This is a very short list of the books that no one required me to read.
The books that leapt to mind when I went to recall the ones that left me dazzled, wondering, stunned, amazed, broken hearted, laughing, in tears - the ones I really remember and would go back and read again. There are many more.
When I was a kid,I used to spend all my afterschool hours at the Katonah Public Library waiting for my Dad to pick me up on his way home from his job. The librarians got used to me and gave up trying to keep me in the children's library downstairs once I got to fifth grade. Back then, if you were quiet and well behaved, no one called social services on an unsupervised kid. I was reading. What more could they want from me?
King of the Wind, Marguerite Henry
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Good Earth, Pearl Buck
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George
Lady Chatterley's Lover, D.H. Lawrence
Exodus, Leon Uris
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
Farnams Freehold - Robert Heinlein
Andersonville - MacKinley Cantor
The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
Dune - Frank Herbert
Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer - Barabar Kingsolver
Pilgrim at Tinkers Creek - Annie Dillard
The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin
By the Light of My Father's Smile - Alice Walker
The Stand - Stephen King
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter Miller
Hiroshima - John Hershey
Dune - Frank Herbert
A Separate Peace - John Knowles
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Ragtime - E. L. Doctorow
On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon - Kaye Gibbons
Cold Mountain - Charles Frasier
Fall On Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald
The Bridges of Madison County - Robert James Waller
"Prey" series by John Sandford
"Brother Cadfael" series by Ellis Peters
"Dave Robicheaux" series by James Lee Burke
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Wherever You go, There You Are - J.Kabat-Zinn
Learning the Tarot - Joan Bunning
The Elements of Style - Strunk & White
On Writing - A memoir of the craft - Stephen King
7 comments:
And I've read 6 from your list. I use to take refuge at the library also as a child and it was a major date spot for me and my partner when we first met in my my early 20s.
"Exodus" made my longer list before I shortened it to one book per week. So did "Mila 18" by the same author.
I think I'm the only person in the world who preferred "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" over "Stranger in a Strange Land"! (Although I liked that one too.)
There are several more on your list that I've read too. And several that I haven't but think I might like to. Thanks for posting it, Deb!
Great list! And you've included some that are not novels, delightful! I've made some notes and I'll post my personal list later this week.
I've read 13 titles from this list and some are on my list of favorites, too. Have also read and enjoyed John Sandford, Ellis Peters, and James Lee Burke - several by each of them.
If you like Anne Lamont, you might also try Natalie Goldberg, especially Wild Mind : Living the Writer's Life and Writing Down the Bones.
I've read about 13 of these books.. and many are on my yet to be blogged short list.
The Bester book was on my to read list, but I kept forgetting it. (yeah, we looked it up again when the character's name was used on B5...).
Have you read Enchantment by Orson Scott Card?
You can learn alot about a person by their library. Maybe I should post only 'books read' on my cyberdating profile... thanks for the 'insight' about you!
As someone who read constantly from age 10 until the last few years when I spend more time sewing, I've read most of these. Interesting list, lots of variety of genres, theme, quality etc. (Yes, I WAS an English teacher!) Thanks for posting it; I love to see what people read.
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