I finally made it! This is my 100th post, and since you are still reading, I assume I occasionally have something interesting to share. Most people tend to do a "100 Things About Me" list for this post, but I know that I would be too tempted to edit that to make you think I am cool. Instead, I offer you a much more insightful list. I figure you are what you read, so I am listing 100 of my favorite books in order to let you get to know me a bit better. After all, I am a literature nerd to my core.
The books are in no particular order, and they are not even necessarily my 100 favorites. I did make the list in the order it came to me (or in the order it was stacked on my bookshelf), so my favorites tend to be toward the top. You'll see there is very little contemporary fiction. I figure I have enough classics to catch up on, and if current best sellers are still around in 15 or 20 years, I'll read them. There are also some authors I definitely want to add once I have read them, including Wendell Berry and Graham Greene, to name just two. No more explanations, I'll let you analyze it yourself.
I hear you. You're asking, "Where's the giveaway, already?" Read to the end of the list (or skip ahead) to find out.
One Hundred Books I Love
FYI, I had all of these titles in italics, and the format was messed up. I am not about to go back and change all 100. English nerds (like me), get over it.
1. The Bible (ESV)
2. The Bible (KJV)
3. Absalom, Absalom –William Faulkner
4. Look Homeward, Angel –Thomas Wolfe
5. A Lesson Before Dying –Ernest J. Gaines
6. To Kill a Mockingbird –Harper lee
7. The Complete Stories –Flannery O’Connor
8. Canterbury Tales –Chaucer
9. Light in August –William Faulkner
10. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek –Annie Dillard
11. The Cost of Discipleship –Dietrich Bonhoeffer
12. Mere Christianity –C.S. Lewis
13. The Silmarillion –J.R.R.Tolkein
14. The Chronicles of Narnia –C.S.Lewis
15. Lord of the Rings -Tolkein
16. The Hobbit -Tolkein
17. The Song of Roland -unknown
18. Wild Swans –Jung Chang
19. Beloved –Toni Morrison
20. Prodigal Summer –Barbara Kingsolver
21. The Poisonwood Bible -Kingsolver
22. A Child’s Garden of Verses –Robert Louis Stevenson
23. God’s Smuggler –John and Elizabeth Sherrill
24. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
25. The Mitford Series –Jan Karon
26. The Big Stone Gap Series –Adriana Trigiani
27. Great with Child –Debra Reinstra
28. The Little House Series -Laura Ingalls Wilder
29. Killers of the Dream –Lillian Smith
30. Jane Eyre –Charlotte Bronte
31. The New Testament and the People of God –N.T. Wright
32. The Challenge of Jesus -Wright
33. Open Heart, Open Home -Karen Mains
34. Shadow of the Almighty –Elisabeth Elliot
35. A Severe Mercy -Sheldon Vanauken
36. The Making of a Leader –J.Robert Clinton
37. Girl Meets God-Lauren Winner
38. East of Eden -John Steinbeck
39. Candide -Voltaire
40. Les Miserables –Victor Hugo
41. The Brothers Karamazov –Fydor Dostoevsky
42. Crime and Punishment -Dostoevsky
43. My Antonia -Willa Cather
44. Gilead –Marilynne Robinson
45. Christy –Catherine Marshall
46. A Wrinkle in Time –Madeleine L’Engle
47. Middlemarch –George Eliot
48. Ordering Your Private World –Gordon Macdonald
49. Making Sunday Special –Karen Mains
50. Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret –Howard and Geraldine Taylor
51. Where the Wild Things Are –Maurice Sendak
52. Perelandra –C.S. Lewis
53. Surprised by Joy -Lewis
54. Orthodoxy –G.K. Chesterton
55. poetry by Tennyson
56. Cry, The Beloved Country –Alan Paton
57. Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places –Eugene Peterson
58. Swallows and Amazons –Arthur Ransome
59. Cold Mountain –Charles Frazier
60. The Unvanquished –William Faulkner
61. Practice of the Presence of God –Brother Lawrence
62. River Town –Peter Hessler
63. By Searching –Isobel Kuhn
64. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes –Bill Watterson
65. When I Was Young in the Mountains –Cynthia Rylant
66. A Theology of Reading –Alan Jacobs
67. Kristin Lavransdatter –Sigrid Undset
68. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase –Joan Aiken and Pat Marriot
