The hardest thing

I am about to do a very hard thing. Perhaps the most difficult thing ever. But Lisa with her to-be-read pile has inspired me, in some indirect way, to come up with a list of ten favorite books.

In no particular order:

Anna Karenina
Harriet the Spy
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Accidental Tourist
The Amateur Marriage (it actually made me cry at the end. But that should count for something.)
A Suitable Boy
The Stand (I know, I know. It's bad to put a Stephen King book on this list. But he said once that people write to him asking him how Stu and Frannie are doing. I kind of wonder, too. They seem real.)
Anne of Green Gables
Wicked

I still feel like I am leaving some out. But there it is. Feel free to contribute your own lists!

Comments

Bearette said…
You mean the Broadway play ;)
11:45 PM
Bearette said…
Ah, a Bronte fan :) Cool.

I think I'll read Stiffs; I've heard good things about it.
1:42 AM
Lisa said…
I love that you have two Anne Tyler books on there---she's one of my favorites. If you haven't read them yet, try Breathing Lessons and Back When We Were Grown Ups.

Also, if you like Tyler, you'd probably like Anna Quindlen as well.

I LOVE Anne of Green Gables. I read the whole series when I was growing up. Did you know that they've recently published the collected journals of L.M. Montgomery? That's going on my wish list.
9:38 AM
Lisa said…
Things Fall Apart is on my essential reading list, if only because we Westerners read so little authentic African literature---by native Africans, not white visitors---and it gives such a different view of colonization and missionaries.

I haven't read Getting Over It yet, but I loved Maxted's Running in Heels.
9:41 AM
Bearette said…
Anne Tyler is one of my favorites, too. I like Anna Quindlen as well, but I wish she'd write another novel!

It's funny, I went to P.E.I. when I was a kid, and picked up Volume I of L.M.M.'s journal there. I wonder if this is the first time it's being published in the States? It was kind of sad. I don't think she had a super-happy marriage.
10:53 AM
Anonymous said…
Here are my top 10:
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Immortality
Surprised by Joy
Ulysses
Don Quixote
The Little Prince
Maya the Bee
Stories of Eva Luna
Their Eyes Were Watching God

These all vie for #11:
The God of Small Things
Gilead
The Red Tent
The House on Mango Street
The Joke
Winnie the Pooh
The Cricket in Times Square
Harry Potter

(I have to admit, I'm a bit embarrassed by the gender breakdown, so if anyone can recommend more women authors whose work resonates like those on my A list, I'd be much obliged.)
12:47 AM
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