A Reader's Bucket List

[shortstack]

My oddball list...

The Island of the Day Before - Umberto Eco
The Art of Eating - M.F.K. Fisher
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Howards End - E.M. Forster
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide - Douglas Adams
Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes
Blindness - Jose Saramago
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
War and Peace - Tolstoy
The Iliad and The Odyssey - Homer
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Cheese - McCalman & Gibbons (mmm, cheese!)
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
My Life in France - Julia Child
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Climbing the Mango Trees - Madhur Jaffrey
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Possession - A.S. Byatt
Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
What is the What - Dave Eggers
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake & The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire - Tom Zoellner
The Histories - Herodotus
Sophie's Choice - William Styron
Snow - Orhan Pamuk
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy
A Room with a View - E.M. Forster
The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James Cain
Mildred Pierce - James Cain
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Dubliners - James Joyce
The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

 

[Octavia]

Ooh, shortstack, I'm going to have to check out some of the books on your list that I haven't read yet. I think we must have pretty similar tastes -- besides the overlap between our lists here, many of yours are also on my four-star list but I didn't type them all out!

 

[shortstack]

Ooh, shortstack, I'm going to have to check out some of the books on your list that I haven't read yet. I think we must have pretty similar tastes -- besides the overlap between our lists here, many of yours are also on my four-star list but I didn't type them all out!

Octavia, your list is wonderful! Can't wait to read books two and three on your 5-star list. Ordering now.

I forgot one of my favorite books of all time...

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

and...

The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary ( this book)

 

[justginger]

I always check out past PS book threads when deciding on new reads! We've got some ladies with great taste around here (men too, of course).

One book that I reckon is brilliant, but no one has ever read is The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. Not for those with weak stomachs though - its publication was a large contributing factor in the establishment of the FDA!

I love a lot of Jodi Picoult books - would put them at 4 out of 5 stars. And Stephen King. Honestly, the man is amazing. His character development is like none other. I would put him as the greatest author of my lifetime. I'm reading his most recent right now (11.22.63) and it stuns me how he can make individual characters REAL enough that your brain is willing to accept the most ludicrous plot lines without hesitation.

I could repeat the classics. To Kill A Mockingbird. 1984. Crime and Punishment. The Grapes of Wrath. The Little Prince. Frankenstein. They're classics for a reason. Others that are on my 'encourage others to borrow' shelf of the bookcase: The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived. Gardens of Water. Room. Cage of Stars. A Thousand Splendid Suns. The Five People You Meet In Heaven. The Dead Don't Dance.

 

[dragonfly411]

My list is rather extensive. If you guys want me to post it I will, but I need some collective yes responses to make it worth it lol.. it'll take a bit to post... and to read, but it includes the must reads in a lifetime, and is a truly good list.

 

[stephbolt]

My list is rather extensive. If you guys want me to post it I will, but I need some collective yes responses to make it worth it lol.. it'll take a bit to post... and to read, but it includes the must reads in a lifetime, and is a truly good list.

I'd love to see your list DF!

One favorite of my is "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton. I first read it in 10th or 11th grade and have come back to it many times since then.

 

[TooPatient]

My list is rather extensive. If you guys want me to post it I will, but I need some collective yes responses to make it worth it lol.. it'll take a bit to post... and to read, but it includes the must reads in a lifetime, and is a truly good list.

I'd love to see it!

I'm always searching for good books.

 

[TravelingGal]

Oops, wrong thread, sorry!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Many great suggestions, thanks everyone!

And yes, I'd also like to see your list, dragonfly!

I may not have said this earlier but I am getting a Kindle and that is what made me think about a book list! Many of the older ones are out of copyright and free or cheap! But I don't want to leave out great new books!

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Great thread!

