A Few of My Favorite Things

I have this list I’ve made of my favorite books and I keep adding to it. I did this at first because to me, to finish a book was a big thing.

I did not grow up as a reader. I struggled with the act of reading and truly, I would have rather had my teeth pulled than read a book growing up. Then I went to college and had to read boring books, and you know what? Once I got started I found I grew interested in them. A thought occurred to me then that it might be fun to read a book that I chose. From that moment on I began the life of a reader. Not because I had to but because I wanted to.

Anyway, here is the list. It is a bit long now and includes a few books that I really did like when I was young. Some books are definitely not rated “G.” Some of these authors I stopped reading because they had too many sex scenes in them, or were too dark, and I eventually noticed that all their books were that way. I even have a few non-fiction titles in here.

Books I have known and loved

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* means I would read this book again

*The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
On Writing by Stephen King (nonfiction)
No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
*Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Madame Bovary
The Singer Trilogy by Calvin Miller
*Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee
*The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
*1984-George Orwell -For the ideas presented and how today’s culture seems to be going down that path.
Stories by O Henry by O Henry
The True Confessions of Charlett Doyle by Avi
*And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead
Merlin by Stephen Lawhead
Arthur by Stephen Lawhead
*Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge
*Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
*Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
*Hamlet by William Shakespeare
*King Lear by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
*Kindred by Octavia Butler
*The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfus
*Harry Potter (the series) by Rowling
*Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett-particularly Going Postal, Monstrous Regiment, Thud, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay
*The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Timescape by Gregory Benford
*The Illistrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Richard II by William Shakespeare
Tempest by William Shakespeare
*Don Quixote by Cervantes
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Oceans of Night by Gregory Benford
Accross the Sea of Suns by Gregory Benford
Saga of Seven Suns Series by Kevin J. Anderson
Seeker by Jack McDevitt
Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
Frankenstein Series by Dean Koontz
*Alex Cross Series by James Patterson
Velocity by Dean Koontz
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Man and Superman by Bernard Shaw
Forever War by Joe Haldeman
*The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
*The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
The Shack by William P. Young
This Present Darkness by Anthony Peretti
Piercing the Darkness by Anthony Peretti
Dubliners by James Joyce
Short Stories by Robert Sheckley
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
*To the Vanishing Point by Allen Dean Foster
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol
*A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
*Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
*Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
*Alfred Hitchcock’s Three Investigators Series
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Series) by Lemony Snicket
Teach Your Child To Read in Just Ten Minutes a Day by Sidney Ledson (nonfiction)
*The Circle Series (Black, Red, White, Green) by Ted Dekker
The Atrocity Archive by Charles Stross
*Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
*Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
*Pilgrim’s Progress
Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
*Three by Ted Dekker
The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson
Cat and Mouse by James Patterson
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
*Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein
Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz
*Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz
*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfus
*The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
*The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (Johnny Dixon) by John Bellairs
*Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
*Hard Magic & Spellbound (Books 1 & 2 of the Grimnoir Chronicles) by Larry Correia
Cauldron by Jack McDevitt
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
*Othello
*Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
*Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
*The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker
Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Soulless by Gail Carringer
Wool 1-5 by Hugh Howy
*Player One Ready by Ernest Cline
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
*The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
*The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
Countdown City: The Last Policeman Book II by Ben H. Winters
*Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
*The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams
Night of the Avenging Blowfish: A Novel of Covert Operations, Love, and Luncheon Meat by John Welter
I Funny by James Patterson
I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
Geek Wisdom by N. K. Jemisin, Genevieve Valentine, Eric San Juan, Zaki Hasan,
Boneman’s Daughters by Ted Dekker
Swords of Haven by Simon R. Green
Paths Not Taken (Nightside) Simon R. Green
Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon R. Green
The Man with the Golden Torc (Secret Histories, Book 1)
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds