Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Book lists, Book lists, Book lists!


All-Things-Creative Wednesdays

Books are magical. Books allow for one to become completely and utterly immersed in other worlds and other lives like no movie, tv show, or video game can.
I love the smell of them, I love the feel of them, I love the sound of the pages when they're ruffled.

My own collection has built up over the past years as I'm determined to someday have a house with a room dedicated to all the books I will have acquired (aka a library!)

If I had to list all my favourites, I could probably come up with about a 100 like the lists below... but I'm not going to pretend to be a book critic!

However a few that I absolutely LOVE and that come to mind right away I would recommend are:

* Fall on Your Knees, Ann-Marie MacDonald
* Boy's Life, Robert McCammon
* The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
* The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
* Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
* I Know This Much is True, Wally Lamb


And for those of you who enjoy a little chick lit once in a while, full of delicious glamour, drama and scandal, I just have 3 things to say to you:

Penny Vincenzi! Penny Vincenzi! Penny Vincenzi!

Not to worry though; I have also scoured the internet for a decent list of must-reads from the "experts" and have come up with a few (because I wasn't quite satisfied with any one of them).

Here is the All-Time 100 Novels list from TIME Magazine. It's good because it is the most up to date list I could find (2008) and the original TIME review is linked to each title. However, the list is only of novels written from 1923 onwards. (1923 is the year TIME Magazine began).

Here is the 100 Best Novels list from the Modern Library. It's a good list for the inclusion of classics and other 20th century novels, but it was completed in 1998 - so it doesn't include the incredible books that have been written in the last decade.

Last but not least, here is the Oprah's Book Club list. A lot may scoff at Oprah for various reasons, but there is no doubt that the majority of novels that have been chosen for her book club have been great reads.

Between these 3 lists you will most definitely be prepared for your next trip to the library or bookstore!

Shamefully, I've only read 15 from the TIME list and even less from the Modern Library list... (a lot of my reading hours during youth were spent with the mystery and thriller genres). But thankfully I do have quite a few of them just waiting for me on my shelves at home :)

How many have you read? Feel free to leave your comments...

Happy reading :)


K


Above book cover images, in order of appearance, via Random House, Simon & Shuster, Penguin Classics, Pat Conroy, Penguin Classics, Harper Collins. Above home library image via ElmoFromOK

1 comment:

  1. Love your new blog :)
    The lists have some interesting reads. There`s quite a few I`ve read over the years but to name a few, Grapes of Wrath, Gone With The Wind, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest....
    Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham...I wonder if that`s the same as the movie that was made in the 1920`s. It was highly controversial for that time. They didn`t have movie censorship yet and some movies were very suggestive without causing controversy. So this one must have been quite something else.
    It would be a good read.

    Mum
    xox

    ReplyDelete

Blog Widget by LinkWithin