Do you like to read?

[Robin]

I love to read. I recently started composing a list of 100 books to read in my lifetime. I have 82 on it so far. Most of them are what are considered Classics. Actually, quite a few of them I read when I was younger but I wanted to read them again as an adult. My recent books have been Jane Eyre, Madame Bovary, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc. I am now reading Little Women again. Tell me some of your all-time favorite books. Maybe I can add to and adjust my list! Thanks for sharing

[heidiiiii]

I actually cried when I read Jane Eyre. When Jane and Mr. Rochester were in the garden, and she was quitting and he told her he had a job for her in Ireland. And the he told her he loved her! Oooo! If you have never read this book, give it a chance. I have read all of the ones that you have read. Also The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath), On the Road(Jack Kerouac), Animal Farm ( George Orwell), Mrs Dalloway (virginia wolf). If you like the Bronte sisters (i do), must read Villette (charlotte bronte), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte), and The tenant of wildfell hall (anne bronte). Oh also Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen).

I am a big reader and so is my dd Chelsea. She has been catching up with me. There are so many to list but these are some of the classics that I have read over and over again. Can you tell I love weepy heroines who suffer from man and corset trouble?

[Robin]

I also just read The Bell Jar. Not sure yet whether I liked it or not. And I cried too at that part of Jane Eyre. Most of the ones you listed are on my list. I'm going to read My Antonia (Willa Cather) after Little Women.

[Robin]

V.C Andrews was a favorite author of mine in my late teens/early twenties. I just re-read her 5-book Flowers in the Attic series. Loved those!

[Deb]

I've been reading since I was four so there's too many to list, but if you want to add some diversity to your reading list, a few more that are *very* enjoyable are: "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury, "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. The first two are a bit more contemporary rather than victorian, but still classics.

Deb

[Robin]

Brave New World is on my list - I'll have to check out the other two! Thanks.

[nuttiwebgal]

I loved Siddartha by Herman Hess

wore out that copy

Stanger in a Strange land by Robert Heinlein

I also had all of Steven Kings books

now Im more into Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts

and of the other books I think I have only read the Little women ...Jo's Boys

I think I am classicly retarded

nutti

[Robin]

LOL *Classically retarded* LOL That just struck me as hilarious!! That's kind of how I felt which is one of the reasons I started my list. Others on it are books like - Treasure Island, Gone With The Wind, The Grapes Of Wrath, Wuthering Heights, Farenheight 451, etc. Lots of classics with very different styles.

By the way - have any of you personally, or anyone you personally know, gotten through War & Peace? That's the biggie on my list.

[nuttiwebgal]

my mother brags she read War and Peace in College

in one of her classes the professor told them if any one wanted to read the book and take a 50 question test on it and pass and have an intelligent coversation about the book he would give them an a for his class.

she says she read it in a week

I guess thats good? I know it took me about 24 hours to read Roots.

got it on a Friday and was done on sat. of course I was in High school and had minimal responsability

and freedom..I had nothing but time!

I have read Treasure Island and tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

when my boys were young wal-mart came out with clasic books for young kids I bought my boys these

and the oldest devoured them he now owns my King books

someday I gotta get them from him.

have fun on your quest. I have an old copy of Wuthering Hights around here somewhere but I have never read it...just cant seem to find the groove.

nutti

[heidiiiii]

Nutti, I didnt really get a thirst for reading until one christmas my brother came home and gave me IT by Steven King as a gift. Now that is a monster of a book. I dont remember how long it took to read but that got me. I too have read all of his books, some where better than others. I have also read all of Anne Rice`s books also.

Oh Wuthering Heights...poor Heathcliff...poor tortured Heathcliff. Cathy was so stupid! LOL

I totally forgot about Oscar Wilde..You can get a cheap copy of all of his works. He is a good read too.

My favorite book from high school was The Great Sunflower by Clifford Stone. He was a local author here in my area and he wrote the book in his 20s. I think he died of cancer at a very young age. I have to find my copy. Give it another read. I looked it up and it is available on Amazon.com.

[Josi]

I used to read all the time, until I got into this hobby of ours. Now it seems that all my free time is spent working on the house(s). But my favorite reading material is historical fiction. I haven't read too many of the classical literature lately, but more contemporary authors. McCullough's First man in Rome series, Auel's Earth Children series, and Gabaldon's Highlander series. Although the last some may consider a bodice ripper, it truly has ton of historical detail that I eat up. Loved almost everything James Michener wrote, love all that detail.

And lots more, all period pieces.

[Robin]

Keep them comin'! You all are giving me some interesting reads to add. Thanks!

[SuzyQ]

My favorite book is my "People" magazine that comes in the mail every Saturday.

