Thirty favorite books |
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alpaca_shearer
NYC Midnight Regular Joined: 24 Jan 2019 Location: Arkansas Status: Offline Points: 503 |
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Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 5:54pm |
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While not strictly related to creative writing, what we read has such a profound impact on how we write. I'm curious to see what moves all you wonderful writers. Plus its a fun way to pass the time until I can read all these great Round 2 stories.
I read the Marie Kondo book on tidying up last year. For those of you who don't know who she is, her new Netflix series has created quite a stir. I can sum up the basic premise for you pretty quickly. Hold an object in your hands: if it sparks joy, keep it. If it doesn't spark joy, get rid of it. Anyway, she discusses the keeping of books. She says she whittled her own book collection down to 30 titles, and recommends others to do something similar. Personally, I could NEVER get my collection down to thirty. But it got me thinking... What would be the thirty books I would choose to keep if someone had a gun to my head? So here it is! My thirty favorite books. These are not what I would consider the thirty BEST books I've read. They are the thirty books that have either influenced me the most in my personal growth, both as a writer and as a person. The books that have inspired me, and the books that make me want to go back and read them again and again. Hesse, McCarthy, Hemingway, and Steinbeck all pull double honors (Noticing a theme there ) In no particular order:
What have you got folks? Any of these books make your list? Edited by alpaca_shearer - 08 Apr 2019 at 5:56pm |
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2FF R3:
">Where the Lilies Bloom |
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roccapia
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I recycle books. I find 'em used or at the library, and when I read them, I sell them back to the bookstore or return to the library. Any book that I read over and over, I keep on kindle. So I have books at the house, but none I'm particularly attached to and must keep. If they're good enough, I know I can always find another copy somewhere.
My 30 (and I like kid lit best, so my 30 might not be as adult in places as most!) 1. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett 2. The whole Chronicles of Narnia Series - C.S. Lewis 3. The whole Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling 4. The whole LOTR (including Hobbit) - JRR Tolken 5. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell 6. Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls? 7. River God - Wilbur SMith 8. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 9. The Black Stallion - Walter Farley 10. Every Oz book by L. Frank Baum 11. Seabiscuit - Laura Hillenbrandt 12. Chesapeake - Michner 13. Call of the Wild - London 14. Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain 15. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 16. The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling 17. Just So Stories - Kipling 18. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khalid Hosseini 19. Winnie the Pooh - Milne 20. Alice in Wonderland - Carroll 21. It - Stephen King 22. The Seventh Scroll - Wilbur Smith 23. World Without End - Ken Follett 24. Oliver Twist - Dickens 25. The House at Pooh Corner - Milne 26. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie 27. Anne of Green Gables 28. Peter Pan - Barrie 29. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Doyle 30. A Christmas Carol - Dickens |
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MF1: Dirty Fingers
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alpaca_shearer
NYC Midnight Regular Joined: 24 Jan 2019 Location: Arkansas Status: Offline Points: 503 |
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Haha, I'm pretty sure that's like 15 books right there! You're right though, its hard to pick a favorite when it comes to the Tolkien trilogy OR the chronicles of Narnia. I had forgotten about the Jungle Book!! That was such a big deal book to me as a kid! Might have to try and shoehorn that one into my top list as well...
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2FF R3:
">Where the Lilies Bloom |
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GallifreyGirl
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It is my extremely biased opinion that either Marie Kondo has no soul, or "30 bookcases" was mistranslated as "30 books."
First of all, Harry Potter is 7 books; Temeraire is 9; and GoT (will eventually be) another 7. Which I guess means I have to Sophie's Choice 7 poetry books from my collection of over 200? Hard pass. But if I did: Asghar, Fatimah. If They Come for Us. Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Barnett, Catherine. Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes are Pierced. Block, Francesca Lia. Dangerous Angels. (it's 5 books but they're compiled into a single volume so I'm only counting them as one sue me) Bryson, Bill. In a Sunburnt Country. Card, Orson Scott. Xenocide. Cashore, Kristin. Graceling. Chomsky, Noam. Manufacturing Consent. Clifton, Lucille. The Book of Light. Crusie, Jennifer. Getting Rid of Bradley. Douglass, Sara. Beyond the Hanging Wall. Gluck, Louise. Averno. Grossman, Lev. The Magician King. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Lewis, Robin Coste. Voyage of the Sable Venus. Nelson, Maggie. Bluets. Novik, Naomi. Crucible of Gold. Oates, Joyce Carol. Black Water. Oyehaug, Gunnhild. Knots. Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. Rankine, Claudia. Don't Let Me Be Lonely. Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Russell, Bertrand. Why I Am Not a Christian. Sagan, Carl. Contact. Saunders, George. Tenth of December. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. Sparks, Amber. May We Shed These Human Bodies. Simic, Charles. The World Doesn't End. Thorne, Sally. The Hating Game. Vuong, Ocean. Night Sky with Exit Wounds. These cuts were to the bone, man.
