LittleWyvern.com

I’m thinking about making this a permanent page, not just a post. This requires too much thought and effort to get right on my very first try. Also, someone might find it useful enough to warrant seeing more than once.

A friend of mine, I don’t want to embarrass him so let’s call him… Jim Friend of Libertyville and Northwestern, asked me to recommend a book for him to read. He both used to read (presumably) and knows how to read (also an assumption – you never know with scholarship athletes, burn) but doesn’t read any more. He wants to get back into the habit but needs the right book. I find that the success of casual reading is almost wholly dependent on the choice of book, especially for those out of practice. And so the choice becomes of the utmost importance. He asked if I could suggest any good books by Dostoyevsky. I of course said no. I don’t find any of his books to be good. I’m not sure where that original author choice came from, but I have a feeling that a lot of people, without other recommendations, make the assumption that a good book has to be a famous book, and vice versa. I myself went through that phase; driving through piles of books along the lines of The Grapes of Wrath, The Maltese Falcon, Animal Farm, and Slaughterhouse Five. Basically all the ones I classified as “Should have read, but never did.” Some of them were good, but I actually found most to be generally boring. Finishing out The Grapes of Wrath I shrugged my shoulders and silently announced, “I guess it must have been a lot more amazing fifty years ago.” That is much the way I feel after watching The Deer Hunter or Gone With The Wind; groundbreaking in its time, sure, but completely irrelevant today. Instead, the books that I have always enjoyed the most are the ones recommended – or better yet, given to me – by a friend. And so I offer a list of the books that I say everyone should read before they die – though preferably as soon as possible. They aren’t all famous, and only a few are in Oprah’s book club, but I consider them all to be most excellent. If you find yourself wishing you read more, but just don’t know where to start, I humbly offer a few suggestions. By and large they are listed simply in the order I thought of them. No doubt there are many more I can’t easily recall at 4am.

More importantly, what are your favorite books? I’ve already read all of these and am always in need of suggestions.

The Most Super Amazing
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

Awesomely Great
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
     The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling
The Dark Elf Trilogy – R.A. Salvatore
     Homeland, Exile, Sojourn
The Ender Series – Orson Scott Card
     Ender’s Game, Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon
Dune – Frank Herbert
The Shaara Civil War Trilogy – Jeff and Michael Shaara
     The Killer Angels, Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure
Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
The Once and Future King – T.H. White
Maus – Art Spiegelman

Really Good
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
A Song of Ice and Fire – George R. R. Martin
     A Game of Thrones, A Storm of Swords, A Clash of Kings
Devil in the White City – Erik Larson
The Abhorsen Trilogy – Garth Nix
     Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen
Armor – John Steakley
The Bourne Trilogy – Robert Ludlum
     The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum
The Foundation Series – Isaac Asimov
The Robot Series – Isaac Asimov
Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
The Hot Zone – Richard Preston
The Stranger – Albert Camus
A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking