Books!

Luddite Lass did a BC (before children) list of her 10 favourite books.

My BC book list is long.  So long that it has taken me a full day to remember all the books on my list and then decide on my favourites.  None of them are really deep, but I love each of them because they came to me at a particular point in my life when I needed them.

1. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.   Or for that matter, anything pre- Blind Assassin written by Margaret Atwood. After that I lost track.  I used to love curling up with one of her books with a glass of something.  I had a really great friend that introduced me to her.
2. 11 Minutes by Paulo Coelho.  I have read most of his books and have enjoyed some more than others.  This one and his most recent biography are my favourites.  ‘The Alchemist’ is, sorry to say, not my favourite.
3. The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach.  I think everyone in a long-term relationship should read this at least once.  I made hubby read this when we started dating.  And he didn’t run a mile!
4. The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.   I loved the way she captured the time travelling bits.  The books just stayed with me for a long time.
5. The Eight by Katherine Neville.  This and ‘A Calculated Risk’ were lovely books that I have recommended to many, many people, but I really dragged my heels through her latest offering, ’The Fire’.
6. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.   It was a phase… Everyone should have an Ayn Rand phase! 
7. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.  I have to confess, I have never been able to get through Poisonwood Bible, but this book of hers absolutely grabbed me, it is a firm favourite.
8. Written on the body by Jeanette Winterson – I haven’t read any of her books in years, but it touched on a topic (cancer) that has been very close to my heart.
9. The Olive Harvest by Carol Drinkwater – she has written a number of books about her farm in France and she just has such an amazing way of describing nature.  She has published a couple more since I had children, so I have some catching up to do there.
10. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – I read this when I was pregnant with Daniel.  I remember lying in bed at night reading 2 pages, crying for 2 minutes, reading 2 pages, crying for 5 minutes and so on.  Drove hubby nuts.  I still have an unread ‘Thousand splendid suns’ in my bookshelf, tried reading if when I was pregnant with the girls and put it down the first time I cried.  Can you spot the pattern here? J

Does anyone remember that dreaded Angela’s Ashes book?  I didn’t put it on my list as that damn book made me sad for months afterwards!  Hubby sent me away with a friend of mine for a weekend and told me not to come back before I had finished the book he was so sick of my talking about it.

What are your favourites??