The first 'Big Girl' book I read, and the book that catapulted me into my love or reading for the rest of my life. The book I recommend to damn near every parent to get their kid to read, or even them.
The Day My Bum Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths.
Everyone else has mature books and I've got this one.
OTL
Still a child at heart, it seems.
I can't even remember the name of the book, but when I was a kid there was a book in my school's Library about a girl who was orphaned, her title and fortune stripped away but came back to claim it all. "The Wolves of...... Hall". (If anyone know what the Hell I'm talking about please let me know ;) )
"The Forest of Mirrors" scene in the C.S Lewis's Magician's Nephew.
Several China-centric Books - Wild Swans, The Woman Warrior and The Rape of Nanking
And just becaise I'm a food brat - one copy of this book lives on my nightstand and the other in my kitchen
"In the Devil's Garden - A sinful History of Forbidden Food"
What never left me was the Dick and Jane books that infected me as a with a need to read
"The Alchemist" By Paulo Coelho
When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.”
Markings, by Dag Hammarskjold, gifted to me by first first (much older) lover. Hammarskjold was Secretary General of the UN from 1953-1961 when he was killed in a plane crash. Markings is a collection of his reflections, poems, and so on. As a late teen, it was an important book to me. I sometimes gift it to students now, and it seems still to touch a chord.
Wish I had the book -Monte Walsh, by Jack Schaefer and could find the quote if it's there, right near the end, that summed up the life of a great horseman : )
I say -if I could find the quote because -the understanding happened in a flash but needed the entire tale to understand
Torture the data long enough and they will confess to anything.
It's hard to come up with a short list, and I know that in writing this off the top of my head that I am going to miss something and wonder what I was thinking in forgetting it. I love to read, both history and biography, and novels. So here is a short and very partial list of the most memorable books that I have read. And if you are interested in history that reads like a novel, pick up Nicholas and Alexandra (see below), the tale of the last Tsar of Russia, his overthrow and the murder of his entire family in the communist revolution. A gripping and tragic tale. As for lighter reading that is memorable, then I would recommend anything written by Alan Furst (for those looking for well written historical fiction of spies in the World War II and prewar period – full of shadows, vivid images, and fabulous writing that puts you right in the scene).
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens
Lighter reading: novels by Alan Furst (see above)
Nicholas and Alexandra, by Robert K. Massie
God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World, by Walter Russell Mead
The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang
Who Are We? ,by Samuel P. Huntington
Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, by Richard B. Frank
Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, by James Bradley
Seven minutes by Paulo Coehlo,he is a Brazilian author and in each book he tells a story,but also makes you question certain things that you wouldn't think about.
One if my favourites has to be I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I think I randomly found it in a book shop one day. I totally fell in love with the setting, the wistfullness of Cassandra and all the drama with the Americans that went on throughout.
It was probably the first book that I have read more than once.
"The World is Made of Glass" by Morris West.
The thoughts and eye opening ideas that have shaped me come from many sources! From where I started to where I am now is the result of many authors from the most liberal to the most conservative. Perhaps bipolar in life and in belief!
I am a man, if you prick us do we not bleed?
Erotic story about a prince and some non-royalty lady he lured to his bed. I can't recall the entire thing but I remember he teased her with ice cubes on her tits & pussy.
For somebody who grew up on Nancy Drew & parents/school approved literature, coming across that kind of story was a welcome shock. I found it one summer when I was made to clean the spare room recently vacated by a house guest.
my fav reads are "doctors","a walk to remember",particularly,the second one,when iam in college,my friend gave me and said,ur kind of story dude,can finish in a day,i started in the evening,so engrossed in it.i forgot my dinner and finished by 4am in the morning,i was so sad,i forgot the time and roamed on the campus,sat at my volleyball court,feeling the sadness,as it is a sunday,no college,i came to my senses by 11am that day.i still can remember every detail.i have read so many after that,but never felt this much,may be,too big or too busy to acknowledge my feelings
"The Magic Faraway Tree" books, by Enid Blyton. I still read them now. They gave me escape, friends, and exploration of the world not just in my imagination, but real life too. I discovered that the written word can be just as real as reality, and provide comfort, excitement, fear, and the whole range of human emotions. Her simple stories made me want to be able to evoke that kind of joy and discovery too.
Ut incepit fidelis, sic permanet.
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The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...
A true masterpiece. This poem instilled a love of poetry into me that has served me well over the years.
Damn I've gone blank. Oh yea...Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.
Jane Austen: Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion
Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary
Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice
Henry James: Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians
Joseph Heller: Catch 22
Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
E.M. Forster: A Passage to India, Room with a View, Howard's End
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
Irene Nemerovsky: Suite Francaise (a book written during WW II by a woman who did not survive the war - its manuscript was only discovered and published a few years ago)
I love reading and could probably list fifty more books that stayed with me, but those are the first that came to mind.
Okay, once I was in a truck stop rest room and on the wall someone had written, "Alexander The Great, took a shit here in 88!" A little below that someone else had written, "I saw you take that shit! NOW PUT IT BACK!"
