Not long ago I was pointed to a peculiar book. This guy asked independent booksellers around the country to work up lists of their fifty favorite reads, the books they feel most passionate about hand-selling. The results were published in a collection called Read This! Handpicked Favorites from America’s Indie Bookstores.
Some of you might know I have a weakness for lists. In the back of the book, the editor, Hans Weyandt, invites the reader to list their own fifty favorites. I couldn’t help myself. My list is below.
A few notes about the list that follows.
• There’s a difference between “best” and “favorite.” To make a list of the 50 best books in English, I’d have to think about what has done the most to expand the possibilities of literature and what stories have had the deepest cultural impact. That’s hard. It’s much easier to figure out favorites; you know something is a favorite if you get excited thinking about reading it again. It doesn’t have to have deep cultural impact. You just have to love it.
• I’ve organized the books in alphabetical order, by author. It was just too much effort to try to put them in order of preference.
• I have not included graphic novels. That feels like a different list.
• I have included books by people I’m related to. Look, the people I love have written a lot of remarkable books, books that deeply shaped how I think about story myself. To leave them off would require dishonesty, and if yer gonna be dishonest about something like this, why even do it?
• One of the following choices is a big fuckin’ cheat. It has been noted. As the old song goes, it’s my list, I can cheat if I want to. Also, I would (and do) argue that the cheat is possibly the most important selection on the whole list.
Here goes:
The Fifty
Case Histories • Kate Atkinson
The House With A Clock In Its Walls • John Bellairs
Josie & Jack • Kelly Braffet
Wonder Boys • Michael Chabon
A Christmas Carol • Charlie “Chuck” Dickens
Slouching Toward Bethlehem: Essays • Joan Didion
The Collector • John Fowles
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders • Neil Gaiman
Lord of the Flies • William Golding
Marathon Man • William Goldman
I, Claudius • Robert Graves
Warlock • Oakley Hall
The Short Stories • Ernest Hemingway
The Friends of Eddie Coyle • Geroge V. Higgins
Jesus’ Son • Denis Johnson
The Haunting of Hill House • Shirley Jackson
The Liars’ Club • Mary Karr
Double Feature • Owen King
The Dead Zone • Stephen King
The Shining • Stephen King
The Green Mile • Stephen King
Under the Dome • Stephen King
One on One • Tabitha King
To Kill A Mockingbird • Harper Lee
Swag • Elmore Leonard
The Assistant • Bernard Malamud
The Complete Stories of Bernard Malmaud
The Fixer • Bernard Malamud
Life of Pi • Yann Martel
I Am Legend • Richard Matheson
The Border Trilogy • Cormac McCarthy
Angela’s Ashes • Frank McCourt
Atonement • Ian McEwan
Lonesome Dove • Larry McMurtry
Terms of Endearment • Larry McMurtry
Cloud Atlas • David Mitchell
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet • David Mitchell
The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, books 1 – 4 • Patrick O’Brian*
Animal Farm • George Orwell
True Grit • Charles Portis
The Harry Potter novels • J.K. Rowling
The Riverside Shakespeare **
The Grapes of Wrath • John Steinbeck
Slayground • Richard Stark
Dracula • Bram Stoker
Dog Soldiers • Robert Stone
Ghost Story • Peter Straub
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again • J.R.R. Tolkien
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • Mark Twain
* I’ve only read the first four books in the series, but it’s already the best continuing series I’ve ever come across. The rest of the O’Brian books could suck (they won’t) and I’d still think these first four are some of the most magnificent things I’ve ever read.
** Okay, so this is the cheat. But it is a single book, and if I started picking my favorite works of Shakespeare, 20% of this list would be Lucky Bill. Besides: I say to you honestly that I think the Riverside Shakespeare is the one book that ought to be in every home. It isn’t a holy book, so it isn’t limited to believers in one faith or another. You need only believe in stories and that language can be beautiful.
There’s a comment section below… plenty of room for you to list your own best fifty. No one’s more innerested then me, so go right ahead.
Wow, I can’t believe you didn’t include any of Kelly Braffet’s books, since you were going on about loving books by people you’re related to.
And I have no idea how you’ve read Double Feature, b/c I thought it wasn’t being published for a few months.
But I’m at work and more stressed than a piano wire stretched to breaking capacity.
Two gunshot wounds and a stabbing within 3 hours.
I HAD to read this or I WOULD have snapped.
Great list!
But I am very curious, which writers (the style of their writing) you imitated, when you wrote only the mainstream or literary fiction.
Your answer can be very helpful for me.
Thank you in advance
Well, that does it. The next time I won’t read through a list between slammed trauma calls. I missed the ‘Josie & Jack’ book.
But I’m still slammed so that’s all I’m gong to say.
Awesome list Joe; made me think of what my own would be –
Mine (including short stories in place of novels where they are the favoured individual piece by any author – so that’s my cheat I guess …)
All are chosen because they either left me shaken, haunted, deeply moved, or in awe with the power of their story-telling:
I’m Not Scared – Niccolo Ammaniti
Timbuktu – Paul Auster
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
The Fall – Albert Camus
The Outsider – Albert Camus
George’s Marvellous Medicine – Roald Dahl
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Hard Times – Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
American Psycho – Brett Easton Ellis
My Dark Places – James Ellroy
(including later companion piece: The Hilliker Curse. Just unflinchingly candid auto-bios.)