I have a book recommendation list saved as an e-mail draft (as an English major and now English teacher, I get asked for book recs a lot ). My list is more skewed towards sci-fi/fantasy/young adult/historical fiction, but it's certainly not comprehensive at all, but it's a start

Historical Fiction
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Brother Cadfael series - Ellis Peters
Alaska - James Michener
Hawaii - James Michener
The Covenant - James Michener
Shogun - James Clavell
Taipan - James Clavell
Templar Knight Mysteries - Maureen Ash
Imperial Woman - Pearl S. Buck
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Honolulu - Alan Brennert
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

Science Fiction
Ilium/Olympos - Dan Simmons
Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Foundation series - Isaac Asimov
Robot series - Isaac Asimov
Time Travelers Never Die - Jack McDevitt
Ender's Game series - Orson Scott Card
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Discworld series - Terry Pratchett
World War Z - Max Brooks
Vorkosigan series - Lois McMaster Bujold
Lamb - Christopher Moore
Old Man's War series - John Scalzi
The Strain - Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Song of Kali - Dan Simmons
Dune series - Frank Herbert
Dune Prequel (House Atreides, etc.) - Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Honor Harrington series (begins with On Basilisk Station) - David Weber

Fantasy
Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
Belgariad/Mallorean - David Eddings
Southern Vampire Mysteries - Charlaine Harris
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn trilogy - Brandon Sanderson
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
Dies the Fire trilogy - S.M. Stirling
Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling
The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold
Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow trilogy - David Gemmell
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss
The Fairy Godmother - Mercedes Lackey
The Sleeping Beauty - Mercedes Lackey
Godspeaker trilogy - Karen Miller
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Eyes of the Dragon - Stephen King
The Ruins - Scott Smith
The Princess Bride - William Goldman

Young Adult/Children
Alchemyst series - Michael Scott
Hound of Rowan series - Henry Neff
Percy Jackson series - Rick Riordan
Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan
Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling
Mysterious Benedict Society trilogy - Trenton Lee Stewart
The Hunger Games trilogy- Suzanne Collins
Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
Sorcery and Cecilia trilogy - Patricia Wrede
Princess of the Midnight Ball/Princess of Glass - Jessica Day George
Dragon Slippers/Dragon Flight/Dragon Spear - Jessica Day George
Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl
The Witches - Roald Dahl
Matilda - Roald Dahl
Wizard of Oz series - L. Frank Baum
Anne of Green Gables series - L.M. Montgomery
The Devil's Arithmetic - Jane Yolen
Holes - Louis Sachar
Wayside School series - Louis Sachar

Action/Adventure
Sigma series - James Rollins
Cotton Malone - Steve Berry
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
The Lost World - Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
Timeline - Michael Crichton
The Firm - John Grisham
The Partner - John Grisham

Classics
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Emma - Jane Austen
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
White Fang - Jack London
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
1984 - George Orwell
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Night - Elie Wiesel
Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
Death On the Nile - Agatha Christie
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Non-fiction
Lost City of Z - David Grann
Princess trilogy - Jean Sasson
Skeletons on the Zahara - Dean King
Infidel - Hirsi Ayaan Ali
Honeymoon in Tehran - Azadeh Moaveni
One L - Scott Turow
The Ivy Briefs - Martha Kimes
Chambermaid - Saira Rao

 

[Haven]

B.E.G. - I didn't know you're teaching English now! I remember when you were thinking about it, though. How's it going?! Do you love it?
WELCOME TO THE CLUB!

 

[dragonfly411]

Sorry for the late response here guys, I'm around I promise, just in and out a bunch. I'll get the list up late tonight.

 

[KittyGolightly]

Next on my list is The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCuller. I have read this book over and over and over agin. I always hope that it would end differently.

This is such a fantastic novel. It's amazing to me that McCullers was only 23 when she wrote it.

Some of my personal favorites are Their Eyes Were Watching God, the Curse of Lono, and the Satanic Verses.

 

[dragonfly411]

