Originating at Kailana's Written World, the charge is to come up with the ten books that you couldn't live without. It's impossible to keep such a list to ten, but here are ten that I return to on a regular basis - "literary comfort food." Not necessarily the ten "best" books that I own, but those that I grab off the shelf first when I'm heading to bed and know that there's probably only 20 minutes of reading ahead before sleep hits.
- A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. There is something in Irving's masterpiece for every imaginable mood. If you want to laugh out loud, read the performance of A Christmas Carol. If you want to get angry, read about Randy White. If you want to marvel at the best of human nature, read about Owen's gift to John. And if you want to cry, read the ending.
- LA Requiem, by Robert Crais. Every book he's written qualifies as an excellent thriller. This one is so much better than the rest that it's scary.
- The Chill, by Ross McDonald. Hopefully, over time McDonald's role as the successor to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler won't be forgotten.
- LA Confidential, by James Ellroy. When the threads of this story begin to come together in the third act, it feels like a miracle.
- It, by Stephen King. He wrote great books before, and he's written great books since, but he will never be able to top this epic.
- Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. There's nothing to say that hasn't already been said. Sparkling on every page.
- Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry. For sheer adventure, how can you top a cattle drive? And some of the most sharply written, well defined characters of any book.
- Ball Four, by Jim Bouton. The funniest, and perhaps truest, book written about baseball (or any sport, for that matter).
- The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. Pulp fiction it may be, but there is a reason the movie was so great, after all.
- I'm going to cheat in the last one, and just say anything in the Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben, the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly, or the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford. You really can't go wrong with any of them.
2 comments:
Thanks for joining in! I had started to think I had received all the lists I was going to!
oops. I forgot I was logged in as the group blog I post for. This is Kailan if that is not obvious. :)
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