La Symphonie Pastorale – Andre Gide
The Return of The Native – Thomas Hardy
Fluke – James Herbert
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
20th Century Ghost (title story) – Joe Hill
(I know it’s a short story, but to date still think its the most emotionally powerful piece you’ve done.)
The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
The Trial – Franz Kafka
The Last Rung on The Ladder (from Night Shift) – Stephen King
N (from Just After Sunset) – Stephen King
The Reach – Stephen King (from Skeleton Crew, and the third of what I consider to be three sublimely moving/haunting King stories I don’t think get enough love amidst his more popular works.)
At The Mountains of Madness – H.P.Lovecraft
(but could just as easily have been The Music of Eric Zahn, which I’m counting anyway.)
The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
(gets forgotten with all the wardrobe love)
La Parure (The Necklace) – Guy De Maupassant (Best. twist ending. ever.)
A Song of Ice and Fire (esp III: A Storm of Swords; but non-readers will find out what happens in that one soon enough) – George R.R.Martin
The Road – Cormac McCarthy
(Does prose get any better?)
On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan
(Most haunting. final page. ever.)
The Comfort of Strangers – Ian McEwan
The Cement Garden – Ian McEwan
A Monster Calls – Siobhan Dowd/Patrick Ness. (STILL the most moving thing I’ve read this year by a comfortable margin.)
One Day – David Nicholls (shame about the hideously generic Hollywood movie ..)
1984/Animal Farm – George Orwell. (Can never bloody choose between them. So both.)
Hopfrog – Edgar Allan Poe
(Again, gets nowhere near enough love stacked up to more familiar works.)
The Testament of Gideon Mack – James Robertson
(Just pips Horns to being my fave tale about an encounter with the devil.)
Othello – William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice – William Shakespeare
Macbeth – William Shakespeare
The Hobbit – J.R.R.Tolkein
(Go, Freeman!)
The Lord of The Rings – J.R.R. Tolkein
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
(narrated, no less, by the Grim Reaper.)
Is that fifty yet? Probably 46 or 7 with a shitload I’ve missed out.
Phew, need lie down, etc etc.
Cheers,
Damien.
All good stuff, but I think I’d have to add something by Thomas Pynchon. Something. Not sure what. Maybe the Crying of Lot 49, since it’s short and fun and basically incomprehensible.
The Riverside Shakespeare is a wonderful choice (as are many of the others). My favorite book by a mile. The Stand, though, ranks #2. (un)surprised not to see it on your list.
My top 5 favs, fwiw:
Riverside Shakespeare
The Stand
Blood Meridian
Middlesex
Storm of Swords
Maybe some day I’ll make my own list, it’ll take me a lot because I’m going to feel bad for the books I left out:(
I wanted to comment on Animal Farm. I just read it for class. It was so difficult to finish, too heartbreaking, and I don’t think I would had finished it if it weren’t for class. But it still would make it into my fifty list. Crude, but important.
Wonderful list, I see a few of my favorites here (including some by your family members). I think the Dead Zone is Stephen King’s best. And I am so happy to see Kate Atkinson here. I loved, loves Case Histories and the PBS series that was made.
interesting list. Going to need to add some of those onto my ever-growing list of books to read.
I’m going to have to think a bit about my 50 books. May even milk a blog post out of it over at http://externalunderpants.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the inspiration.
I never did a list of books, but I have a list of authors. They are:
William Gibson
Milan Kundera
Kurt Vonnegut
David Mitchell
Andrew Crumey
Philip K. Dick
Haruki Murakami
Thomas Pynchon
I got the chills when I saw ‘The House With a Clock in its Walls’. I’d gotten to think I must be the only one who read that. Same with ‘The Haunting of Hill House’.
I may raise a glass of an adult beverage to Lewis Barnavelt and Eleanor Vance this eve.
I love Shirley Jackson and love The Haunting of Hill House. I wrote an honors thesis in college on her book The Bird’s Nest. I don’t think she is read nearly enough.
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somewhat top 20 in no order:
The Dark Tower-Stephen King
The Name of the Wind-Patrick Rothfuss
House of Leaves-Mark Danielewski
Lost Echoes-Joe R. Lansdale
The Gold Bug-Edgar Allan Poe
Heart Shaped Box-Joe Hill
The Washingtonians-Bentley Little
The Shining-Stephen King
The Body Snatchers-Jack Finney
Gates of Fire-Steven Pressfield
I Am Legend-Richard Matheson
Red-Jack Ketchum
IT-Stephen King
A Clockwork Orange-Anthony Burgess
On the Origin of Species-Charles Darwin
Something Wicked This Way Comes-Ray Bradbury
The Wind Through The Keyhole-Stephen King
The Odyssey-Homer
The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde
The Face that Must Die-Ramsey Campbell
By Bizarre Hands-Joe R. Lansdale
Yes, I know it’s 21.
I love lists like these. In an ideal world, we’d all make a list of 50 books, then take over a restaurant or bar somewhere and spend days going down the lists and talking about all the books, a whole bunch of us jabbering around a table until the waiters threw us all out.
