Book Meme

[fabrisse]

List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you: list the first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes. Don't take too long to think about it.

1 Terry Pratchett -- Small Gods
2 L.M. Montgomery -- Anne of Green Gables
3 Diane Ackerman -- A Natural History of the Senses
4 The Bible -- the Jerusalem copy, scholars' edition
5 Margaret Mitchell -- Gone with the Wind
6 Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird
7 Madeleine L'Engle -- A Swiftly Tilting Planet
8 Kathleen Goonan -- The Bones of Time
9 Janet Kagan -- Mirabile
10 H.V. Morton -- A Traveller in Rome
11 H.V. Morton -- I Saw Two Englands
12 Peter S. Beagle -- The Folk of the Air
13 J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
14 Somerset Maugham -- The Razor's Edge
15 Mark Helprin -- Winter's Tale

15a Neal Stephenson -- Snow Crash
15b John Buchan -- Courts of the Morning
15c Charles de Lint -- Dreams Underfoot
15d Cynthia Heimel -- Sex Tips for Girls
15e Emma Bull -- War for the Oaks

There are a great many more Pratchett books that could be on the list. There are a lot more books in general that could be on the list. I vetoed The Exorcist because my memories of it aren't fond at all, but it definitely influenced me.

I'm surprised, a little, that there's not more non-fiction. I'm also surprised at how many authors are women. Still, it's a very pale list, now that I think of it.

HV Morton is on twice because those books represent two different aspects of his writing. I Saw Two Englands is more like his journalism, although it has travel bits to it. There are many choices for John Buchan. I know The Thirty-Nine Steps or Nelson's History of the War are more seminal works, but the trip through "the poison country" in Courts of the Morning is adventure fiction at its finest.

eta: How could I leave The Once and Future King or Ender's Game off the list? Each of them opened up my life for me.

Comments

[serafina20.livejournal.com]

I think the number 1 on my list would bee this Sleeping Beauty book whose title I can't even recall. I still have nightmares/dreams and random, deep thinky thoughts about it, even though I read it like five years ago. I'm beginning to want to read it again to see what I think about it.

Also on the list is "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". I loved it, but I had a total meltdown (much to the befuddlement of my mother) after I finished it.

I may do this meme.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

You should. It's fascinating to see what your friends like and maybe get ideas on what you want to read.