The Dusty Bookshelf discussion

I know that this group is for the dusties.. but i wanted to know your absolute favorites(lets cut it off at 10). This always lets me get to know people better right away.. Just curious to get to know everyone.

Here are mine:

The Language of Flowers, White Oleander, The Way the Crow Flies, Water for Elephants, Middlesex, The Kite Runner

Interview With the Vampire, The Stand, Dust to Dust,
Any of the Stephanie Plum Series, The Blossom Street series by Debbie Macomber and almost anything by Jodi Picoult, and most of Nora Roberts' recent stuff.
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The Study series by Maria V. Snyder (fantasy) (I don't really care for The Glass series that follows it.)

The Secret by Julie Garwood (historical fiction)
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Favorite read of 2011)


Michael Palin's travel books (based on his BBC travel series)

Debbie Macomber's Midnight Sons series (Contemporary Romance set in Alaska)


Those are what come to mind, off hand. lol

To add a few classics:
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

Mine are:
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson
Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Lovely Bones
The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud
Most Nora Roberts books, and her alias J.D. Robb

Oh and pretty much all of Nicholas Sparks' books!

Only 10?! Let's see: Marjorie Morningstar, The Books of Rachel, The Red Tent, Stephanie Plum's series, Loved almost all of Oprah's books when she had her club, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Angela's Ashes, Pippi Longstocking books.(which got me reading!), Of Sand and Fog, I'm loving The Girl Who triologies by Stieg Larsson, 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster, In Open Spaces by Russell Rowland, Memoirs of a Geisha, Where the Heart Is, The Fruit of Stone by Mark Spragg, any Patricia Cromwell, Stuart Woods, Tami Hoag and Elizabeth Berg...is that 10?!

Absolute favourites eh? Eep! Always tough. Here's my top 5 (order varies on mood)!

A.S. Byatt - Possession

Donna Tartt - The Secret History

Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Uberville's

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

David Guterson - Snow Falling on Cedars

[Book: The Lord of the Rings]
The Goose Girl
Pride and Prejudice

Those are some of the most amazing books ever.

I'm counting series as one, hahaha.









Oh goodness, those are only a few...

Thalia wrote: ""

I had no idea ICO was a book! Only know it from the truly beautiful (but flipping frustrating) computer game a few years ago.

Interesting.

This does vary according to mood and evolution...

The World According to Garp--John Irving
Prince of Tides--Pat Conroy
Sopie's Choice--William Styron
The Sun Also Rises--Hemingway
Journal of a Solitude--May Sarton
Little Women---Louisa May Alcott
Little Bee--Chris Cleave
Just Kids-- Patti Smith
Bird by Bird--Anne Lamott
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

Elaine, Ico was on the computer? I thought it was only on PS2!

But I LOVED the game. Like, I was sobbing my way through it because I thought it was so beautiful. And I cried when they rereleased it on the PS3 and the graphics were just...gorgeous. But yes, they made a book! It was released about half a year ago, and I got it the DAY it came out and finished it the same day! It was so beautiful! <3

Sorry, it was Ps2 I just meant computer as a general term (and couldn't flipping remember what console it was on lol). The game was the most gorgous game i've ever played. You would just stop and look at the scenery. May have to look out for the book.

Dusty bookshelf is making me add more books to my list! This is not good. Must wear blinkers when I come on here so I don't spot anything I might like.

Wow, only 10, eh? Let's see...
Pride and Prejudice -- Austen
Persuasion -- Austen
The Meno -- Plato
The Screwtape Letters -- C. S. Lewis
The Taming of the Shrew -- Shakespeare
The Lord of the Rings -- Tolkien
The Ideal Husband -- Wilde
The Histories -- Herodotus
The Iliad and The Odyssey -- Homer (technically two books, but I decided to cheat on this one, cause I couldn't choose which to include).
Les Fleurs du Mal -- Baudelaire

My all-time favorite book

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5***** and a favorite

UPDATE 22Oct2011
Without exaggeration, this must be my 20th reading of this classic of American Literature. It never fails to move me and inspire me and educate me. I find something “new” – or at least new to me – virtually every time I read it.

This time I paid closer attention to some of the minor characters, especially the women – Calpurnia, Aunt Alexandra, Helen Robinson, Mrs Merriweather, Lula, Miss Maudie, Mrs Dubose, Miss Caroline, and Mayella Ewell. I was struck by what a wide range of personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and ethics Lee was able to express using just these minor characters (some appearing for only a page or two) living in a small town.

Many people feel this is a book about racism. I don’t think that is the core theme of this book, though it is the central plot device Lee uses. I think the major theme of the book is personal integrity and courage – doing what you know is right when all about you seemingly disagree and even when it may be dangerous to do so, being true to your own moral compass, and instilling those values in your children by example not just words. Feel free to visit my shelf to get more of my thoughts on this book, including the audio version.

