A Book I've Read More Than 3 Times // 30-Day Book Challenge - Day 2

Today is the second day of the 30-Day Book Challenge I'm currently attempting. Today's prompt is: a book you've read more than 3 times. Before I say which book I've chosen for this category though, I have a confession to make: I don't re-read books very often. It's not that I don't think that re-reading books is worth doing; on the contrary, I wish I did it more. It's just frequently the case that I am lured away from my old favourites, sitting on the shelf and waiting to be re-read, and drawn towards shiny new books with new ideas and new stories to tell. At the moment, I have an additional excuse: since moving to France, most of my books have been put into storage, making re-reading a challenge of practicality as well as willpower.

Having said all of that, there are certain books which I have re-read several times, and I believe that the fact I don't often do that sort of thing is proof of the special place these stories hold in my heart. Out of that small selection of books I had to choose from for today's challenge, the one I ultimately decided on was I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

If you are not familiar with this particular novel, you may know Smith for another famous work; she is the author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the classic children's novel that was adapted into an even more famous film by Disney in 1961. I Capture the Castle is pretty well-known in its own right, though. It was made into a film in 2003 and was apparently voted one of the UK's best-loved novels in a 2004 poll. You can even buy tote bags with the first lines of the novel hand-lettered on them.

I actually knew very little about either Smith or her work before I encountered ICTC in my teens, which I believe happened after I saw it talked about on various book blogs. I eventually bought a copy on holiday with my family, read it, and instantly fell in love. It might have helped that I read the book at what I would say was the perfect time in life to read it, when I was roughly the same age as the protagonist. However, each successive re-read of the book has proven that you absolutely don't need to be a teenage girl to enjoy the adventures of Cassandra Mortmain and her family.

On that note, I should perhaps provide some details of the plot. I Capture the Castle is a first-person novel written from the perspective of Cassandra, one of the daughters of the Mortmain family, who live together in a run-down castle during the 1930s. Every member of the family has their quirks, be it their persistent struggle against writers' block (Cassandra's father) or their habit of walking around the countryside in nothing but a pair of boots (Topaz, Mr Mortmain's second and incumbent wife). All the details of their characters and their lives are recorded by Cassandra, who constantly writes the journal which forms the narrative of the book. Cassandra herself always has a unique perspective on the world, quotably referred to by another character as seeming "consciously naïve". I will always love her for putting into words feelings that I didn't, until that point, realise anyone else in the world had felt - experiencing this being what I believe to be one of the great pleasures of reading, and equivalent to a Cupid's arrow in the heart of the reader.

I Capture the Castle is one of those novels that grabs you from its iconic opening line - "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink..." - and keeps hold of you until the equally memorable very end. Perhaps the way I say that makes it sound like a thriller or a page-turner, but really it's a rather domestic novel, almost bordering on being a literary rom-com. What kept me hooked on it, rather than plot twists or melodrama, was just how purely charming it is. From the unique setting to the various eccentric members of the Mortmain family, every part of ICTC is memorable and lovable without being trite or saccharine. 

It is because of all these wonderful qualities that I have read I Capture the Castle so many times over the years, and I believe these same qualities will have me returning to it for many years to come.