So I went off and did up my own list of 50 books, and here it is:
DICKENS – Peter Ackroyd
THE HANDMAID’S TALE – Margaret Atwood
THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG – Muriel Barbery
BRADBURY STORIES – Ray Bradbury
ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING – Ray Bradbury
LIQUOR – Poppy Z Brite
CHARLATAN – Pope Brock
MAMA LOLA – Karen McCarthy Brown
WAR FOR THE OAKS – Emma Bull
DON QUIXOTE – Cervantes
JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL – Susanna Clarke
THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON – Harlan Ellison
FRAUDS, MYTHS, AND MYSTERIES – Kenneth Feder
THE KINDLY ONES – Neil Gaiman
AMERICAN GODS – Neil Gaiman
ANANSI BOYS (specifically, the audiobook) – Neil Gaiman
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA – Ernest Hemingway
20TH CENTURY GHOSTS – Joe Hill
HEART-SHAPED BOX – Joe Hill
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME – Victor Hugo
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP – John Irving
WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE – Shirley Jackson
ON WRITING – Stephen King
HEARTS IN ATLANTIS – Stephen King
MISERY – Stephen King
DUMA KEY – Stephen King
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – John Ajvide Lindqvist
I AM LEGEND – Richard Matheson
LIFE OF PI – Yann Martel
THE ROAD – Cormac McCarthy
CAGES – Dave McKean
A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ – Walter M. Miller, Jr.
ALAN MOORE: STORYTELLER – Gary Spencer Millidge
THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET – David Mitchell
BLACK SWAN GREEN – David Mitchell
STARTING POINT: 1979 – 1996 – Hayao Miyazaki
PROMETHEA – Alan Moore (a cheat. It’s 5 books. I can’t help it. There’s no picking.)
WATCHMEN – Alan Moore
COMPLETE WORKS – Edgar Allan Poe (Joe Hill cheated, list complete Shakespeare. I did Poe.)
GOING POSTAL – Terry Pratchett
NIGHT WATCH – Terry Pratchett
MONSTROUS REGIMENT – Terry Pratchett
FRANKENSTEIN – Mary Shelley
DROOD – Dan Simmons
MAUS – art spiegelman
OF MICE AND MEN – John Steinbeck
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA – Jules Verne
THE AUTHORITATIVE CALVIN & HOBBES – Bill Watterson
COMPLETE BOOK OF TERROR – Leonard Wolf
THE LAST DEFENDER OF CAMELOT – Roger Zelazny
…
I realized, writing the list, that one of the definitions for “favorite” for me was not only the power of the book or its effect on me, but that an awful lot of these are the sort of books where I kind of crawl inside and live in the book’s world for awhile. (Things like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is an extreme example of it). Nothing like a big-ass’d list to tell you something about your reading habits.
What I ALSO love about this list is how many of these books I’ve only discovered and read in the past year or two. I’d be seriously worried if my favorites list were made up only of books I’d encountered years or decades ago. I hope in two years, parts of THIS list will be obsolete.
Okay, enough blithering out of me.
Glad to see the website back up!
I love reading lists of other people’s favorite books. Usually I end up finding something I want to read that I wouldn’t have otherwise found. Here’s my Top 20 (It’s been a hard week with homework)
1.IT by Stephen King
2. The Stand by Stephen King
3. The Giver by Lois Lowry
4. Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry
5. Fated by S.G. Browne
6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (Instructions being one of my favorite poems ever)
8. 1984 by George Orwell
9. Horns by Joe Hill
10. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
11. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
12. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
13. The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
14. Hell House by Richard Matheson
15. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
16. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
17. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
18. Come Closer by Sara Gran
19. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
20. The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams
As with most “favorites” lists, this list is subject to change and if I had to rewrite it tomorrow it would probably be different. The only 2 titles I know for sure would remain are the first two. We all have titles that represent the first books we picked up that made us the readers we are today and those are mine.
Great list which will keep me scouring used bookstore shelves for awhile. I recently re-read Dandelion Wine as my fond farewell to Ray Bradbury. That book is like music in my brain. And every 9th grade student needs to read Fahrenheit 451. Both of these novels I reread at least once every year or so. Absolutely on my list of favorite reads.
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Great list, Joe, and it’s been a blast reading everyone else’s wonderful personal lists. Clearly this board is populated by smart, intriguing people. And, being one of them – hardy-ha – here are my lists. I’m keeping ‘em to ten, and i can’t say they’re a ‘top’ ten, as i can guarantee i’ll have to leave out stuff that would make it in if i wrote this post tomorrow. But for what it’s worth, these are books and short stories that hit me hard and still do. Keeping it to one entry per author.
BOOKS
LORD OF THE FLIES, William Golding – everything you wanted to know about the nature of man (and boy) in one gripping, tragic tale. Poor Piggy.
MISERY, Stephen King – could have included a dozen King novels here, and Pet Sematary floored me more savagely. But this is a master at the very top of his game. And Annie Wilkes is flat-out terrifying.
THE ROAD, Cormac McCarthy – the most elegant, poignant, beautiful end-of-the-world novel i’ve ever read. And scary as hell.
HORNS, Joe Hill – wonderful exploration of the nature of evil, and how we can mold our morals to suit ourselves. Plus Merrin’s letter to Ig still sits me on my arse.
THE HALFMEN OF O, Maurice Gee – from a true New Zealand great. The first book that ever drew me into a completely different world and ignited my own imagination.
OF MICE AND MEN, John Steinbeck – how Steinbeck achieves so much with such succinctness, i’ll never know. But this is close to the perfect story, and the devastating ending will haunt me for the rest of my days.
