Ten Tomes and a Basketful of Memorabilia.

The recent trend that surfaced on the internet has led me down memory lane. Oh, the amazing 10 books challenge. I started working on mine as soon as I saw the trend going around the internet. I was secretly willing at least one of my reader friends to nominate me, and one of them did!

I was transported to the wonderful time when I got the opportunity to bury myself in these great works, and how they shaped my life back when I read them. I remember how Little Women was the first classic I ever read, after reading the story about how Jo got her hair cut to furnish her mother with some extra money in a school text book. I literally begged my mother to get the book for me at the Scholastic Book Fair. I remember writing essays and letters and my diary in Louisa May Alcott's style of writing, because I'd read it so many times over - reading it again as soon as I'd finished. Heck, I'd quote from the book in casual conversations with people. I remember feeling like clumsy Jo who had a hard time handling her crush on Laurie when I was dealing with my first crush. I also remember listing Josephine March as my favorite person in the world in people's slam books. As I grew up, I continued falling in love with a lot of fictional characters. I remember sniffing back tears in class, while keeping P.S. I Love You and Love Story hidden under my desk, as people who lost their loved ones to the Grim Reaper. I remember being alone in a new city and reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, it aiding in the process of me growing up. So many books, so many memories.

Ha! Look at me. I started writing today thinking about Lisbeth Salander, but I guess I couldn't stop about the rest of them in a few sentences. Each one brings so many thoughts and feelings alive, that its impossible to wrap up short. Salander. Oh. My. God. Mostly, all my favorite heroines are those who are independent, courageous women who are happy with a partner, but equally great alone. Jo goes through life alone, grieving over Beth, struggling with guilt, but strong as ever. Holly loses the love of her life, but she not only survives, but "gets by with a little help from her friends". Mariam. Laila. Caroline. Tessa. Cleopatra. All wonderful women who have left an indelible mark on my attitude. But Lisbeth Salander. I hope and pray to the high heavens that there are MANY Lisbeths out there, who bring their situations under control, all by themselves. Ones who tattoo old perverts who take advantage of the physically weaker. Ones who are armed with a taser and mace spray and go into combat without batting an eyelid. Women who would not let their physical structure get in the way of their will. Lisbeth is diminutive. Tiny, even. And yet, when she strikes, she burns you to the ground. She crushes her gigantic half-brother and her abusive father to powder. She's somebody who has faced manhandling and has been a victim of all kinds of abuse ever since she was a child. But she has learnt to attack. Despite her rocky exterior, she falls in love with Blomsvist, which turns out to be unrequited and she just walks away. No fits, no tantrums. The more I talk about her, the more she awes me. The woman is my hero. 

I'm no feminist. I'm all for equality of the sexes, but sometimes, everyone needs someone. A woman needs a man as much as he needs her. While we all date a couple of douchebags at some point in our lives, finding the one during our lifetime is as essential as anything else. But these women worked around all the spitballs that life threw at them and came out victorious. They all found happiness, sooner or later, but were heroes in spite of it. As a reader who's fallen in love with these characters for an eternity, I urge people to read all of these delectable pieces of literature. They'll leave a mark on your lives as much as they have on mine.