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What are your favorite books of all time?


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Well I've been studying the Bible since I was nine years old so I do feel that it is a part of me...I love it. Another favorite non-fiction is Corrie Ten Boom's, The Hiding Place, and Darlene Deibler Rose, Evidence Not Seen.

 

As for fiction, I read Jane Austen's, Persuasion every few years, and Pride and Prejudice is a staple. I'm sure I'll be embarrassed that I posted my pretty common favorites when I read everyone's more creative, interesting, exciting etc.choices. :001_smile:

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Well I've been studying the Bible since I was nine years old so I do feel that it is a part of me...I love it. Another favorite non-fiction is Corrie Ten Boom's, The Hiding Place, and Darlene Deibler Rose, Evidence Not Seen.

 

As for fiction, I read Jane Austen's, Persuasion every few years, and Pride and Prejudice is a staple. I'm sure I'll be embarrassed that I posted my pretty common favorites when I read everyone's more creative, interesting, exciting etc.choices. :001_smile:

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I love the Bible too.

 

I found I'm a huge David McCullough fan.

 

I'm not very original with my fiction choices:

 

Pride and Prejudice

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Count of Monte Cristo

 

I'm tempted to add The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I read it over two years ago, and I still savor it in my memory. I don't know if it will stand the test of time in my heart like the others, though.

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I do agree that the Bible is the best of all time.

 

As far as fiction, I love The Mark of The Lion series, by Francine Rivers.

 

As far as childrens books, I love the Ramona series, by Beverly Cleary.

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Fiction: Remains of the Day by Kazuro Ishiguro. The most beautiful novel ever written. The plot is so simple but there is so much more.

 

Nonfiction: the commanding heights. Great story about energy policy

 

Loved Remains! I was surprised by some of the movie changes though I still love the film.

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Fiction: Watership Down by Richard Adams, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 

Non-Fiction: Anything by Bill Bryson. At Home and A Walk in the Woods are probably my favorites.

 

I just finished reading A Walk in the Woods. I enjoyed it a lot!

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A lot of my favorites have been mentioned (I read Jane Eyre and the Jane Austen novels every year), so I'll add a few that haven't.

 

Nonfiction:

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

anything by Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicology, The Mind's Eye, etc)

 

Fiction:

Fruits Basket (fantastic manga series - makes me laugh, makes me cry)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

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Non-Fiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

* I LOVED that book. I can't explain it, but it was SO relaxing. Plus, it's what got me started on my path to healthy living. I love that book :)

 

Fiction: Harry Potter books

 

* hands down, and I feel very un-cultured for saying it, LOL, but I just love them :) I have read them all many times, and will probably continue to read them.

 

 

To redeem myself though: War and Peace makes the top of the list too. Roots made a huge impression on me.

 

As a kid, my favorite series was "The Dark is Rising" books by Susan Cooper.

 

Roots made a huge impression on me.

 

For Non-fiction, I read the biography of Queen Noor (Leap of Faith) and found it interesting. I also read these two books I got as part of whatever book subscription thing I had.... one was Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, about what life is like in the Royal Family, etc. I'm pretty sure I could NEVER respect any member of the Saudi Royal family after reading it, as a matter of fact, they disgust me.

 

And the other one was written by a former Mormon lady and she talked about what life is like inside the Mormon church and temple, etc. About secret handshakes, or signs, or something..... very enlightening. I can't seem to find it, I either loaned it to some one, or donated it.

 

I like reading books that show how other people live.

 

OH, and I loved The Greatest Generation books by Tom Brokaw, I have all of them :)

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I have three: The Little White Horse (Elizabeth Goudge); The Chestry Oak (Kate Seredy); Understood Betsy (Dorothy Canfield Fisher).

 

I have enjoyed many other books, but those three are the top of the list.

 

I want to read The Little White Horse but have had no luck finding it the last few times I looked. Did you read it recently and if so, how did you get a copy?

 

The Lord of the Rings

 

For kids (older ish):

The Diamond in the Window

 

I'm trying to read The Lord of the Rings, but at the moment I want a little bit to gouge my eyes out. Am I ever going to get to the story? :tongue_smilie:

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Fiction: Harry Potter books

 

* hands down, and I feel very un-cultured for saying it, LOL, but I just love them I have read them all many times, and will probably continue to read them.