JOSIE AND JACK, Kelly Braffet – the warped world of the titular twins ain’t a pretty place, but this story is so well-crafted and affecting that you’ll be grateful for having being drawn in.
POPCORN, Ben Elton – Elton can lay on the social commentary a little thick at times, but when he gets it right – as he does here – the results are thrilling, thought-provoking and memorable.
LULLABY, Chuck Palahniuk – again, not everything of Palahniuk’s is to my taste. But this is a taut, powerful novel that asks a lot of ugly, important questions.
CLOUD ATLAS, David Mitchell – holy shit. Apologies for my inarticulate summary, but this book is like nothing else you’ve ever read. Marvel at the enthralling, ingenious stories … and then remind yourself the one guy wrote them all.
SHORT STORIES
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH, Greg Egan – demons can’t be trusted. This will give you nightmares.
YOU WILL HEAR THE LOCUST SING, Joe Hill – some tough competition from several of its 20CG stablemates, but I couldn’t go past one of the best big-and-mean-critter stories i’ve ever come across.
RAWHEAD REX, Clive Barker – first time I read this, I lost sleep, had nightmares, was useless the next day
and jumped at shadows for about a month. I was 27.
WHITE, Tim Lebbon – frightening and claustrophobic tale of a mansion besieged by nameless monsters.
DIP IN THE POOL, Roald Dahl – so many of Dahl’s I could list. But the ending of this has stayed with me twenty years on.
THE JAUNT, Stephen King – who cares if the science is wonky (as the man himself admits) – this is a masterful story. And Jesus, that ending …
THE LOTTERY, Shirley Jackson – if you haven’t read this story, do it. Now. And then ask yourself how much of yourself you recognise in the characters. A giant of a story.
SNOW, GLASS, APPLES, Neil Gaiman – is this fantasy? Is it horror? Does it matter, when it covers both so adroitly?
THE BOX, Jack Ketchum – this story should be taught to everyone learning to write shorts. Haunting is an understatement.
MR CLUBB AND MR CUFF, Peter Straub – you’ll laugh. You’ll gasp. And there’s an excellent chance you’ll lose your lunch.
Honourable mentions: GOOD INTENTIONS, Etgar Keret; THE THIRTEENTH EGG, Scott Snyder; REFRIGERATOR HEAVEN, David Schow; THE MEERKAT, Owen King; BUTTON, BUTTON, Richard Matheson; IT’S A GOOD LIFE, Jerome Bixby; THE MONKEY’S PAW, W.W. Jacobs; THE CANCER COWBOY RIDES OUT, John Connolly.
There’s be dozens more that will no doubt come to me the moment I hit ‘send’, but considering I’ve typed this on my phone, that’ll do.
One small correction: Josie and Jack aren’t twins – just inseparable and not quite right …
I was so glad to see One on One on your top 50. I love that book! I decided to just list a top 15 favorites. Fifty seemed overwhelming. Here they are in no particular order:
1. The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
2. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King
3. The Stand by Stephen King
4. Under the Dome by Stephen King
5. One on One by Tabitha King
6. Horns by Joe Hill
7. Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
8. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin
9. A tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
10. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
11. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerlad
12. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
13. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
14. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles
15. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
I feel like I’ve left out so many great books in so many genres. I also now have a much longer to-read list. Thanks!
In no particular order:
My Fifty Favourite Books
1. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
2. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
3. Dracula – Bram Stoker
4. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
5. Shoeless Joe – W.P. Kinsella
6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
7. The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
8. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
9. The Green Mile – Stephen King
10. The Alienist – Caleb Carr
11. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
12. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
13. The Harry Potter novels – J.K. Rowlng
14. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
15. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
16. Forty Words for Sorrow – Giles Blunt
17. Letters to a Young Poet – Rainer Maria Rilke
18. Journal of a Solitude – May Sarton
19. The Complete Sherlock Holmes
20. The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
21. The Bone Collector – Jeffery Deaver
22. The Lord of the Flies – William Golding
23. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
24. The Hannibal Lector series: Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal – Thomas Harris
25. An Unfinished Life – Mark Spragg
26. Ella Minnow Pea – Mark Dunn
27. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
28. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – Laurie R. King
29. Whale Rider – Witi Ihimaera
30. The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
31. Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
32. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
33. Requiem for an Angel – Andrew Taylor
34. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt (best first page of a book ever)
35. The Crystal Cave – Mary Stewart
36. How Green Was My Valley – Richard Llewellyn
37. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
38. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
39. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
40. The Stand – Stephen King
41. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
42. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
43. The Prestige – Christopher Priest
44. Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
45. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
46. The Angel of Darkness – Caleb Carr
47. A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
48. Tomorrow’s Children: 18 Tales of Fantasy and Science Fiction – edited by Isaac Asimov
49. The Iowa Baseball Confederacy: A Novel – W.P. Kinsella
50. The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
Wow, great and varied! Your love of words and storytelling is apparent in this list…and I am now inspired to come up with my own Fave 50. But none on there will be by anyone I’m related to!
Well, I’ve been struggling with what to read next. Trying to break out of my own little pigeon hole I’ve put myself in when it comes to choosing books. Now I have a list to work on!
Thirty+ more and curse you, Joe Hill, for adding yet more to a “To-Read” list that already exceeds my life expectancy.