That is the highlight of my week. :lol:

Ok OK, actually I love to read. But I am not a big classic reader. I like Authors like Eugina Price & Gilbert Morris that write about real people and actual events but add fictional characters to them also. I have tons of books in my bookcase that I enjoy reading over and over.

[heidiiiii]

Did you hear about that lawsuit that is going on about the book Million Little Pieces by James Frey. If you can prove you purchased it before his fraud of the story came to light, you can get a full refund. I read about it in the paper!

[luvmypoodle]

I guess I am pretty boring with the books I read. I will have to make it a point to read classical works. I love historical fiction and read mostly Christian historical fiction. There is an Amish series I am reading by two authors and a civil war series by two different authors. Once I see a movie, it is hard to read the book. Such as Jane Erye, Little Women, Sense and Sensability and so on. I had to interpret To Catch a Mockingbird in a class for a student once. Luckily a short time after we started the movie we recieved a captioner. I guess I like to watch the movies b/c of all the costuming and sets etc.

Ohh Somewhere in Time. Oh my gosh!!!!

[hydroped]

I don't consider myself a person who likes reading.. but oddly I love books Anyway just wanted to ad asecond hoorah for Picture of Dorian Grey. Also if you've never read the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving it's a short story but well worth the read to get the original words and feel (I actually love reading Washington Irving) Also The Hallowen Tree by Ray Bradbury. Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico was a fun and light read. All of Shakespears Sonnets , Hamelt, Much Ado about Nothing - all wonderful to read.

-David

[Robin]

Hey David - that's a pretty interesting selection for someone who doesn't consider himself a reader!

I think I enjoy reading the book instead of seeing the movie...that way the setting and people and scenery, etc. come from my imagination - not someone telling me what it should look like. I once saw a movie based on a book I had read and was very disappointed with it. It was nothing like I thought it would be.

[Debra Michelle]

I love to read, dh teases me because I read toothpaste tubes and cereal boxes.

Robin, I just starting re-reading classics as an adult and they are so much better than what they where in high school. Maybe because no one was forcing me to read them. I love Jane Austen, you should put Pride & Prejudice on your list. The Thorn Birds was very good too, I read it in a day when I was home sick. You might want to check out www.librarything.com. You can catalog the books you've read and get recommendations from others. It's one of my favorite web sites.

[Robin]

Robin, I just starting re-reading classics as an adult and they are so much better than what they where in high school. Maybe because no one was forcing me to read them.

I couldn't agree more!! That's why I am re-reading some of them.

[abbie001]

what about good wives, its the book after little women, i quite enjoyed though i should probably re-read it since i read it when i was 13 and was unsure of some words.

[Robin]

There's also Jo's Boy's and Little Men I want to read.

[Nameless1]

Can you tell I love weepy heroines who suffer from man and corset trouble?

This is my favorite sentence of the week!

Alas, I mostly read non-fiction, but for fiction, I'd recommend Robertson Davies' The Rebel Angels, Bred in the Bone, and whatever other books are in a series with those (sorry, books are all packed...). The husband likes Graeme Greene (sp?), but I found The End of the Affair so super-depressing that I stopped right there. It's considered a modern classic, as is Evelyn Waugh's trilogy about WWI (but the only Waugh I've read is Brideshead Revisited). Edith Wharton is important, with The Age of Innocence being probably her most famous book.

Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and The Moonstone have the overwhelming advantages of being both classics and fun reads.

For more contemporary literature, Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is good. I haven't read Wicked, his Oz-based book.

[Charlene]

Interesting thread.

You outta add "Marjorie Morningstar" to your list -- wonderful coming of age novel; and "House of the Seven Gables" and "The Scarlet Letter"; and all of Edgar Allan Poe's work; and don't leave out "Frankenstein" which is really a heartbreaker when you read it; and my favorite novel of all time "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub (scariest book I ever read); and "Killer Angels" which actually makes Gettysburg understandable to a Lit major ; and Dickens especially "The Pickwick Papers"; and at least one book by Tolstoy -- "Anna Karenina" is probably the most popular, and understandable, of his; "Snows of Kiliminjaro" by Hemingway; "Exodus"; and I'll stop now. (But do consider Jeff Maquire's "Wicked" and "Son of A Witch" which are not only fun reads but very pointed social commentary)

Do we get to see your final 100? :lol:

[Robin]

Yep! But my first dollhouse arrived today, so my reading list is going to have to wait a little while!!

[Peggi]

I love to read. I will read just about anything. Before I started this hobby, I was reading all the time. I love mysteries, romance, fiction and non-fiction. I keep a magazine rack in both bathrooms. I have shelves full of books and books on loan to friends and family.