I started this post, listed almost 100 books, saved it to revise later and found all the content of the post deleted by Blogger. Grr.
I was reading Melissa Wiley’s blog the other day and she casually mentioned a suggested reading list put out by Penguin Classics: 100 Books to Read Before You Die. I love reading lists and loved this one and, being a blogger, I immediately started making a list of my own. But as I thought about it, I realized I could not call my list anything as grand as “Books to Read Before You Die.” I don’t know what sort of criteria I would use to come up with such a list.
Instead, I have happily (twice now – drat you, Blogger) made up a list of the books I read over and over. There are not quite 100, but these are the books I sell to the used bookstore only to find myself buying them again a year later, or checking them out of the library “just one more time” – books to read in the tub for the fourth time, books like friends I can have over for dinner without cleaning up the house first. Not that all these books are happy – some are about devastating and discomorting things – but each time the familiar story told well fits a little deeper inside me.
Penguin divided their list into clever subsets like “Best Crazies” or “Best Minxes,” but I am going to stick with more familiar genres. The baby kept us up till 4 am last night, and I don’t have the mental acuity to fill out a list called “Best Minxes.” So here they are, in no particular order: my favorite comfort reads.
Fantasy and Science Fiction
1. Book of the Dun Cow Walter Wangerin, Jr.
2. The Once and Future King TH White
3. The Hero and the Crown Robin McKinley
4. Napoleon of Notting HIll GK Chesterton
5. Descent into Hell Charles Williams
6. Day of the Triffids John Wyndham
7. The Hobbit JRR Tolkien
Children’s Novels
11. The Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett
12. Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery
13. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader CS Lewis
14. The High King Lloyd Alexander
15. Switchers Kate Thompson
16. Owl in Love Patrice Kindl
17. A Year Down Yonder Richard Peck
18. Evergreen Castles Laurie B. Clifford
19. Daddy Long-Legs Jean Webster
20. The Light Princess George MacDonald
Essays and Short Stories
21. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader Ann Fadiman
22. It’s Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It from Here Roger Welsch
23. All Creatures Great and Small James Herriot
24. Stories of Hans Christian Anderson
25. Just-So Stories Rudyard Kipling
26. Teaching a Stone to Talk Annie Dillard
27. High Spirits Robertson Davies
Adventure
31. King Solomon’s Mines H Rider Haggard
32. Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs
33. The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
34. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
35. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
36. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Jules Verne
37. The Time Machine HG Wells
38. Beowulf
General Fiction
41. A Virtuous Woman Kaye Gibbons
42. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
43. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
44. Lancelot Walker Percy
45. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
46. Silas Marner George Eliot
47. Cry the Beloved Country Alan Paton
Creepy Crawlers and Creatures of the Night
51. Frankenstein Mary Shelley
52. Dracula Bram Stoker
53. Sunshine Robin McKinley
54. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
55. The Cruel Painter George MacDonald
Mysteries
61. The Hollow Agatha Christie
62. Taste for Death PD James
63. Tiger in the Smoke Margery Allingham
64. The Dark Room Minette Walters
65. Stone Angel Carol O’Connell
66. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
67. Rumpole of the Bailey John Mortimer
68. Murder Must Advertise Dorothy L Sayers
69. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice Laurie R King
70. Die for Love Elizabeth Peters
Biography and Memoir
71. Ava’s Man Rick Bragg
72. North Spirit Paulette Giles
73. Blue Highways William Least-Heat Moon
74. Traveling Mercies Anne Lamott
75. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass
76. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs
Non-Fiction
81. One Nation Under Gods Richard Abanes
82 Seeing Voices Oliver Sacks
83. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed Philip P Hallie
84. Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church Charles Williams
85. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time Jonathan Weiner
86. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction David Quammen
87. Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight Pat Shipman
Poetry and Plays
91. Firstborn Christopher Fry
92. Becket Jean Anouilh
93. A Man for All Seasons Robert Bolt
94. Poetry of John Donne
95. Idylls of the King Alfred Lord Tennyson
96. Men and Women Robert Browning
97. Sonnets from the Portugese Elizabeth Barrett Browning
98. Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
99. Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand
A fabulous list! I can’t believe how much work it would take to do it–twice!
You have excellent taste. There are so many I agree with I don’t know where to start. If you like adventure stories you might also enjoy anything by Samuel Shellabarger (Captain from Castille) or Raphael Sabatini (The Sea Hawk). Both wonderful historical fiction.
Just in time for summer. Thank you!
Hmmm, going to print this list off for future reference! Thanks.
I want to borrow all of your mystery books, so it’s a shame that you don’t live next door to me.
I’m always fascinated but what people tend to read over and over – particuarly because I tend NOT to. I love books, but usually look for something new. (I’m the same way with movies). There are a few plays, however, that I can and do come back to over and over (most notably Angels in America, which hits me in the gut every time, even after having performed it), the Harry Potter Series (in fact, it’s about time to brush up before book 7 comes out!) and I’ve read 100 Years of Solitude several times.
I like that you included a horror/creatures of the night section. I think some people stray away from those books but the older ones, like Dracula, are quite profound.
Oh, you’re a treasure. So glad I found you via Bubandpie.
I forgot to tell you–The Book of the Dun Cow is one of my favorite books of all time, and I’ve never met anyone else (in person or otherwise) who has even heard of it! I love the internet.
Wow, what a lovely list! I’d love to adventure into some of the ones you list that I’ve never read. I’m amazed and impressed that you have Charles Williams’s Descent of the Dove on here. I’m a huge fan of his, but haven’t read much in the way of his theology yet. Come on over to my blog and comment on my series about Williams, if you can!
Great List!