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
The Dresden Files – Jim Butcher (I know there are a bazillion now, but they keep being fresh)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
Eleanor Rigby – Douglas Coupland
Microserfs – Douglas Coupland
Faking It – Jennifer Crusie
Nicholas Nickelby – Charles Dickens
Angry Candy – Harlan Ellison
Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
The Princess Bride – William Goldman
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Friday – Robert A. Heinlein
Orphans of the Sky – Robert A. Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
Horns – Joe Hill
Dubliners – James Joyce
It – Stephen King
Skeleton Crew – Stephen King (specifically, “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” and “Word Processor of the Gods”)
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
A Dirty Job – Christopher Moore
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
Fortunate Son – Walter Mosley
Skinny Legs and All – Tom Robbins
Jitterbug Perfume – Tom Robbins
Harry Potter – JK Rowling
Empire Falls – Richard Russo
The Lorax – Dr. Seuss
Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
Welcome to the Monkey House – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
This is a great list. I’ll be adding a lot of these to my wishlist without a doubt.
I noticed that The Hobbit is on the list, whole The Lord of the Rings is not, is there a reason they didn’t make the cut? I’m not bashing, I’m just curious.
OK, here goes. My top 50 (or, they’re around the top anyway), in no particular order:
1. The Stand by Stephen King
2. The Talisman by Stephen King, Peter Straub
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
4. Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
5. The Wish List by Eoin Colfer
6. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
7. The Hobbit by J. R. Tolkien
8. The Lord of the Rings series by J. R. Tolkien
9. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
10. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
11. The Green Mile by Stephen King
12. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (honest, not a suck-up – LOVE this collection)
13. John Dies at the End by David Wong
14. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
15. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
16. The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde
17. 1984 by George Orwell
18. The Giver series by Lois Lowry
19. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (I like the series, but the first book blows the others away)
20. Ring series by Koji Suzuki (first movie was great, but the books will blow your mind like the movies never did)
21. Watership Down by Richard Adams
22. 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
23. The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft
24. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe by Edgar Allen Poe
25. The Books of Blood series by Clive Barker
26. Weaveworld by Clive Barker
27. Strange Highways by Dean Koontz
28. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
29. Firestarter by Stephen King
30. Flowers in the Attic series by V. C. Andrews
31. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
32. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
33. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
34. Room by Emma Donoghue
35. Everlost series by Neil Shusterman
36. Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes
37. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
38. Evil Genius series by Catherine Jinks
39. The Odyssey by Homer
40. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
41. Eon, and Eona, by Alison Goodman
42. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
43. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
44. Holes by Louis Sachar
45. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
46. It by Stephen King
47. Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke
48. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
49. On Writing by Stephen King
50. The Novels of Tiger and Del series by Jennifer Roberson
Wow thanks for the lists everyone! Having a blast going through them. Here’s a bunch of my favorites in no particular order.
IT by Stephen King
Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
Drood by Dan Simmons
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Ready Player One by Ernie Cline
14 by Peter Clines
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
The Dark Tower Series
The Harry Potter Series
Prodigal Blues by Gary A. Braunbeck
The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant
Horns by Joe Hill
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
The Travelling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon
A Dark Matter by Peter Straub
John Dies at the End by David Wong
Caretake of Lorne Field by Dave Zeltserman
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz with artwork by Stephen Grammell
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
Duma Key by Stephen King
I’m glad I waited. I also thought you hadn’t stated a desire to see ours, which is why I didn’t add any two days ago. But it’s just as well, b/c Saturday night it seems like every freak emergency call we could get occurred that night.
1. Catcher In the Rye, J.D Salinger
2. Nine Stories, J.D Salinger
3. Franny & Zooey, J.D Salinger
4. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
5. Othello, W. Shakespeare
6. A Spell for Chameleon, Xanth #1, Piers Anthony
7. On A Pale Horse, Incarnations #1, Piers Anthony
8. Wielding A Red Blade, Incarnations #4, Piers Anthony
9. Virtual Mode, Virtual #1, Piers Anthony
10. Apprentice Adept, Apprentice Adept #1, Piers Anthony
11. Isle of View, Xanth #13, Piers Anthony
12. Cube Route, Xanth #27, Piers Anthony
13. The Tales of Beadle the Bard, J.K Rowling
14. The Harry Potter series, J.K Rowling
15. Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
16. The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien
17. Last Seen Leaving, Kelly Braffet
18. The Cider House Rules, John Irving
19. Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz
20. Brother Odd, Dean Koontz
21. Servants of Twilight, Dean Koontz
22. Lightning, Dean Koontz
23. 77 Shadow Street, Dean Koontz
24. Rosemary’s Baby, Ira Levin
25. No Doors, No Windows, Joe Schreiber
26. The Academy, Bentley Little
27. The Burning, Bentley Little
28. The Vanishing, Bentley Little
29. Misery, Stephen King
30. Horns, Joe Hill
I can only think of 30 right now. I thought of some others but they were nonfiction and, since nobody seemed to add nonfiction I didn’t either.
But if I could have I would have added Columbine, by David Cullen.
Thanks Joe! Love having more books for my to-read list. I love that you noted the RIVERSIDE SHAKESPEARE. I will say that I have long been of the opinion that even tho it is important to read Shakespeare, it is even more important to SEE it. If you can’t get to a play try to watch as many movie adaptations as possible. “Much Ado About Nothing” is a great place to start.
BTW, my fav re-read authors are you, your dad, John Irving and Agatha Christie. You all are my comfort food.
I would add Heart-shaped Box to the list and, the way things are going, probably ‘Pearl,’ by Tabitha King.
