Today’s Top Ten Tuesday as suggested by The Broke and the Bookish is “Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed” and we are to share whether we love the books more or less or have complicated feelings about them.

So, to preface my list, I will say that some of the books here are ones I love less because in the home I grew up in, my books, music, t.v. and movies weren’t really monitored.  However, my husband and I have strong convictions about what we believe our children should and should not be exposed to, and because of that, I have learned to love many of these books more and some of them less.

1.  All of the Curious George books.  I have to say that I love them less because George always gets into a mess of trouble, but never really gets a consequence.  Instead he usually gets some type of reward.
2. The Berenstain Bears books — I love more because the children are taught lessons, they have consequences and yet, their parents show them unconditional love.
3.  Amelia Bedelia books — I love more.  These books are just so much fun!  Amelia takes everything so literally, and it’s fun to share with my children how complicated our language can sound.
4.  The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.  I have come to completely LOVE these books, so much so that I read them over and over again.  They have wonderful messages like unconditional love, consequences for choices and actions and the fact that these consequences don’t always just affect the person who made the choice or committed the action but those around them as well, and sacrificing for others.
5. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee — I love more because as a parent, I now not only love the lessons that Jem and Scout learn, but I love the example that Atticus sets before them;how he teaches them to stand for what they believe in and to think for themselves and not just do what others do, and that every person matters.
6. I know this may be more of a movie item than a book item, but I used to have some of these in storybook form as a young girl — The Disney Princess stories.  I love them much less because they are so unrealistic and they set up little girls for heartbreak and struggles in real life.  I loved these stories as a child, and when I grew up and got married and realized that not everything is “happily ever after” and my “Prince Charming” isn’t always going to be “Prince Charming”, I struggled because things weren’t always the way I wanted them to be.  Fortunately, I was also taught that my marriage vows need to be taken seriously, and I learned that marriage is work — work on the part of both the man and the woman.
7. Stephen King’s horror stories — I don’t love at all anymore.  As an adult, I now find horror stories disturbing and I do not enjoy them at all.  I find many of King’s horror stories too graphically gruesome as well.
8. Dean Koontz’s suspense novels — I love more because they give me the heart-pounding suspense and action that I used to like about King’s books without the graphic gruesomeness.  Some of them also hint at the paranormal, which I still have a fondness for.  (Yes, I am an X-Files fan).
9. Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne – I love more because they are sweet, innocent stories that involve a wonderful cast of lovable animals, who aren’t perfect but who stick together and help one another whenever needed.
10. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McClosky – I love more because I learned that it is based on fact – a police officer really did stop traffic to allow the mama duck and her babies to cross a busy Boston city street safely.  Then we vacationed in Boston not long after I had read the book to our oldest son, and when walking through Boston Commons saw the statues that are in the park that represent the mama duck and her ducklings.  It’s a wonderful memory, and we took a photo or two of our son with the statues.

I realize many of these are children’s books, but that is because those are the ones that came to my mind for this topic.  Besides, for the past almost twenty-three years, I have been reading what I consider much more appropriate reading material and I could give you a whole list of books that I totally LOVE now.  Actually, that may have been a topic on a past Top Ten Tuesday, or something like it.

How about you?  Are the books you love more or love less than years ago from your childhood, teen years, or adulthood?