Oh my god, I should *never* have come into this thread. I've been avoiding it, knowing I'd be sucked in. Of course I was right, and now I'm going to sit here thinking and writing for hours, and then I'm going to wander through my house looking for books on bookshelves and in boxes so that I can read them again.
I have to agree with most of the choices listed so far.
Classics and Childhood Favorites I love Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice Sense and Sensibility and
Emma.
I'm also a huge
Chronicle of Narnia fan. I own the box set and still read them occassionally. Definitely something I want my kids to read someday. I definitely read them out of order, starting with
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which is still my all time favorite in the series. I also really liked
The Magician's Nephew which is definitely the first story chronologically because it explains where the wardrobe came from. And I liked
The Horse and His Boy a lot when I was younger. I liked all the stuff about the talking animals. I did see the miniseries and I loved it. As a matter of fact, I think we wore the tape out watching it so much.
Anne of Green Gables is probably my all-time favorite book or series of books. I was named after Anne, and my mom read me those books over and over and over again when I was little. I read out numerous sets of them. I don't even have a coherent set now, just the surviving miscellaneous copies of each story. I think Gibert was my first love. I always loved the way he loved Anne and wanted to find a guy who would be so patient and encouraging with me. (Hmm, come to think of it, his relationship with Anne is pretty similar to Clark's relationship with Lois. Funny how I never noticed that before.) I watched these movies too (I own the boxed sets of both Anne of Green Gable and Anne of Avonlea) and I love them, but every time I watch I cringe at the way they slaughtered the books. They crammed four books into two movies and...wow. Some of the scenes are identical, but there are MAJOR changes. There is a third movie which I just couldn't bring myself to watch. It's more like an elseworld fanfic than an actual sequel. Somehow the movie has them has a young married couple during WWI even though Gil and Anne had a son who died in WWI. IIRC, Gil goes MIA and Anne goes to find him. I'm sure it's a good movie, but I just couldn't do it. I just want Gil and Anne to be at Ingleside with their seven children where they belong, not galavanting through Europe. It makes no sense to me.
I loved
A Wrinkle in Time and all its sequels too. I thought Meg was the coolest. <G>
Another book I loved as a child was
Caroline B. Cooney's The Face on the Milk Carton. I read and reread it. Years later, the author finally came out with a sequel,
Whatever Happened to Janie which I also devoured. Then, a couple of years ago, I was babysitting for a 10 year old little girl who was just as adorable as can be and she was telling me all about her favorite books. I was listening and reminiscing about the books when I was her age, when she started describing a book that sounded eerily familiar, but I knew I hadn't read it. Turned out to be yet another sequel. So, I borrowed it and read it. I think her mom thought I was insane, borrowing a book from her 10 year old. <G>
1984 and
Farenheit 454 were also big favorites of mine. Terrifying, but inspiring at the same time.
The Princess Bride - I remember discovering that this was actually a book and being thrilled. I also remember wondering if there actually was a longer version that it was excerpted from as the foreward claimed, and searching to see if I could find it. Little did I know that I was one of millions to try that.
Newer books I love: I Know This Much Is True by
Wally Lamb. Incredible book. It covers three generations of family secrets, mental illness, abuse and love.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by
John Berent. Set in the most beautiful city on earth - my future home - Savannah, GA, it's got amazing characters, a murder mystery, courtroom drama and an intrepid reporter chronicling the whole thing. What more could you want? Oh, yeah. It's a true story.
Catch-22 There is no other book on earth this funny. Everytime I read it, I see something new.
Personal History is the autobiography of possibly the most influencial woman in journalism, Katharine Graham. Kay Graham became owner and publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 after her husband committed suicide. She went overnight from being a shy, overlooked, housewife with minimal experience as a journalist to the head of a Fortune 500 company. She rose to the occassion became both loved and feared within Washington. She created the empire that is the Washington Post, Co. while bringing down Nixon with the Watergate stories. She's my hero and I've wanted for most of my life to work for her. When she died two years ago, I cried. The book, told in her own words, is the story of her life, The Washington Post, and the city of Washington, DC.
Let's see, what else...
Romance and Light Reading I'll read anything by
Mary Jo Putney or
Mary Balogh. I definitely owe those obsessions to people on the mbs and IRC who convinced me to start reading and got be hooked. I also love
Linda Howard books, especially the newer ones. I honestly think I might own every one of her books, barring the one that's still in hardback. (Give me time... <G>) I love the
Stephanie Plum novels by
Janet Evanovich. The new one will be out soon, and I can't wait.
Oh, and in the same vein, I love the
Bridget Jones books. I actually read
Bridget Jones' Diary in an airport and had to stop because I was laughing out loud and people were looking at me like I was crazy.
The Nanny Diaries is a new favorite. Not sure if it would be as funny to anyone who hasn't actually *been* a nanny, but I was cracking up.
Okay, I HAVE to stop now. See, I knew I should never come in here....
Annie
Editing to add *one* more thing. A couple of people have mentioned Jane Ann Krenz/Jayne Castle. I read one of her short stories (published as JAK) that was in an anthology and loved it, so I borrowed a JC novel from the library and just couldn't get through it. If she's this good though, maybe I should give her another try. And maybe I just need to stay away from the JC stuff, since I tend not to be overly fond of futuristic stuff.