Elaine, hahah, I understand. (: A game has never felt so real to me! I usually love playing side quests and getting items and all that, but Ico's menu had "Quit" and "Return to Game" and that was IT! It was like you were in the game! It felt so real that I couldn't play when it was dark outside because I was afraid the Spirits would come and attack me or something, hahah. I'd scream every time one of them grabbed Yorda!

Tessa, I loved To Kill a Mockingbird! I read it a couple years ago in English and I wrote my paper on the use of the mockingbird motif throughout the book. I was so glad I didn't have to just analyze the racism, but, like you said, standing up for what you believe to be right, even when it's unpopular.

Oh my, these lists are such a faux pas. And they always get me all riled.

But since you've shown me yours, I'll show you mine;

(I take it that just as on 'desert island disks' Shakespeare is a given)
Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
Ulysses, James Joyce
Wuthering Heights, Emily
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Possession, A.S. Byatt
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
The New Life, Orhan Pamuk
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, J Safran Foer
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Kafka on the Shore, Murakami

Wowza...well, here are mine...these are the order I fell in love with them!

A Knight in Shining Armor
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return Of The King
Black
Red
White
Harry Potter Boxset
Pride and Prejudice

The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings

The Time Machine (been years since)
A Wrinkle in Time (been years since)
The Phantom of the Opera

Left Behind Series

The Five Love Languages
Battlefield of the Mind
The Pursuit of Holiness

Nancy Drew Complete Series Set, #1-64 (Loved these as a "tween" but plan to re-read ALL... eventually. Maybe with my daughter in about 8 or 10 years!)

The Harry Potter series- J.K. Rowling
Everything by Ellen Hopkins
The Twilight Saga- Stephenie Meyer
Anthem-Ayn Rand
Pretty much anything by Nora Roberts
Everything by Janet Evanovich

Almost anything by Yuki Yoshihara
Anything by Bohra Naono

Series
Bunny Drop by Unita Yumi
Meg Langslow by Donna Andrews
Bitter Virgin by Kusunoki Kei
Discworld by Terry Pratchett
Beauty is the Beast by Tomo Matsumoto

Books
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Dracula
The Gormenghast Novels
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Cristo (which I'm planning to reread at some point after this challenge)

Harry Potter
Twilight
The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner
Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

That's all I can think of right now :)

One More River by Glickman
Unbroken by Hillenbrand
Down River by Hart
King of Lies by Hart
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by Fowles
Cutting for Stone by Verghese
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Wroblewski
Darkness Take My Hand by LeHane
Child 44 by Smith
The Hot Zone by Preston
Gone Baby Gone by LeHane
The Demon in the Freezer by Preston
The Good German by Kanon
No Second Chance by Coben
Atlas Shrugged by Rand
Under the Banner of Heaven by Krakauer

Oh, my, I was supposed to stop at 10, wasn't I?
I've read many of the books that others list as favorites. If I haven't listed them, obviously I don't agree that they're exceptional. Most I just thought were OK

Almost anything by Patricia Cornwell
Almost anything by Michael Connelly (best book, The Poet)
Almost anything by Jonathon Kellerman
Anything I think looks or sounds interesting and complicated, depressing, will make you think, or non-fiction about various medical conditions, some biographies if I really like and admire the person

Slammerkin by Emma Donghue
Dune by Frank Herbert
Swimming by Joanna Hershon
The Memory of Running by Ron McClarty
Indigo by Graham Joyce
Flint by Paul Eddy
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

This isn't all of them. This is a very abbreviated list of my favorite books.

ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "The Study series by Maria V. Snyder (fantasy) (I don't really care for The Glass series that follows it.)

[..."

Oh, I loved the Study Series, and then continued reading everything else by Maria V. Snyder.

Book Concierge wrote: "My all-time favorite book

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5***** and a favorite

UPDATE 22Oct2011
Without exaggeration, this must be my 20th reading of this classic of American Literature. It..."


I read this book when I was about 13, and I never found it to be a book about racism. At least, not as the central plot. It is, however, a book about personal values, when to stand up for what is wrong and unjust, and about taking risks to what is right no matter the social climate of the day. I have always the utmost admiration for the character, Atticus, because he took a stand against his entire town in order to defend a black man that he felt had been wrongly accused. And, he did this knowing the odds were against him, and that his defense of this man would affect him, his family, and everyone associated with him. Everyone close to him would become a target for the racism that is pervasive but is an undercurrent in this story.

Anything by John Sandford but especially his Prey novels. Excellent. No wasted language or flowery discriptions. Fantastic story teller.