 

Me too! Have you ever read any books by John Granger? He is a professor, who examines HP books as literature. His book The Deathly Hallows Lectures enhanced my appreciation of the last book.

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These I have read over and over each and still read periodically:

 

The Count of Monte Christo

The Hobbit

Lost Horizon

The Mouse that Roared

McGillicuddy McGotham

Curtain

Mere Christianity

The Bible

 

Books from my childhood that I used to read over and over:

My Side of the Mountain

The Mixed up Files

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Little Women

Baby Island

Ballet Shoes

 

Favorites that I've read less often:

All of James Herriots books

Father Brown Mysteries

 

 

A modern favorite that I've only read twice so far:

The Life of Pi

 

I love lots of books, I could probably think of more.

Edited by Onceuponatime
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Other than the Bible, my favorites are:

 

fiction - This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti

There are other books I enjoyed more, but this one was probably the most spiritually impacting book I've ever read.

 

non-fiction - Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

It's an easy read, and the content is profound.

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Gosh, there are so many... but if I have to pick, I'd say

 

The Bible

 

From childhood: Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White and The Secret Garden by Francess Hodgson Burnett

 

Fiction: Pride & Prejudice and The Outlander Series

 

Non-Fiction: ?

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Fiction - To Kill a Mockingbird has been my favorite book since I first read it in Jr. High school. Understood Betsy and Follow My Leader are my favorite children's books, but To Kill a Mockingbird has that enduring quality, and is worth re-reading at many different ages and stages of life.

 

Non-fiction - I don't really have a nonfiction favorite in the same sense, though I'd put Hardwired Behavior, Braintrust, Capital Ideas, and Capital Ideas Evolving up as nonfiction books I keep on my shelves and have read (plan to read) more than once. Bill Bryson's books look promising, but I just started reading those and need to give them time to see if I go back and read them again.

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It does take a while to get going. It's best to think of your first reading as an overview, and then read it again for pleasure.

 

I found this to be true as well. The first time I read Lord of the Rings, it took me forever to get into it. I almost gave up over Tom Bombadil. I'd given it over 100 pages and was still not loving it. But people kept telling me to just stick with it, so I did. Now I reread it every 2 years or so and I'm hooked from the first page to the last, and am always sad as I reach the end. I love to get lost in Middle Earth for a few weeks!

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I found this to be true as well. The first time I read Lord of the Rings, it took me forever to get into it. I almost gave up over Tom Bombadil. I'd given it over 100 pages and was still not loving it. But people kept telling me to just stick with it, so I did. Now I reread it every 2 years or so and I'm hooked from the first page to the last, and am always sad as I reach the end. I love to get lost in Middle Earth for a few weeks!

 

Okay, you all have convinced me. I'm sticking with the tedium for a while yet. I really want the experience of it and I want to get the references when people make them.

 

Oh- and here's something interesting, for those of you who have read both LOTR and HP. I'm noting things that are similar in the books. So far, we already have "Bagshot" and a place called "Butterbur," which sounds a lot like "Butterbeer." The fireworks called "squibs," Gandolf, obviously quite a bit like Dumbledore. I'm sure there are more.

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Fiction I have read over and over...

 

Fantasy: The Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey

 

Spy Novels: John LeCarre's Smiley's People, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and The Honourable Schoolboy, and almost all of his British Cold War stuff.

 

Historical Fiction: Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear's People of the... Silence, Owl, Raven, etc. (Native American)

 

Bernard Cornwell (anything he writes)

 

Rosemary Sutcliff (I love all of her books - DD and I fight over them all the time).

 

James A. Michener - Hawaii, Alaska, Texas, etc.

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Sacred books-Book of Enoch, The Nag Hammadi, Upanishads

Non Fiction-The Hot Zone by Richard Preston(not sex, epidemiology), many philosophical works from Plato to Foucault and back.An abiding love of all parapsychology, psychology and astronomy. Brian Greene makes me positively giddy.

Fiction- So many....A Prayer for Owen Meany-John Irving

The entirety of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Night Country by Stewart O Nan

The entirety of books written by John Connolly.

And when I want to rest my mind a bit I love Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters series.

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Yikes! So hard to pick.

 

Some of my fave fiction:

 

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (I've read all of her stuff multiple times)

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

Captains and the Kings by Taylor Caldwell

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Au Bonheur des dames by Emile Zola

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