The Bible, specifically New Testament. I've not read it deeply, but I've heard the highlights. I'll be praying it's not true, because I haven't lived the Word.😈

Anonymous wrote:F-ing Atonement by Ian McEwan. My DH swore to me that I had gotten through the most heartbreaking part of this accursed book half way through, but he’s a bloody liar. I cried so hard on the metro at the end that people were demonstrably kind to me because they thought I had suffered a tragic loss or was mentally ill. I will always remember their kindness and DH’s betrayal.

Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but I just added this to my library waitlist based on your post.

A Little Life

Anna Karenina
The House of Mirth

Up a Road Slowly (YA novel I read in my prepubescence)

I could name others but the general theme is of women’s disempowerment and struggle against all the oppression wrought in patriarchy

I know I know whine whine whine but I’m beyond middle age now and mortality is very real to me and I’m very angry at all the misogyny and violence against women and girls that I have experienced and observed in my life and the novels which early in my life gave glimpse of the truth to a still idealistic girl have become all the more meaningful

I wish women lived better lives, I wish they even had the opportunity to

I absolutely won't be thinking about books if I make it to a death bed situation.

F-ing Atonement by Ian McEwan. My DH swore to me that I had gotten through the most heartbreaking part of this accursed book half way through, but he’s a bloody liar. I cried so hard on the metro at the end that people were demonstrably kind to me because they thought I had suffered a tragic loss or was mentally ill. I will always remember their kindness and DH’s betrayal.

The Grapes of Wrath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_to_Go_Home!

I'm 50 and I read it when I was 8 or so and I still think of some of the scenes and chuckle when I am daydreaming on my way to work. I'm female btw.

Penthouse

"The Alchemist" made a difference in my life. I was struggling with what I most wanted in life and how to make it happen. We read this in my book club, and in discussion my friend made a connection from the book to my struggles that I had shared, and I was like WOW. Now I want to read it again because I can't remember the feeling anymore. My life shifted, in alignment with what I was wanting.

OK, to be perfectly clear, I wanted a baby, but my age was advanced, and I had conflicting feelings and obstacles. The thing my friend said was about going on your journey, seeking your prize. It cleared things up and I ended up going very actively toward my goal, and now I have a 7yo, can't imagine being without him, he is the light of my life.

"Life of Pi." I like philosophical stuff, I guess. I don't have any life story to go along with it but this is a book that delighted and surprised me, and I always remember it vividly.

The exercise of "deathbed" elicits for me not necessarily my overall faves, but instead the ones that got me existentially, deeply.

A hundred years of solitude

I hope El-ahrairah comes to fetch me and asks me to join his Owsla.

The Thornbirds

Herman Wouk The Winds of War
That book stayed with me for the longest time after I read it

A prayer for Owen Meany

And I know there are a lot motr, but they're not coming to mind right now

Yes, as they say in House (the TV show) and probably elsewhere, your deathbed will be just one day and so obsessing over this question is not a way to live your life. But perhaps you also remember these books sooner, too.

What books stuck with you and in another life (facetious, of course) would you be sure to read again? What books were unforgettable in the deepest and most important way?

In a very quick survey, the Aeneid, the Death of Ivan Ilych, and Beloved stick out for me.