Since Melanie posted her list of 32 books, I thought I'd add mine. As she mentioned, I have a predilection for lists--I've compiled many "Top n" lists over the years, and corralled my friends into doing so as well. Book lists, however, are tricky--should the list consist of personal favorites? greats? books you re-read often/ever (depending on your re-reading philosophy)? This list doesn't have a very precise set of parameters--it's just a list of 30 books I enjoyed. Some I love dearly, some were thought-provoking, some have beautiful writing. I did throw a few poets on my list, as a sort of post-script. However, I'm sadly under-read when it comes to essays, nonfiction, and classics, so those are underrepresented on this list.
Like Melanie, once I made the list I thought of things that I should have added. However, in the interest of something resembling brevity, here's the original, unedited list.
From the "books I loved when I was..." category (although I still very much love them):
1. The Lord of the Rings -- J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
3. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- Robert Heinlein
4. Watership Down -- Richard Adams
5. A Town Like Alice -- Nevil Shute
6. Round the Bend -- Nevil Shute
7. The Stand -- Stephen King
8. The Bachman Books -- Stephen King
9. Enders Game/Speaker for the Dead/Xenophobia -- Orson Scott Card
10. Skinny Legs and All -- Tom Robbins
11. The Danger -- Dick Francis
12. The Hobbit -- J. R. R. Tolkien
Books more recently discovered (say, last 10 years) that I LOVE:
1. Plainsong -- Kent Haruf
2. The Power of One -- Bryce Courtenay
3. The Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
4. Hawaii -- James Michener
5. We Need to Talk about Kevin -- Lionel Shriver
Also recent discoveries, just good stuff:
1. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
2. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
3. The Sandman Series (graphic novels) -- Neil Gaiman
4. Gilead -- Marilynne Robinson
5. The Whistling Season -- Ivan Doig
6. The Calligrapher -- Edward Docx
7. The Source -- James Michener
8. The Naked and the Dead -- Norman Mailer
Nonfiction
1. For Common Things -- Jedidiah Purdy
2. The Polysyllabic Spree/Housekeeping vs. the Dirt/Shakespeare Wrote for the Money -- Nick Hornby
3. On Writing-- Stephen King
4. Being America -- Jedidiah Purdy
5. Song Book -- Nick Hornby
Poets
1. Edna St. Vincent Millay
2. Wendy Cope
3. Billy Collins
....other favorite poets include Tony Hoagland, X. J. Kennedy, Li-Young Lee, and Leonard Cohen.
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