You've Got Mail

You've Got Mail is one of my very favorite movies. Although Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are positively delightful and I loved the original (The Shop Around the Corner), I believe the plethora of books and book stores are probably its most endearing feature for me.  It also includes some fantastic quotations about books and reading (my favorites are all from Meg Ryan's character, Kathleen).  

" Once I read a story about a butterfly in the subway, and today I saw one. I couldn't believe it. It got on at 42nd -- and got off at 59th, where I assume it was going to Bloomindale's to buy a hat that will turn out to be a mistake. As almost all hats are."

"So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does."

The last one is particularly powerful for me.  I read so much as a child and many of those books are still a part of who I am.  I love making lists, and I love having a special place for my lists to live.  I never really thought anything of it until my junior year of college.  I was in the basement of the library looking for books to read for my children's literature class and I found Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry.  I read this book many times as a child.  And right there, in the first few pages, Anastasia opens up a notebook and begins to make lists.  They are printed, in her handwriting, throughout the book.  I really think that's where my affinity for a notebook of lists came from.  

Last Christmas, I gave a copy of the novel my then 8-year-old niece.  I love reading my old favorites to my nieces and nephews and to the little kids I baby-sit for.  I hope they can become a positive part of who they are to become.  I know my childhood books did.  

What books were your favorites as a child.  I have so many, I'll probably make a whole other post, but were there ones that still have an impact on you today?  Do events in your real life ever remind you of happenings you read about in a book?  Do tell.