Ok so Brace Yourself. I'm going to start with Young reading and work my way through classics, general fiction, fantasy and sci fi and then to non fiction. It may take a few posts.
Black Beauty
The Black Stallion
The Godolphin Arabian
Misty of Chincoteague
Where the Red Fern Grows
Whinnie the Pooh
The Tales of Peter Rabbit
The Secret Garden
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Julie of the Wolves
The Bridge to Terabithia
Jacob Have I Loved
The Yearling
Harry Potter - All of them
Twilight - All of them
Artemis Fowl
The Giver
A Light in the Attic
The Giving Tree
The Diary of Anne Frank
Mr. Pauper's Penguins
No Flying in the House
Mary Poppins
The Neverending Story
The Last Unicorn
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
Holes
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Enders Game Series
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Little House on the Prairie Series
The Old Man and the Sea
The Hunger Games
The Golden Compass
White Fang
My Side of the Mountain
The Call of the Wild
The Book Thief
Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Are you There God? It's me, Margaret
Harriet the Spy
Matilda
The Lord of the Flies
The Sign of the Beaver
Number the Stars
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Little Women
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Ella Enchanted
Eragon
Life of Pie
The Little Prince
Hatchet
Shiloh
Sabriel (and the rest of the Abhorsen series)
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Peter Pan
Of Mice and Men
Night
Anne of Green Gables
The Bell Jar
ALL of the Boxcar Children... especially the first one.
The Witches
Freaky Friday
The Old man and the Sea
The Phantom Tollbooth
Bunnicula
The Indian in the Cupboard
Holes
The Midwife's Apprentice
Zlata's Diary
The Cay
A Day no Pigs Would Die
My Brother Sam is Dead
Red Badge of Courage
Sadako and the Magic Cranes
Turtle in Paradise
Heart of a Samurai
The Graveyard Book
The Surrender Tree
The Tale of Desperaux
Olive's Ocean
Hoot
A Corner of the Universe
Because of Winn Dixie
Bud, Not Buddy
Out of the Dust
Ella Enchanted
Lily's Crossing
The View from Saturday
Walk Two Moons
Somewhere in the Darkness
Maniac Magee
Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind
The Whipping Boy
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Dear Mr. Henshaw
The Fledgling
A Ring of Endless Light
The Westing Game
A String in the Harp
The Dark is Rising
The Wind in the Willows
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
Summer of the Swans
Charlotte's Web
Sing Down the Moon
Sounder
To Be a Slave
Across Five Aprils
A Wrinkle in Time
The Cricket in Times Square
Onion John
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Horsecatcher
Old Yeller
Banner in the Sky
Better Known as Johnny Appleseed
Song of the Pines
Misty of Chincoteague
The White Stag
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtzee
Smoky the Cowhorse
That's the young adults. Up next classics.

 

[dragonfly411]

I'll end tonight with Classics
Moby Dick
Crime and Punishment
Notes from the Underground
The Brothers Karamazov
Great Expectations
Little Women
Little Men
Jo's Boys
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Kim
The Jungle Book
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Wuthering Heights
Watership Down
Les Miserables
Sense and Sensibility
War and Peace
Pride and Prejudice
A Death in the Family
Ivanhoe
Le Morte De Arthur
The Once and Future King
The Book of Merlyn
The Green Knight
Hard Times
Oliver Twist
The Grapes of Wrath
A Light in August
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Antham
Atlas Shrugged
Animal Farm
1984
A Brave New World
A Farewell To Arms
All Quiet on the Western Front
Winesburg Ohio
A Room With A View
Vanity Fair
Go Tell it on the Mountani
A Seperate Peace
Beloved
Sula
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Around the World in 80 Days
The Red Pony
Of Mice and Men
The Scarlett Letter
The Red Badge of Courage
Night
Day
100 Years of Solitude
The Great Gatsby
Love in the Time of Cholera
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Three Musketeers
Seize the Day
Farenheit 451
My Antonia
The Awakening
A Handmaid's Tale
Cry, The Beloved Country
Their Eyes Were Watching God
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Ox Bow Incident
Invisible Man
The Invisible Man
The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Portrait of Dorian Gray
Frankenstein
Tarzan
The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Sherlock Holmes
Dracula
The Phantom of the Opera
As I Lay Dying
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Jane Eyre
Emma
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Silent Spring
A Good Man is Hard to Find
The Bell Jar
The COMPLETE Works of William Shakespeare
The COMPLETE works of Edgar Allen Poe
Ulysses
The Odyssey
The Bell Jar
The Jungle
Heart of Darkness
Ivanhoe
A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Slaughterhouse Five
The Color Purple
Native Son
Things Fall Apart
House of the Spirits
The Stranger
Through the Looking Glass
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Robinson Crusoe
Utopia
Moll Flanders
The Mill on the Floss
The Moonstone
Madame Bovary
A Passage to India
Tess of the D'Ubervilles
A Christmas Carol
The Pickwick Papers
Siddhartha
Brave New World
Night
Day
Angela's Ashes
Wives and Daughters
Sons and Lovers
Doctor Zhivago
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Anna Karenina
Gulliver's Travels
The Time Machine
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Roots
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Kaffir Boy
Walden
True at First Light
The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
Iliad
Mythology
Antigone
Aneid
Dante's Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
Candide
The Canterbury Tales
St. Augustine's Confessions
The Wind in the Willows
Tristram Shandy
David Copperfield
Bleak House
Middlemarch
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Nostromo
Orlando
Women in Love
The Red and the Black
Madame Bovary
The Plague
Bartleby the Scrivener
The Ambassadors
The Sound and the Fury
Lolita
Speak
Memory
The Arabian Nights
Decameron
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The Decameron
The Federalist Papers
The Brothers Karamazov
The Sun Also Rises
To The Lighthouse
A Tale of Two Cities
Breakfast of Champions
The Wind up Bird Chronicle
To The Lighthouse
Mrs. Dalloway
The Master and Margarita
Dubliners
A Moveable Feast
Treasure Island
Cat's Cradle
The Sound and the Fury
Cannery Row
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
The Age of Innocence
The Little Princess
Persuasion
The Mill on the Floss
Aesop's Fables
The Thousand and One Knights
The Princess of Cleves
Roxana
Fanny hill
The Vicar of Wakefield
Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife
Dangerous Liaisons
Hyperion
Rob Roy
Northanger Abbey
Melmoth the Wanderer
The Life and Adventures of Nickolas Nickleby
The Count of Monte Cristo
Agnes Grey
The House of Seven Gables
Bleak House
Madame Bovary
Silas Marner
The Idiot
In a Glass Darkly
Daniel Deronda
Return of the Native
The Death of Ivan Illych
Jude the Obscure
The War of the Worlds
The Wings of the Dove
The Immoralist
The Golden Bowl
Nostromo
Ethan Frome
Babbit
Siddhartha
The Enormous Room
Billy Budd
The Sun Also Rises
Steppenwolf
Lady Chatterley's Lover
The Maltese Falcon
Tropic of Cancer
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Absalom, Absalom!
The Yearling
Cross Creek
The most remaining are anything William Faulkner, Earnest Hemmingway, Classic American Authors here. Contemporary Literature tomorrow.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