That was hilarious when Pearl said ‘We’re making progress. Within 5 minutes I’ve gone from a nigger to a bimbo.’
And the guy who called her the names looks all shocked, or acts like it, when he hears them repeated by Pearl. LOL
That brings me to number:
32. Death On the Nile, Agatha Christie
33. Ten Little Indians (or Then There Was One), Agatha Christie
34. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
35. What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw, Agatha Christie
36. A Pocketful of Rye, Agatha Christie
37. Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Cherie Priest
38. Master of the Delta, Thomas Cook
39. War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
40. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
41. The Graveyard Rats, Henry Kuttner
42. The Tomb, H.P. Lovecraft
43. The Shunned House, H.P. Lovecraft
44. Quidditch Through the Ages, J.K Rowling
45. Ghost Train, Stephen Laws
46. Midnight Sun, Ramsey Campbell
47. Pact of the Fathers, Ramsey Campbell
48. Dark Hollow, Brian Keene
49. Ghost Walk, Brian Keene
50. Darkness On the Edge of Town, Brian Keene
That was a LOT harder to do than to think about doing. But I’m sure there are more. These are just the ones that made a really strong positive impact on me.
Especially Joe Schreiber’s book No Doors, No Windows. He’s sort of new, to me anyway, and that story was really good. A little bit of skewed medical information didn’t really alter how good the book was, especially when the scene the main character thought he saw was really a hallucination.
Great stuff here. Thanks so much for sharing, Joe.
There is one book I thought I would see on your list – and many others – that didn’t make the cut.
The Exorcist. Still profoundly terrifying and mesmerizing to me. It made me question just about everything I’ve ever believed in. And I’m not a religious person.
I also thought I’d see more Pet Semetary, particularly with so many horror fans on here.
Both The Exorcist and Pet Semetary – the two scariest books ever written, in my opinion – are so effective, so moving, because they’re both about the power of love. That’s also probably why they’re such important books to me.
And I just realized I spelled the incorrectly spelled “Sematary” incorrectly.
Great post. Got me thinking about my own list of favorites in no particular order:
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The City and the City by China Mieville
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Nightmare Town by Dashiell Hammett (short stories)
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Blood Meridian or An Evening of Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
I Am Legend by William Gibson
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
On Writing by Stephen King
Pet Cemetery by Stephen King
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein
Counter Clock World by Philip K. Dick
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Glasshouse by Charles Stross
The Ice Storm by Rick Moody
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Rabbit Run by John Updike
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin
The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
…I tried to make a list, and then got so overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of beloved reads I didn’t think I could manage to continue. You, your dad, Tolkien, Robin Hobb, Charlaine Harris, Bram Stoker, Alfred Lord Tenneyson, Poe, Shakespeare, Byron, A.C. Doyle, Kathy Reichs, Richard Castle (They’re pulpy FUN, so sue me), Spider Robinson, John Irving, Poppy Z. Brite, JK Rowling and many more have produced works I couldn’t miss from my bookshelf without aching. I asked for Cloud Atlas for Christmas a few weeks ago, hope it’s under the tree come December:) Number one is and always will be IT though… Those kids were my friends when no-one else was, and when you’re in your early teens, that continues to matter waaay into adulthood. Love, Jo
Slayground! I still remember seeing that cover as a kid. Cool that you picked it. That is going on the Amazon wish list. Also, great seeing which of your Dad’s books you enjoyed. I need to make my list of 50. But I’m sure on there would be Cat’s Cradle, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Straight Man, The Sound and the Fury, Heartsick, A Farewell To Arms. Well, I better get back to work!
For one reason or another, here’s my list: (and my list will include some nonfiction)
Aesop’s Fables
Harriet the Spy
Arguably Essays
Gone with the Wind
Rebecca
An American Way of Death
The Complete Nancy Drew Series
The October Country
The Godfather
Forever Amber
Centennial
The Thorn Birds
The Last Lecture
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Complete Harry Potter
A Tale of Two Cities
Salem’s Lot
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Good Earth
A Clockwork Orange
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Talisman
The Great Gatsby
The Green Mile series
Rosemary’s Baby
Interview with a Vampire
The Illustrated Man
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Go Ask Alice
Brave New World
Danse Macabre
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
1984
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy
Of Mice and Men
Jane Eyre
The Exorcist
Welcome to the Monkey House
A Christmas Carol
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
The Liar’s Lullaby
Hamlet
The Turn of the Screw
20th Century Ghosts
On Writing
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm
Shadow Show
Bloodletters and Badmen
Hi all. First time commenter, but hard to pass up a chance to make a list of this nature…
Sticking with fiction only:
Rashomon & Other Stories – Ryunosuke Akutagawa
The Green Man – Kingsley Amis
High Rise – J.G. Ballard
Books of Blood Vols. 1-3 – Clive Barker
The Aleph & Other Stories – Jorge Luis Borges
The Baron in the Trees – Italo Calvino
Land of Laughs – Jonathan Carroll
The Woman Who Married A Clourd: Collected Stories – Jonathan Carroll
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories – Angela Carter
The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon
Among the Missing – Dan Chaon
Fancies & Goodnights – John Collier
House of Leaves – Mark Danielewski
The Ilustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury – Arthur Conan Doyle
Classics of the Macabre – Daphne Du Maurier
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
The Third Level – Jack Finney
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
Smoke & Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
Bad Behavior – Mary Gaitskill
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
The Dark Domain – Stefan Grabinski
Come Closer – Sara Gran
Collected Stories – Graham Greene
Twelve Tales of Suspense & The Supernatural – Davis Grubb
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
20th Century Ghosts – Joe Hill
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
Tales of Pain & Wonder – Caitlin R. Kiernan
The Shining – Stephen King
Shoeless Joe – W. P. Kinsella
Dark Gods – T.E.D. Klein
Our Lady of Darkness – Fritz Leiber
I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
Collected Stories – Richard Matheson
No Country For Old Men – Cormac McCarthy
The Elementals – Michael McDowell
The Barnum Museum – Steven Millhauser
Anno Dracula – Kim Newman
The Club Dumas – Arturo Perez-Reverte
Japanese Short Stories of Mystery & Imagination – Edogawa Rampo
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves – Karen Russell
Love Songs for the Shy & Cynical – Robert Shearman
The Terror – Dan Simmons
Of Mice & Men – John Steinbeck
Ghost Story – Peter Straub
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Mother Night – Kurt Vonnegut
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater – Kurt Vonnegut
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Cool to see so many titles in common with others!
