I love lists…. little check boxes to see where you land… those ridiculous addicting quizzes on Facebook that tell you what House you are sorted in, that movie star you are most like, or the one that predicts what will happen in 2018 for you…
silly really.. but still.. occasionally I do them. (insert blush here)
Yesterday I posted Amazon’s 100 Books To Read In A Lifetime list. A meme has been made and it going around so you (me, whoever) can check off the ones that we have read on this list. I liked that – however it made me look at the books that were not on the list that I thought would be.. or should be.
Being me (yes.. still me, I checked this morning 😉 ) I wondered if we… the BIG READERS of our communities would have other suggestions. What if you or I were asked to say what we thought was a book that we feel should be read in one’s lifetime. How would our list differ? Or how would it be the same?
So… yeah. Here we go. I am asking… because I am curious what we would come up with. You do not have to be a book blogger to do this. If you LOVE books, please share a title or two or three of what you would tell someone is “a must read in a lifetime”. I will compile these responses for a few weeks and then release our top choices. I know I value my friends and other book reviewers opinions when it comes to books. I have read many an amazing title or been introduced to a new author that way.
I for one – would LOVE a list like this. SO…..let’s do it.
Please take a couple of minutes to fill out the form below.
Book Journey 
Hmm
LOL Right?
Thanks
The Odyssey of Homer- read it as a prose version if poetry is not your thing. There’s even the newest translation out of UChicago by a woman- yes, that one is poetic. And, a zillion versions in Audible.
The Blue Castle- Lucy Maude Montgomery’s only adult book. The premise may be a bit juvenile but the idea presented for it’s time is wonderful.
Gone with the Wind- I simply do not CARE if you think it’s sexist, racist, Pro-war or anything else. This is a great read, and the prequels ( Ruth’s Journey and Rhett Bulter’s People) and the sequel (Scarlett) are wonderful ways to learn more about the time.
The Phantom Tollbooth- Norman Juster
The Chronicles Of Narnia and God in the Dock by CS Lewis
The Giver- and any other Lois Lowry book
The Hobbit And Lord Of The Rings by Tolkien- the books are NOT the movies
Call Me Home by Megan Kruse- a book about a young gay man and his (non)acceptance in rural Washington State.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Day The Angels Fell by Shawn Smucker
Fallen Light by Brien Sorensen
Necklace of the Goddess Athena by Effrosyni Moschoudi
TheUniverse Builders by Seve LeBel
The Hero with a Thousand Faces byJoseph Campbell (a work of comparative mythology by American mythologist and the basis for The Star Wars franchise, especially A New Hope)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Anna Karinina by Leo Tolstoy ( my suggestion is the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation but others claim Maude is the best translation)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Embodiment by James Nelson
And you have to add….
Harry Potter by JK Rowling
Interview with a Vampire and others by Anne Rice
The Mitford Series Jan Karon
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
Dreaming the Dark by Starhawk
I agree to Gilead…
(this is HARD!! I’m working on a post and I can’t count how many books I’m just throwing out onto a list from all my 5 star reads in goodreads)
Holy smokes!
There are a lot of books I think you should read. I sent a few, but another that occurred to me is Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Thanks Michael!
Gone with the Wind and Little Women were my favorites when I was young. I read them several times, so I guess they would make my list. I will have to ponder those I loved in adulthood…but one of them would be Open House, by Elizabeth Berg, and another would be White Oleander, by Janet Fitch. Then there is House of Sand and Fog, by Andre DuBus III.
This is fun! Thanks!
Glad you like it Laurel 🙂 I went through an Elizabeth Berg phase a while back.. I can not even recall how many of her books I read!
Laurel, I read Open House many years ago and thought it was great! I should add that to my list of favorites. 🙂
There are so many incredible books! Here are a few of my favorite books (in no particular order):
Little Women, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Lotus Eaters, Number the Stars, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Cardboard, The Life O’Reilly, Outlander, Pride and Prejudice, And the Pursuit of Happiness, The Rembrandt Affair, We Were the Mulvaneys, The Friday Night Knitting Club series, Mrs. Dalloway, A Room of One’s Own, Gift from the Sea, The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Stones from the River, The Lord of the Flies, Embroideries, The Metamorphosis, Saffron Dreams, Perfectly Untraditional, Louisiana Catch, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Notebook, The Catcher in the Rye, Out, Shanghai Girls, The Audacity of Hope, and many others . . .
Wow! I have a lot of reading to do 🙂
Hard to narrow it down to four books!
Yes! As you see by the comments Nise, some did not limit to 4… lol
Totally fun! I can’t wait to see the list
I am curious as well Helen 🙂
Your post asked for top three but the poll asks for four so you now have my top four. LOL.
LOL yeah – 1 was required the rest were optional if you had more and yeah… I had three and then added a 4th… we are readers after all 😀
LOL. It WAS hard to limit it.
Diary of Anne Frank & Go Ask Alice.
Great titles!
I actually did a poll like this a few years ago in my earlier years of blogging. It was so fun to see what people shared!
It would be fun to compare the lists and see if people are still listing the same as the top reads 🙂
I would think the top books have changed unless they are classics.
Great post and idea. I will have to think before I complete the form. 🙂
This was hard.
Yes… I still haven’t done it 😀
I chose some of my top favorite books. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenger, and The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
It’s so hard to just pick four (I listed four, in no particular order)! Fun though. 🙂