Harry Potter box set/terri blackstock last light series/ Laura ingalls wilder/ little women/ Lori wick love comes softly series and about 1000 others!

I, like someone else stated above, was surprised to disagree with so many of the titles mentioned here. Interesting how different we all are!

Here are 11, in no particular order:




Divakaruni & Chevalier are my two favorite authors period. I've only read one of Allende, but she could easily be up there based on the one I've read.

Hi April,

My name obviously is Jennifer, and I would like to thank you for reminding me of the name of a book that I read a few years ago, and have been trying to recommend to my mother. I just could not remember the name. It is When the Elephants Dance about the Filipino families that literally moved underground or out into the jungles of the Phillipines to avoid the Japanese patrols. I have been trying to remember the name of that book for ages, so, thank you for having it on your reading list.

Jennifer

Jennifer wrote: "Hi April,

My name obviously is Jennifer, and I would like to thank you for reminding me of the name of a book that I read a few years ago, and have been trying to recommend to my mother. I just co..."

NP! That is one of my favorites.. recommended I believe, by Tracy Chevalier... I wish she'd written more.

It was a Fantastic book!! I wish she had written more as well.

It will be hard to stop at 10 favourite books, but here goes:









And

crime and punishment - dostoyevsky
lolita - vladimir nabokov
the book thief - markus zusack
harry potter
the picture of dorian gray - oscar wilde
to kill a mockingbird - harper lee
waiting for godot - samuel beckett
1984 - george orwell

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church by Philip Yancey
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Beth wrote: "crime and punishment - dostoyevsky
lolita - vladimir nabokov
the book thief - markus zusack
harry potter
the picture of dorian gray - oscar wilde
to kill a mockingbird - harper lee
waiting fo..."

1984 f***ing agreed there :)
Godot? lol that one was hilarious almost every page in a good way :P

Would members please add the title of the book in addition to the cover art .... those of us who are checking the site via smart phone just see a blank space in place of the cover.

Thank you

So looking forward to reading The Book Thief! So many people have it on their favorites!

Beach Music by Pat Conroy. Actually anything by Pat Conroy. Also World Without End by Ken Follett. I could read either of these numerous times. Oh wait...I have :-)

This is an interesting discussion! My favorite list is sort of limited since I didn't really fall in love with reading till recently but here goes.
1.Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2.Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
3.Everything so far by Kate DiCamillo
4.The Kronos Chronicles by Marie Rutkoski
5.The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
6.most books by Rebecca Rupp
7.The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville
8.Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
9.Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon's Gate by Adrienne Kress
10.most books by Frank Peretti
(I have to add one last book because I don't feel my list will be complete without it.)
Bonus: Broken Things by Andrea Boeshaar

Let's see. I have a number of favorites. Here's my top 10 list.

1. The Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks
2. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
3. One Second After by William Forschten
4. The Road by Cormac McCarhy
5. The Ridge by Michael Koryta
6. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
7. The Walk by Richard Paul Evans
8. Children of the Promise series by Dean Hughes
9. The Grays by Whitley Streiber
10. Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven

I know it's kind of random. But I learned a lot from each one of these books and I STILL think about them.

April wrote: "So looking forward to reading The Book Thief! So many people have it on their favorites!"

I can't wait to read that. A good friend of mine told me how amazing it was!

Hayley wrote: "Dracula
The Gormenghast Novels
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Cristo (which I'm planning to reread at some point after this challenge)"

I read the abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo and absolutely fell in love with it. Is the unabridged (1000 pager) tough to read? I am thinking of trying to tackle it and wonder if it is even better.

Andrew wrote: "Hayley wrote: "Dracula
The Gormenghast Novels
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Cristo (which I'm planning to reread at some point after this..."

The Count Of Monte Cristo is a very easy read, Dumas was extremely good at keeping the plot moving along in his books. If you liked Three Musketeers etc don't miss out on the Sequels "Twenty Years After" "Louise De Valliere" (known under some different titles) and lastly "Man in the Iron Mask"

Nb wrote: "Andrew wrote: "Hayley wrote: "Dracula
The Gormenghast Novels
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Cristo (which I'm planning to reread at some p..."
Perfect! I'll have to get myself a copy!

Choosing favorties is never easy, but here are a few of mine: (I counted series as one, so looks like a lot more then 10)

Jex wrote: "Choosing favorties is never easy, but here are a few of mine: (I counted series as one, so looks like a lot more then 10)

I noticed you have The Giver listed. Have you tried Gathering Blue or The Messenger? I have read The Messenger but not Gathering Blue. The Giver is my favorite of the three so far.

I haven't read them yet. I didn't know there were sequels until last year and just haven't gotten around to reading them yet.