And of course I forgot a few:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Dear Mr. President by Gabe Hudson
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Selected Stories by Andre Dubus
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
That should round out my 50.
Love this lists, makes me want to go back and read some of these great books again. Here is a short list of some of my favorites…
Patient Zero by John Maberry
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Lost by Jack Ketchum
A Perfect Storm by Sabastien Junger
Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski
A Drop of Scarlet by Jemiah Jefferson
Jurassic Park by Michael Cichton
Dragonlance novels by Hickman and Weis
Forgotten Realms novels by RA Salvetore
I can’t resist a list either. Here are my Top Fifty (or so):
Sherwood Anderson – Winesburg, Ohio
Richard Brautigan – Trout Fishing in America
Octavia Butler – Parable of the Sower
Angela Carter – Nights at the Circus
Vikram Chandra – Red Earth and Pouring Rain
John Crowley – Little, Big
Philip K. Dick – A Scanner Darkly
Thomas M. Disch – Camp Concentration
Katherine Dunn – Geek Love
Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
John Fante – Brotherhood of the Grape
William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury
Timothy Findley – Not Wanted on the Voyage
John Fowles – The Collector
William Gibson & Bruce Sterling – The Difference Engine
David Goodis – Shoot the Piano Player
Gunter Grass – The Tin Drum
Robert Graves – I, Claudius
Dashiell Hammett – Red Harvest
John Hawkes – The Owl
Russell Hoban – Riddley Walker
Ursula K. LeGuin – The Dispossessed
Stanislaw Lem – The Cyberiad
Jonathan Lethem – Motherless Brooklyn
Sinclair Lewis – Babbitt
Cormac McCarthy – Blood Meridian
Flann O’Brien – The Third Policeman
Mervyn Peake – The Gormenghast Novels
Thomas Pynchon – Gravity’s Rainbow
Leslie Marmon Silko – Ceremony
John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – Roadside Picnic and Tale of the Troika
Graham Swift – Waterland
Jim Thompson – Pop. 1280
Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five; Cat’s Cradle
Rudy Weibe – The Last Temptations of Big Bear
Robert Anton Wilson – The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Gene Wolfe – The Book of the New Sun
Virginia Woolf – Mrs. Dalloway
Richard Wright – Native Son
Stephen Wright – Going Native
Charles Dickens – David Copperfield
Jonathan Swift – Gulliver’s Travels
Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness
Oscar Wilde – Picture of Dorian Gray
Wlikie Collins – The Woman in White
Richard Adams – Watership Down
Samuel R Delany – Nova
James Tiptree Jr – Warm Worlds and Otherwise
JRR Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings
Robert Charles Wilson – A Bridge of Years
Ross MacDonald – The Moving Target
Richard Stark – The Outfit
As you say, graphic novels would be another list entirely. I would love to see your top 50 graphic novels btw. Can you resist making another list?
When you supported I DRAW COMICS, turns out the creator was a big fan and mentioned you in his interview – so I linked to your site in my Techlife syndicated column about – The Superhero Backstory of Matt Marrocco – http://bit.ly/Q4ZpaO
The best thing about all of this is that I can use all the books people are listing, and go add them to my goodreads shelf so I can buy them later when I get around to it.
As for me, I’ll give my top ten books that I just love, as I’ve never thought of making a top 50 just yet, since there are so many books that I haven’t read that most people have by now. Anyways here is my top ten:
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mocking Bird – Harper Lee
The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Dune – Frank Herbert
Misery – Stephen King
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
Neuromancer – William Gibson
American Gods – Neil Gaiman
Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami
I’ll try and make a list of my 50 favorites some day, but in or particular order of course as I couldn’t do that.
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Not gonna go to the list making…not today anyway, too many rolling around in my head after reading all these lists. I did want to say I was pleasantly surprised to see all the different genres. Seems everyone is pretty well rounded. I was especially glad to see Patrick Rothfuss and “The Name of the Wind” on quite a few lists. A really good book and very different from most fantasy, tho I can’t quite put my finger on how it’s different. I am looking forward to the next book in the series, “The Wise Man’s Fears”. And, like a lot of you others, I have added a lot of new titles to my reading list. Thanx for starting something Joe, and I am looking forward to YOUR new book in April!