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dashesndots
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The first eight are fairly set in stone - the rest are somewhat interchangeable. Most of them are books I read as a teenager, and the genres I prefer are pretty obvious (And yeah, I'm cheating by including several series. But I could never have only 30 books!) 1. A Song of Ice & Fire Series - George R.R. Martin 2. His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman3. Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling 4. Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier 5. The Abhorsen Trilogy - Garth Nix 6. The Neverending Story - Michael Ende 7. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 8. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 9. American Gods - Neil Gaiman 10. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn 11. The Fables graphic novel series - Bill Willingham 12. Little Women - Louise May Alcott 13. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 14. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote 15. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson 16. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 17. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 18. The Dark Tower series - Stephen King 19. The Crucible - Arthur Miller 20. The Firebringer trilogy - Meredith Ann Pierce 21. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - Robert Rankin 22. The Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan 23. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut 24. The Color Purple - Alice Walker 25. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters 26. Clay's Ark - Octavia Butler 27. Blood & Chocolate - Anne Kurtis Klaus 28. The Forestwife - Theresa Tomlinson 29. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 30. A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams Edited by dashesndots - 08 Apr 2019 at 7:27pm |
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roccapia
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 21 Mar 2017 Location: Poulsbo, WA Status: Offline Points: 1061 |
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My big goal this year is to read every winning Pulitzer fiction novel that I haven't read yet (which is a lot). But when I'm done, I'm coming back to this thread and reading some of the books you guys have on your lists. Because there's a lot I haven't read that look really interesting!
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dias
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I love lists, but this was tough! I went for a mix of books I loved growing up, books that changed the way I think, and then some that are just fun to read (because if Marie Kondo really did take all my other books away, I'd need something to make me smile!)
In no particular order: 1. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 2. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 3. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 4. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman 5. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - J R R Tolkien 6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J K Rowling 7. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C S Lewis 8. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 9. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak 10. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith 11. Running in the Family - Michael Ondaatje 12. Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones 13. Stardust - Neil Gaiman 14. Sabriel - Garth Nix 15. Le Grand Meaulnes - Alain-Fournier 16. Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery 17. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri 18. Cold Light of Day - Anita Desai 19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres 20. Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce 21. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 22. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini 23. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor 24. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 25. Bridge of Clay - Markus Zusak 26. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon 27. The Old Wives’ Tale - Arnold Bennett 28. The Princess Bride - William Goldman 29. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion 30. The Rosie Effect - Graeme Simsion
Edited by dias - 08 Apr 2019 at 7:52pm |
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All my stories are here!
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alpaca_shearer
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There are A LOT of books on this list I haven't heard of! It's crazy how varied everyones tastes are. So interesting! The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse? I'm looking that up!!!
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2FF R3:
">Where the Lilies Bloom |
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chrissie0707
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All right, I have to play now. Also just spent a lot of time combing through my bookshelves. (Might have found a TON of books I still need to get around to reading.)
First, the givens: 1-7: Harry Potter series 8-12: Song of Ice and Fire series, though I will say it took me NINE MONTHS to get through Dance with Dragons back in 2013 Then, if I have to pick only my favorite Stephen King novels 13: It 14: The Green Mile 15: Cell (don't ask me why. I have a soft spot for it.) And in no particular order 16: Wild, Cheryl Strayed 17: The Help, Kathryn Stockett 18:To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (okay, that was a lie. This would/should be number 1) 19: Little Women, Louisa May Alcott 20: Freedom, Jonathan Franzen 21: Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill 22: Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell 23: Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell 24: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi (I've only met one other person who's ever even heard of this awesome book) 25-27: The Magicians Trilogy, Lev Grossman (an inspiration for how I plan to lay out my own fantasy trilogy) 28: Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt 29: The Silver Linings Playbook, Matthew Quick 30: The Ruins, Scott Smith Edited by chrissie0707 - 08 Apr 2019 at 7:59pm |
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Angara
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Here's the top thirty leave on my bookshelf, while the bold titles are the top edited to add: The Scarlet Pimpernel and Orlando
Edited by Angara - 10 Apr 2019 at 7:07am |
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