Thursday, March 27, 2008

Thursday 13 - Favorite Books - 3/27/08

Thursday 13 – Thirteen of my favorite books. These are the first that surfaced to me. Many are lifetime favorites that I first read as an adolescent and still enjoy revisiting. There are some authors that are so much my favorite that I could not select one particular book and had to cheat. In those cases, I picked multiple books that came to mind. In the case of Heinlein, King, or Vonnegut, I could have made a Thursday 13 list of each of those authors. I also had to guard against selecting books that I might not have actually read, but saw the movie and thought I read it. Hey, I am getting old. Keep in mind that I read for entertainment. If I want to learn something I will go back to school. These are in no particular order.

The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien


To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

1984, Animal Farm – George Orwell


The Carpetbaggers – Harold Robbins

Shogun – James Clavell

Dune – Frank Herbert

The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck


Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut


The Stand, It – Stephen King










Helter Skelter – Vincent Bugliosi

Stranger In a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, The Door Into Summer - Robert Heinlein




Farenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury







The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell To Arms – Ernest Hemingway


11 comments:

Mrs. Brownstone @ XBOX Wife said...

You've listed so many books that I loved being instructed to read in high school ~ To Kill A Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, and a few others. They were wonderful books, and it makes me want to check them out and read them again.

As an adult, I read "It" and still get uncomfortable walking past a street drain!

Robin said...

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are some of my favorites too. I read some Heinlein too, but it just didn't do it for me.

Di said...

My daughter is re-reading To Kill A Mockingbird for high school. It is truly a classic.

My first Stephen King was 'Salem's Lot...I read it when I was home with mono the summer I was 16. I believed in vampires!

We read Fahrenheit 451 for my book group a few years back. It is eerie how much of it is now reality.

James Goodman said...

Wow, that's a great list and varied too. You have several of my favorites listed there. :D

Cindy Swanson said...

Obviously--duh--you're really into sci-fi and fantasy! :) I finally read the Lord of the Rings trilogy several years ago. Really enjoyed it, especially "Return of the King," but I've never read the Hobbit, even though my son urges me to. He's even read the Tolkien book that was released posthumously--forget the name. I'm a big C. S. Lewis fan as well, but haven't read many of the other books on your list.

Love the title of your blog! :)

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! I read for entertainment too, I've read every one of those books you've listed, and I love all the authors. You have excellent taste in reading matter! :)

Lucy said...

Great taste in music AND books!? There are some classics here that I can't believe I haven't read. This is a good reminder for my list for the library Rick! ( my eldest is also a huge Vonnegut fan)

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Classics, all! And really good ones, too, the kind that even I would read! :D

Bone said...

I love Of Mice And Men. A Farewell To Arms, too.

I think my two favorite books are still The Great Gatsby and Breakfast At Tiffany's.

Anonymous said...

That's my all time favorite Beatle song! Have you read Ursula Leguin's Earthsea books? I think you'd like them judging by the ones here on your list.

Anonymous said...

I had to read a Kurt Vonnegut short story in college and loved it. Never got a chance to read a book. Carly