. At least, not yet!

4. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

This book brings me back to the Omaha Public Libraries. Some time in my teen years, I checked out a well-read copy of this book from the library and read it while sitting on the floor in my family’s living room. It’s a difficult book to read, not just because it’s long and complex, but because the emotions and history behind it are all too real. 

It was around this time that I started to become aware of the many atrocities around the world that had been mysteriously absent from my history textbooks. And nothing made me feel that more than this book. It has stuck with me, even though I never got to the second book in the series until recently. (I still haven’t read the third one, though I want to get to it soon.)

Not only that, but part of the reason I chose my name was because of this book. The main character in this book is named Rin, and since reading this book, the name has stuck with me. The character is strong and resilient but also flawed and stuck in an imperfect world. She fights for something she believes in but doesn’t always do the right thing. The world around her forces her into horrible situations, and she does the best she can to survive. 

Though I do spell my name differently than this character, and it’s also a version of my birth name, I’ll always feel somewhat connected to Rin because of our names and because she made such an impression on me in a time that I felt like I didn’t recognize myself, the world, the people around me, or anything. If that Rin could survive horrible atrocities, some of which she created herself, then so can this Ryn.

5. The Mrs. Dalloway Reader by Virginia Woolf (& edited by Francine Prose)

Virginia Woolf is one of those authors I really want to get into but just can’t. Woolf is definitely an important writer and has an interesting style, but every time I try another book or story by her, it just doesn’t pull me in. 

Mrs. Dalloway is one that I decided to read because my aunt gave me her copy while we were on vacation at our family’s cabin in Wisconsin. The cabin is (or at least used to be) one of my favorite places in the world. I used to feel at peace there, surrounded by tall trees and listening to the sound of the lake. I would read and write and hang out on the boat feeling that I belonged there. 

I read Mrs. Dalloway on the tail-end of this peacefulness, when I still loved being there but was experiencing some internal turmoil. Even though I didn’t love the book, it still reminds me of sitting on the boat, the sun shining down, waves rocking me, book open on my lap—either being read or sitting open while I took in the view. At some point, I even dropped the book in the lake, leaving it crinkly and damaged but not unreadable. 

It took me a long time to get rid of the book despite its damage, because of the way it reminded me of that feeling of peace I felt on the boat while reading it. Though the waterlogged book no longer sits on my shelf, the memories I have at the lake are ones I return to often.  

6. Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories for Late at Night by various authors

You didn’t think I would make a list of books without mentioning this blog’s namesake, do you? Of course not!

You can read where the specific title for my blog came from here, but for the purposes of this list, I have a different memory attached to this book. For some reason, I bought this book from the clearance section at Half Price Books and asked my dad if he wanted to read the stories together. I don’t remember why I had this idea, because I’m not a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock films, nor do I read a lot of books out loud with other people. But it ended up being a lot of fun!

The stories weren’t very scary, but they were intensely amusing, especially while reading them aloud with someone else. My dad and I don’t have a ton of the same interests, so it was fun to bond over these fun stories together. 

7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Bet you didn’t expect to see ACOTAR on this list! Surprisingly, this book actually does hold a special space in my early college reading career. I wasn’t a huge fan, but it was the book I was reading when I came out to my parents as queer in an email. That’s right—an email! I remember ACOTAR was in its first stage of booktube fame at the time, and I had just gotten into booktube (which is a big chunk of what I watch nowadays). 

Basically, the way that I first came out to my parents was that I sent them an email, immediately closed my laptop, and went across the hall of my dorm to a study room with my phone and a book to await the inevitable phone call. So ACOTAR offered me a distraction in a moment that I needed one. I was able to convince my brain momentarily that my heart was pounding because of the plot and not because of my nerves. 

Even though it wasn’t for me, I sure am glad I had it at the time, and now that it’s back in the limelight, I can follow conversations around the series… at least vaguely. 

8. The Angel of the Bridge by John Cheever

This short story was originally published in the Fiction Edition of The New Yorker in October 1961, so you’re probably wondering how I heard about it. Well, much like the angel of the bridge in this story, this book was fated to come into my life at the right moment.

I’ve chronicled elsewhere that I have the bridge from this story tattooed on my wrist and that it has a deep meaning to me as a chronically anxious person, but this isn’t about that! This is about my memories!

As I’ve also said before, my favorite bookstore is A Novel Idea. I often go in there and browse without looking for anything specifically, just enjoying the cozy vibes and cats. I found a copy of this story in a slender book while there for one of the first times and bought it on a whim, not knowing it would become one of the most important things I would read, nor that A Novel Idea would continue to be a safe haven for years to come. 

This book always reminds me of the unexpected and fun things I’ve found at A Novel Idea and the comfort that I feel there. I just love browsing the books, knowing that there’s a treasure in there for me to find as long as I give it a chance!

9. Check Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

I’m pretty sure this book ended my “I don’t read graphic novels” pretensions, full stop. I’d read a few before this one, but Check Please! is one of the first graphic novels that I actually loved. Wholesome friendships, queer romance, baking and sports—what more could you ask for? Oh, that’s right, amazing illustrations! 

Check Please! brings me back again to my early booktube watching days, especially discovering the pocket of queer booktube. I loved watching ProblemsofaBookNerd, because she would always recommend and talk about a wide array of queer books as well as the other nerdy things she was into. Like the Vlogbrothers channel and nerdfighteria at large, queer booktube is often a place where people can enjoy what they enjoy with no embarrassment or shame. Plus, books! 

Conclusion (to Part 2)

Well, that’s the second part of my 27-book list! Thanks again for sticking around for this part. Going back through my bookish memories is really fun, and I hope it’s fun for you to see the evolution of the reader named Ryn!

Until I see you for the final nine books in this list, happy reading!

-Ryn PB