Wow … my fifty favorite books. I used to ask myself, Self, if you were gonna be stranded on a desert island for like 50 years, and could only take 5 books, what would they be? I couldn’t do it; I had to cheat and hide some more under a false bottom in my rhetorical suitcase.
My fifty favorite books … I’m gonna have to cheat again I think because fifty is way too low. But I’m gonna take a stab at it.
Here goes, in no particular order:
1. Reindeer Moon Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
2. The Animal Wife Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
3. The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, The Wicked Day, The Prince and the Pilgrim Mary Stewart
4. Ghost Story Peter Straub
5. The Caretakers, Pearl Tabitha King
6. Just about everything Stephen King has ever written.
Special favorites: Different Seasons, Night Shift, Just After Sunset, Full Dark, No Stars, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, It, Hearts in Atlantis, The Stand, The Dead Zone, Misery, The Green Mile, Ur (I know I’m leaving out some favorites but there as so many.)
7. Everything by Joe Hill. So far, my favorite is Heart Shaped Box but I wish you could go into a time warp or something and write about a hundred stories and maybe a couple dozen novels and just sort of flood the market all at once. I’d go broke but it’d be worth it! (I love the German Shepherds. Do you have a shepherd irl?)
8. Complete Stories of Saki Saki (H.H. Munro) Special favorites: The Interlopers, Gabriel-Ernst, Esme
9. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories Flannery O’Conner
10. The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson
11. The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. LeGuin
12 Dangerous Visions, Again, Dangerous Visons Harlan Ellison (editor)
13. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever James Tiptree, Jr.
14. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
15. The Winds of War, War and Remembrance Herman Wouk
16. Watership Down, Tales from Watership Down, The Plague Dogs Richard Adams
17. Werewolf Bill Pronzini (editor)
18. Dracula Bram Stoker
19. Everything I can get my hands on by Peter S. Beagle. Special favorites: The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances, The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place, Lila the Werewolf, Tamsin, The Innkeeper’s Song
20. Everything, just everything by Connie Willis. Favorite: Even the Queen (short story)
21. Dune Frank Herbert
22. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain
23. Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, Tortilla Flat, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden John Steinbeck
24. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey
25. Bel Ria, The Incredible Journey Sheila Burnford
26. The Greyhound, Le`on, The Wild Horse of Santander, The Wild Heart, The Last Summer Helen Griffiths
27. Old Yeller, Savage Sam Fred Gipson
28. Creek Mary’s Blood Dee Brown
29. The Thorn Birds Colleen McCullogh
30. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson
31. Epoch Robert Silverberg (editor)
32. All of Ray Bradbury’s short story collections
33. Josie & Jack Kelly Braffet
34. The Harry Potter series byt J.K. Rowling
35. The Hugo Winners Vols. 1-5, The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories, Buy Jupiter, The Foundation Series Isaac Asimov
36. The Jungle Books, Kim Rudyard Kipling
37. The Prince of Tides Pat Conroy
38. The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, Last Night in Twisted River John Irving
39. The Lord of the Rings series, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, Roverandom J.R.R. Tolkein
40. The Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum
41. Bambi Felix Salten
42. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
43. The Hunger Games trilogy Suzanne Collins
44. The King James Bible (because the language is beautiful
45. Grimm’s Fairy Tales
46. Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales
Now the cheats (nonfiction)
47. The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives Alan Turner & Mauricio Anton
48. On Writing Stephen King
49. Yours, Isaac Asimov – A Life in Letters Stanley Asimov (editor)
50. The Dragons of Eden, The Demon Haunted World – Science as a Candle in the Dark, Billions and Billions Carl Sagan
It’s so hard to choose my favorites and I know I’ll lie awake all night thinking of others I wish I’d included
Shoot. I can’t leave this list without adding Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown and Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, two nonfiction books that always leave me in tears. And Centenniel by James Michener. And …
Wow, I bave a lot of books to check out. Not just the ones Hill listed but I see a bunch of other fun lists I need to delve into.
Here are some favourites, not in any particular order, I know I’ve forgotten some,
(there’s some Canadian content in here, but what the hell, there’s Canadian content in me!)
Salem’s Lot, Stephen King – scared the crap out of me when I was 14 – have read it 2x since, still scares me.
The Stand, Stephen King
Midnight, Dean Koontz
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill – A MUST read
Night Shift, Stephen King
Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
World Without End, Ken Follett
Ed King, David Guterson
The Virgin’s Cure, Ami McKay
Breaking Lorca, Giles Blunt
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Steig Larson
Lie Down With Lions, Ken Follett
Firestarter, Stephen King
IT, Stephen King
Horns, Joe Hill
11/11/63, Stephen King
Under The Dome, Stephen King
The Birth House, Ami McKay
The Executioner’s Son, Norman Mailer
Kane & Abel, Jeffery Archer
Only Time Will Tell, Jeffery Archer
Family Secrets, Rona Jaffe
The Firm, John Grisham
Lord of the Flies, William Golding,
Evergreen, Belva Plain
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Fall of Giants, Ken Follett
Winter of the World, Ken Follett
Roots, Alex Haley
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb
Interview with A Vampire, Anne Rice
The Client, John Grisham
Mr Murder, Dean Koontz
Whispers, Dean Koontz
The Face, Dean Koontz
Watchers, Dean Koontz
Tara Road, Maeve Binchy