Today will end like most: me soaking in a deep tub. A small selection of bubble baths will sweeten the ritual. Anyone who has read my books may have picked up on my daily devotion. It starts with me picking one favorite bubble bath.

Recently I accepted this Facebook challenge: post covers of 7 books that changed your life. One a day for seven days. No explanation. Just upload the cover and nominate a friend.
Normally I might have quoted Neil Gaiman:

But decided to narrow the list of my loves. Here are the ones I pulled out of my brain that week.

1. Bird by Bird – this encouraged me to try writing fiction. I’m still trying.
2. Madeline – the first book I can remember reading on my own
3. The Story of O – I found this while snooping in my older brother’s room. He had the best records and books. I was fifteen at the time. This probably did change my life. It certainly changed my fantasy life, in ways I kept secret for years.
4. Pride and Prejudice / Bridget Jones’s Diary – Pride and Prejudice is a perennial favourite. I’ve read it at least 6 or 7 times. Even though I’ve only read Bridget Jones once, it is a sister book to P&P.
5. Beyond Heaving Bosoms – this book said: write romance. So I did.
6. The Virginian – Before writing A Time for Will, I read The Virginian. This year my LM and I listened to it as an audiobook as we drove through Utah, Montana, and Wyoming. Magic.
7. The Giver – compelling and frightening. A utopian veneer hiding a dystopian reality seems too close for comfort these days.
This ‘favorite 7’ list is one day’s version. Many adored books were left behind. It’s too hard to choose only 7.

Can you name a single book that changed your life? A top ten? How did those books affect you?
Which bubble bath is the favourite tonight?