69. Charlotte’s Web –E.B. White
70. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle -Avi
71. Les Pensees -Pascal
72. Foolishness to the Greeks –Lesslie Newbigin
73. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle –Barbara Kingsolver
74. Queen of the Big Time –Adriana Trigiani
75. The Moviegoer –Walker Percy
76. Great Expectations –Charles Dickens
77. The Moon is Down –John Steinbeck
78. Mind of the Maker –Dorothy Sayers
79. As I Lay Dying –William Faulkner
80. poetry of Robert Browning
81. The Mother Tongue –Bill Bryson
82. Jesus in Beijing –David Aikman
83. Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe -Poe
84. Nathanial Hawthorne’s short stories
85. Poetics -Aristotle
86. The Secret Garden –Francis Hodgson Burnett
87. Winnie the Pooh –A.A.Milne
88. The House at Pooh Corner -Milne
89. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture –InterVaristy Press
90. Knowing God –J.I. Packer
91. Let the Nations Be Glad –John Piper
92. Pride and Prejudice –Jane Austen
93. Mudhouse Sabbath –Lauren Winner
94. C.S. Lewis Letters to Children –Lyle Dorsett
95. Till We Have Faces –C.S. Lewis
96. Thirteen Moons –Charles Frazier
97. Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds –Cynthia Rylant
98. On Stories –C.S. Lewis
99. The Misfit –Larry Lewis, M.M.
"Where is number 100?" you may ask. This is where the giveaway kicks in. Leave me a comment recommending a book that you think would complete this list. Submissions will be open until midnight Saturday, March 8. I will draw a name out of a hat on Sunday. The lucky winner gets the book of his/her choice on this list, provided it is in print and I can find a copy for $15 or less. Feel free to let others know about the giveaway.
Well, go ahead, already. Tell me what I have to read!
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16 comments:
The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall :)
Oh, this is a no-brainer. In fact, for days I've been meaning to email you and tell you to read this book already, if you haven't. (I don't know why I've been thinking about it recently since I read it ages ago).
My All Time Favorite Book (and from me, that says a lot):
The Brothers K - by David James Duncan
(actually, tied for First with "Till we have faces")
I've been checking your blog frequently, on the edge of my seat for number 100. I never did my own 100 things either...maybe I'll do this instead! So fun!!
The Hawk & the Dove Trilogy by Penelope Wilcock (it's now only published in a one volume edition, so it's only one book :-)
You should definitely read it. I've recommended it to lots of people who have enjoyed it and I think it would appeal to you too.
Happy 100th Blog Post!
Ok, first of all, you have fabulous taste in books - it's as if you have looked at my shelves too!
Second, Catherine's suggestion was one at the top of my list to recommend. Definitely read The Brothers K by David James Duncan. Amazing. The River Why is good too. I read them each about once a year.
My recommendation is Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist. Marvelous, powerful book.
Happy 100th post. I'm so glad that I've found your blog.
Wow. I have read 90% of those and the rest, it seems, are already on my wish list. I love Cynthia Rylant, too.
I kept finding all my "first thought" suggestions for #100 a;ready on your list, so I'm going to go for this one:
Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Nashlund
(author of Ahab's Wife. I hear it is great, too, though I've yet to read it.) I almost couldn't decide between the above and The Time Traveler's Wife, but I figured you'd probably already read that one.
Happy 100th post! I hope I win! There are only a few titles on here I haven't heard of, but they all sound interesting!
You probably have it but if not - The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
Can I offer a couple? How Should We Then Live (Francis Schaeffer)
Mere Christianity or Screwtape Letters (CS Lewis)
Maybe something by Pearl S. Buck?
Happy Giveaway!
aah. good list. Willard would be proud ;-).
I'll suggest 3 that are on my tops list:
1. You Can't Go Home Again - Thomas Wolfe
*I've not read Look Homeward...!
2. The Seven Storey Mountain - Merton
3. Traveling Mercies - A Lamott
Thanks for the great suggestions so far! Keep them coming.
Kerry, not sure how those Lewis books and Pearl S. Buck didn't get on my list...I have read them and loved them.
Katie, same with your three. I've read them all and would put them on my list. I've read all of Thomas Wolfe's stuff. He was my first real author love, seeing he was from my mountains and all...Glad to know someone else out there likes him, too!
Undoubtedly, The Great Gatsby. Not only Scott Fitzgerald's tour-de-force, but also a startling, dripping, enticing portrait of the Jazz Age (his term).
You needn't waste your time on the movie version(s); and don't worry about This Side of Paradise or the Beautiful and Damned. Gatsby is as good as it gets.
* * *
P.S. Albert Blackwell once said, in his opinion, Middlemarch is the finest novel written in the English language. Just thought you might appreciate that. :-)
MH
P.P.S. Also, Caldwell's Cataloochee is a darned fine read. And regional, to boot.
For more of my thoughts on Gatbsy, scroll on over to my blog and search under the keywords F. Scott Fitzgerald.
most of my favorites are on here, except 'hinds feet on high places' by hannah hurnard, unless i missed it! so count me entered! :)
Mmmmm-- I LOVED The Cloister Walk and Dakota, A Spiritual Geography, both by Kathleen Norris.
And I don't think I saw Pride and Prejudice on your list.
And Phyllis Tickle has three books of essays from their farm in Lucy, TN-- The Graces We Remember is one of them.
I have read and loved so many on your list-- reminded me I have been meaning to reread Girl Meets God-- I really enjoyed that first time through.
What a great list--and a great idea for the 100 things!
I'd add The Heaven Tree Trilogy by Edith Pargeter--also known as Ellis Peters, author of the Brother Cadfael series. It's amazing. If I had to compare it to something...I'd say it reminds me of Kristin Lavransdatter.
--Jeanne
Certainly a lot of good ones, and you should indeed read some Berry and Greene. Here are a couple others that would have been on my list:
Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
Faerie Queene - Spenser
Metamorphosis - Ovid
Leaf by Niggle - Tolkien (if short stories count)
Fathers and Sons - Turgenev
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
Billy Bud - Melville (another short story)
How the Irish Saved Civilization - Cahill
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett or Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
This is a great post because it gives me ideas for future reading! :)
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