The 15 Book Meme
Aug. 19th, 2009 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileHere goes.
1. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Probably the first epic novel I read - well above the reading levels of my friends at the time and it opened up the genre of fantasy to me.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
I didn't read this until later in life but it's now one of my favourite books. There's nothing not to like in this tale of racial tension in 1930s Alabama.
3. The Bottoms - Joe R. Lansdale
Like the previous book, The Bottoms is the tale of a young boy in depression era rural America confronting racism, but in this case with the addition of a terrifying serial killer.
4. Flashman and the Redskins - George MacDonald Fraser
I picked this up in a library sale on a whim and it was my introduction to the wonderful world of arch cad Harry Flashman and the wealth of historically based Flashman novels.
5. Mort - Terry Pratchett
Not the best of Pratchett's novels, but the first I read. Taking the fantasy genre and turning it on its head, Mort actually made fantasy entertaining for me.
6. Tales of the Unexpected - Roald Dahl
A collection of Roald Dahl's short stories, it was Roald Dahl for grown ups and the stories Lamb to the Slaughter, The Landlady and William and Mary, with the disembodied brain floating in its tank will always stick with me. Masterful.
7. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Stephen Donaldson
One book I read the first volume of when I was around 13 at lunchtimes in the school library and have ended up coming back to time and time again. I'm drawn to novels with dark and bitter protagonists who are forced to be the hero.
8. High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
I think the one book on this list I read which spoke to me personally. There's so much about this book that hit home or seemed familiar to my own experiences or characteristics. Nick Hornby has a way of getting into the psyche of the British male.
9. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Douglas Adam's wonderful deft comic touch is a joy and as much about the human condition as it is two headed aliens from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. So many great one liners I often quote.
10. Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Probably my favourite childrens book ever, wonderfully lyrical and whimsical, utterly joyous. Everyone should read it at least once.
11. Barmy Jeffers and the Quasimodo Walk - J.H. Brennan
Now we're talking obscure. J.H. Brennan wrote this series, featuring the eponymous hero Barmy Jeffers falling through a portal into a D&D styled world encountering characters like Ben the Dwarf, axe wielding matriarch Facecrusher, the insane Reverend Lancelot Bong and others. Utterly silly, of course.
12. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carré
A novel that sticks with me mostly because of its protagonist - quiet, overweight, bumbling and sharp as a tack George Smiley, the grey little man who sets about uncovering a traitor within the ranks of the British Secret Intelligence Service.
13. Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs - John Lydon
John Lydon's autobiography detailing the rise and fall of The Sex Pistols, and the punk movement as a whole and by party hysterical, filthy, nasty and biting and always memorable.
14. The Crow Road - Iain Banks
Containing lashing of murder, sex, dark humor, mystery, pathos and character, Iain Bank's Scottish set novel combines weird family history and murder mystery. The reasons why it sticks in my mind? Exploding grandmas and a committed atheist getting struck by lightning while climbing a church tower.
15. Fatherland - Robert Harris
An alternate history novel set in NAZI Germany in 1964 in which an ordinary police detective stumbles across a series of interconnected murders which lead to the discovery of a conspiracy to cover up the holocaust and extermination camps. A chilling look into what might have been.
Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.
1. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Probably the first epic novel I read - well above the reading levels of my friends at the time and it opened up the genre of fantasy to me.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
I didn't read this until later in life but it's now one of my favourite books. There's nothing not to like in this tale of racial tension in 1930s Alabama.
3. The Bottoms - Joe R. Lansdale
Like the previous book, The Bottoms is the tale of a young boy in depression era rural America confronting racism, but in this case with the addition of a terrifying serial killer.
4. Flashman and the Redskins - George MacDonald Fraser
I picked this up in a library sale on a whim and it was my introduction to the wonderful world of arch cad Harry Flashman and the wealth of historically based Flashman novels.
5. Mort - Terry Pratchett
Not the best of Pratchett's novels, but the first I read. Taking the fantasy genre and turning it on its head, Mort actually made fantasy entertaining for me.
6. Tales of the Unexpected - Roald Dahl
A collection of Roald Dahl's short stories, it was Roald Dahl for grown ups and the stories Lamb to the Slaughter, The Landlady and William and Mary, with the disembodied brain floating in its tank will always stick with me. Masterful.
7. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Stephen Donaldson
One book I read the first volume of when I was around 13 at lunchtimes in the school library and have ended up coming back to time and time again. I'm drawn to novels with dark and bitter protagonists who are forced to be the hero.
8. High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
I think the one book on this list I read which spoke to me personally. There's so much about this book that hit home or seemed familiar to my own experiences or characteristics. Nick Hornby has a way of getting into the psyche of the British male.
9. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Douglas Adam's wonderful deft comic touch is a joy and as much about the human condition as it is two headed aliens from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. So many great one liners I often quote.
10. Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Probably my favourite childrens book ever, wonderfully lyrical and whimsical, utterly joyous. Everyone should read it at least once.
11. Barmy Jeffers and the Quasimodo Walk - J.H. Brennan
Now we're talking obscure. J.H. Brennan wrote this series, featuring the eponymous hero Barmy Jeffers falling through a portal into a D&D styled world encountering characters like Ben the Dwarf, axe wielding matriarch Facecrusher, the insane Reverend Lancelot Bong and others. Utterly silly, of course.
12. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carré
A novel that sticks with me mostly because of its protagonist - quiet, overweight, bumbling and sharp as a tack George Smiley, the grey little man who sets about uncovering a traitor within the ranks of the British Secret Intelligence Service.
13. Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs - John Lydon
John Lydon's autobiography detailing the rise and fall of The Sex Pistols, and the punk movement as a whole and by party hysterical, filthy, nasty and biting and always memorable.
14. The Crow Road - Iain Banks
Containing lashing of murder, sex, dark humor, mystery, pathos and character, Iain Bank's Scottish set novel combines weird family history and murder mystery. The reasons why it sticks in my mind? Exploding grandmas and a committed atheist getting struck by lightning while climbing a church tower.
15. Fatherland - Robert Harris
An alternate history novel set in NAZI Germany in 1964 in which an ordinary police detective stumbles across a series of interconnected murders which lead to the discovery of a conspiracy to cover up the holocaust and extermination camps. A chilling look into what might have been.
