All time FAV books
Since I had listed my list of all time favourite alt/rock songs, I thought I would list out my all time favourite books.....until now that is. I still have so many books to read! I don't own all of the books, I used to borrow a lot of them from the libraries in UM and back home in Taiping. Ah....I actually do miss UM's library because I love their literature section. The smell of the old books......sigh. Oh, and I can spend hours in a bookshop!
In no particular order:
1. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
2. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (Jeffrey Archer) I love his short stories but this is still my favourite book from him. It made me laugh, it made me tense just reading about their payback scheme.
3. The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton. I grew up with her books.
4. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (J.R.R Tolkien). These books got me hooked on the fantasy genre and although the movie took liberties with the storyline, it was still a well made movie.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee). A classic book. Found it in my dad's collection of books when I was little.
6. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen). The book that launched Colin Firth's career.
7. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller). Love this book. Hillarious from the start.
8. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck). Deeply touching. I have not read Grapes of Wrath but I had bought the book a long time ago and it is now sitting pretty on my sister's bookshelf.
9. Love in the Time of Cholera (Garbriel Garcia Marquez). For me, this book was intense in its depiction of love between two people. I have his One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I had no time to read just yet.
10. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (Douglas Adams). Bought this book when I was visiting my friend in England. Damn funny! The movie was alright but the book is of superior quality.
11. Animal Farm (George Orwell). Another classic. Found it in my dad's collection.
12. Lord of the Flies (William Golding). Another classic. Also found it in my dad's collection.
13. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 (Sue Townsend). Made me laugh and laugh and laugh.
14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon). A bittersweet book.
15. High Fidelity (Nick Hornby) Saw the movie then read the book. Book and movie were good.
16. The Witches (Roald Dahl). I do like books from him, but for some reason, I really like this book in particular.
17. Bridget Jones' Diary (Helen Fielding). I saw it by chance, on a UM library's shelf and thought I read a review about it somewhere. Borrowed it and loved it. The sequel was alright but the first was much better.
18. Good Omens (Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman). A parody of The Omen (movie). I should read more of Terry Prachett's books.
19. Life of Pi (Yann Martel). When I saw the title, I thought it was about pi not somebody named Pi.
20. Are you there God? It's Me Margaret (Judy Blume). Any growing girl's book. Talks about puberty, trials of being in love and religion.
21. Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons). Am still reading it!
22. The Alienist (Caleb Carr)
23. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer). Am in the process of reading it and loving every second. Next up: Everything is Illuminated.
24. Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy)
25. Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain) I love it. I love reading anything about food or chefs. I love cookbooks, I love looking at the mouth watering dishes! Which explains why I have Jamie Oliver's and Martha Stewart's books with me.
26. Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany (Frances Mayes) Another book about Tuscany and the splendid food. The movie however, was a complete letdown.
27. Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) A collection of his poems.
28. Poems (W.B. Yeats) One of my favourite poets
29. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
30. Watership Down (Richard Adams). It is about rabbits.
31. Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder). Philosophy made simple....sort of.
32. The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguri). Love both the book and the movie.
33. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Have not actually read her whole collection but read enough to know that I like her.
34. Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens) Classic
35. Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha (Roddy Doyle)
36. Silas Marner (George Eliot)
37. Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling). I have invested my time and money in these books. The ending better be worthwhile.
38. The Colour Purple (Alice Walker)
39. Band of Brothers (Stephen Ambrose)
40. Any Hercule Poirot mystery (Agatha Christie)
41. The Double Helix (James Watson). Now it would be good to hear it from Crick's point of view, but since he died....
42. The Five Find-Outers series (Enid Blyton)
43. The Secret Seven series (Enid Blyton)
44. The Three Investigators series (Robert Arthur)
45. All the President's Men (Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward). About the Watergate scandal.
46. A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
47. Chronicles Trilogy (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman)
48. The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty)
49. The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
50. Neuromancer (William Gibson) Science fiction book which was a bit hard for me to understand at first but gradually, things improved.
51. The Turn of the Screw (Henry James)
52. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)
53. Sherlock Holmes series (Arthur Conan Doyle)
54. Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson). I want to get the collected series but it is so expensive.
55. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
There are some books that I have read but I do not like as much as I thought I would. For example, The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger). I did not see what the fuss was about; this book constantly appears in the all time favourite lists compiled by many organizations such as BBC, Times etc. I don't really like Hemmingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald or Shakespeare, which is why their books are absent in my list. And please, do not make me read The Iliad by Homer! I tried, believe me, I tried but I just could not get past the first few pages. I can't get past Ulysses by James Joyce either. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath) does not interest me somehow despite the good reviews.
There are many, many more books that I have not read like The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song (Norman Mailer), Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides), The Gathering Storm (Winston Churchill), The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), 1984 (George Orwell), Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie), Paul Auster's books, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera), The Magus (John Fowles), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon), I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings (Maya Angelou) to name a few.
What is your favourite book?
In no particular order:
1. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
2. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (Jeffrey Archer) I love his short stories but this is still my favourite book from him. It made me laugh, it made me tense just reading about their payback scheme.
3. The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton. I grew up with her books.
4. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (J.R.R Tolkien). These books got me hooked on the fantasy genre and although the movie took liberties with the storyline, it was still a well made movie.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee). A classic book. Found it in my dad's collection of books when I was little.
6. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen). The book that launched Colin Firth's career.
7. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller). Love this book. Hillarious from the start.
8. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck). Deeply touching. I have not read Grapes of Wrath but I had bought the book a long time ago and it is now sitting pretty on my sister's bookshelf.
9. Love in the Time of Cholera (Garbriel Garcia Marquez). For me, this book was intense in its depiction of love between two people. I have his One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I had no time to read just yet.
10. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (Douglas Adams). Bought this book when I was visiting my friend in England. Damn funny! The movie was alright but the book is of superior quality.
11. Animal Farm (George Orwell). Another classic. Found it in my dad's collection.
12. Lord of the Flies (William Golding). Another classic. Also found it in my dad's collection.
13. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 (Sue Townsend). Made me laugh and laugh and laugh.
14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon). A bittersweet book.
15. High Fidelity (Nick Hornby) Saw the movie then read the book. Book and movie were good.
16. The Witches (Roald Dahl). I do like books from him, but for some reason, I really like this book in particular.
17. Bridget Jones' Diary (Helen Fielding). I saw it by chance, on a UM library's shelf and thought I read a review about it somewhere. Borrowed it and loved it. The sequel was alright but the first was much better.
18. Good Omens (Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman). A parody of The Omen (movie). I should read more of Terry Prachett's books.
19. Life of Pi (Yann Martel). When I saw the title, I thought it was about pi not somebody named Pi.
20. Are you there God? It's Me Margaret (Judy Blume). Any growing girl's book. Talks about puberty, trials of being in love and religion.
21. Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons). Am still reading it!
22. The Alienist (Caleb Carr)
23. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer). Am in the process of reading it and loving every second. Next up: Everything is Illuminated.
24. Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy)
25. Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain) I love it. I love reading anything about food or chefs. I love cookbooks, I love looking at the mouth watering dishes! Which explains why I have Jamie Oliver's and Martha Stewart's books with me.
26. Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany (Frances Mayes) Another book about Tuscany and the splendid food. The movie however, was a complete letdown.
27. Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) A collection of his poems.
28. Poems (W.B. Yeats) One of my favourite poets
29. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
30. Watership Down (Richard Adams). It is about rabbits.
31. Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder). Philosophy made simple....sort of.
32. The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguri). Love both the book and the movie.
33. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Have not actually read her whole collection but read enough to know that I like her.
34. Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens) Classic
35. Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha (Roddy Doyle)
36. Silas Marner (George Eliot)
37. Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling). I have invested my time and money in these books. The ending better be worthwhile.
38. The Colour Purple (Alice Walker)
39. Band of Brothers (Stephen Ambrose)
40. Any Hercule Poirot mystery (Agatha Christie)
41. The Double Helix (James Watson). Now it would be good to hear it from Crick's point of view, but since he died....
42. The Five Find-Outers series (Enid Blyton)
43. The Secret Seven series (Enid Blyton)
44. The Three Investigators series (Robert Arthur)
45. All the President's Men (Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward). About the Watergate scandal.
46. A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
47. Chronicles Trilogy (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman)
48. The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty)
49. The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
50. Neuromancer (William Gibson) Science fiction book which was a bit hard for me to understand at first but gradually, things improved.
51. The Turn of the Screw (Henry James)
52. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)
53. Sherlock Holmes series (Arthur Conan Doyle)
54. Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson). I want to get the collected series but it is so expensive.
55. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
There are some books that I have read but I do not like as much as I thought I would. For example, The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger). I did not see what the fuss was about; this book constantly appears in the all time favourite lists compiled by many organizations such as BBC, Times etc. I don't really like Hemmingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald or Shakespeare, which is why their books are absent in my list. And please, do not make me read The Iliad by Homer! I tried, believe me, I tried but I just could not get past the first few pages. I can't get past Ulysses by James Joyce either. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath) does not interest me somehow despite the good reviews.
There are many, many more books that I have not read like The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song (Norman Mailer), Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides), The Gathering Storm (Winston Churchill), The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), 1984 (George Orwell), Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie), Paul Auster's books, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera), The Magus (John Fowles), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon), I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings (Maya Angelou) to name a few.
What is your favourite book?
posted by AL LEE at 11:42 PM
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