The List of Favorite Books


What are your all-time favorite books?

One of my friends nominated me to make a list of books that I love, have affected or changed me on facebook a few weeks ago. The rules were that you shouldn't think too hard about it and just write down the top ten books that come to you. So during my lunch break today, I jotted down my top ten books.

I think I was in a nostalgic mood and chose books I've been reading for years. These are pretty much my go-to books that I can (and have) read over and over again. I tend to lean toward happy endings and/or witty comical books. Or the one's that just take me away to a completely different world.

Here is my list:


1. ANNE OF THE ISLAND by Lucy Maude Montgomery
“I do know my own mind,' protested Anne. 'The trouble is, my mind changes and then I have to get acquainted with it all over again.”

2. BET ME by Jennifer Crusie
“Statistics show that men are interested in three things: careers, sports, and sex. That's why they love professional cheerleaders."
Cal put down his fork "Well, that's sexist."
"Yes I know," she said. "But it's true isn't it?"
"What?" Cal tried to find his place in the conversation. "Oh, the sports and sex thing? Not at all. This is the twenty-first century. We've learned how to be sensitive."
"You have?"
"Sure," Cal said. "Otherwise we wouldn't get laid.”

3. THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC by Julie Otsuka
"On the boat the first thing we did -- before deciding who we liked and didn't like, before telling each other which one of the islands we were from, and why we were leaving, before even bothing to learn each other's names -- was compare photographs of our husbands."

4. ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris
"Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are "We're number two!"

5. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING by William Shakespeare
"A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours."

6. NEVER LET ME GO by Kazuo Ishiguro
"He did a laugh and put his arm round me, though we kept sitting side by side. Then he said: 'I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. THat's how I think it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever.'"

7. NUMBER THE STARS by Lois Lowry
"Annemarie stood on the balcony of the apartment with her parents and sister, and watched. Up and down the street, and across on the other side, she could see flags and banners in almost every window. She knew that many of those apartments were empty. For nearly two years, now, neighbors had tended the plants and dusted the furniture and polished the candlesticks for the Jews who had fled. Her mother had done so for the Rosens.
"It is what friends do, " Mama had said."

8. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

9. THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett
"I am sure there is magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us --like electricity, horses, and steam."

10. STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE by Ronald Takaki
"And so they entered a new and alien world where they would become a racial minority, seen as different and inferior, and where they would become 'strangers.'"


Sometimes it's fun to make a list like this. Although t's really hard to narrow down your favorite books to ten. My friend has kids and she said she wanted to make a list just out of children's books because there are so many good ones out there. I completely agree.

As I was looking at everyone else's book list after posting mine, theirs kept on reminding me of good books! I forgot so many, from John Grisham (I love his books with a twist at the end) to the Harry Potter books (specifically the third one). It's really impossible to choose. But I guess we should just all be grateful that there are so many good books out there!

Have you read any of the books on my list? What books would be on your top ten list?

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