BEG...great list!!!

Dragonfly....wow!!! Awesome! Might not finish your list in my lifetime, but I could give it a shot!

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Thanks DS! I try to keep it current and try to keep it separate from books I've read and enjoyed, but might not necessarily recommend to another person. All the ones I listed I've definitely read and reread - I wish I had all of them on my Kindle though!

Haven - yes I am! I haven't really been around PS lately but the big news is I got accepted to a Master of Education and teaching credential program out here in the Bay Area, and I've been student teaching since this summer. I student taught at a middle school over the summer and right now I'm at a high school (9th grade and 11th grade). My students are amazing. So so awesome. And I'm really enjoying teaching - we just started the Edgar Allen Poe unit, which makes me SO happy as I love Poe!

 

[dragonfly411]

FINALLY returning. Here's a start for Contemporary lit off of the top of my head. There are tons, but I have a half hour here at work that I can spare towards it. SO:
Memoirs of a Geisha
A Clockwork Orange
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Color Purple
Beloved
Sula
Because of Winn Dixie
Cross Creek
All of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series - even if you don't like fantasy, they have the best life lessons in them
Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
A Wrinkle in Time
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
A Handmaid's Tale
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (read it in a day and loved it)
The Secret Life of Bees
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Cider House Rules
A Beautiful Mind
The Last Unicorn
The Firebringer Trilogy
Dune
A Hearbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Snow Falling on Cedars
The Poisonwood Bible
100 Years of Solitude
Love in the Time of Cholera
Prodigal Summer
Swan
Gilead
Eragon
The Alchemist
Salvage the Bones
Middle Passage
The House on Mango Street
The Help
The Lovely Bones
My Sister's Keeper
The Shack
All the Pretty Horses
Sabbath's Theater
Cold Mountain
Holes
Waiting
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Three Junes
The News from Paraguay
Our Kind
The Echo Maker
Shadow Country
The Lazarus Project
Let the Great World Spin
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Lord of Misrule
Great House
The Nice and the Good
At Swim, Two Boys
Troubles
The Bird of Night
The Dressmaker
The Conservationist
The Sea, The Sea
No Country for Young Men
Rites of Passage
Schindler's List
The Illusionist
Water for Elephants
Like Water for Chocolate
Flaubert's Parrot
The Color of Blood
The Satanic Verses
The Remnants of the day
Cat's Eye
Jurassic Park
Sphere
Insomnia
Pet Cemetary
Possession
An Awfully Big Adventure
The Famished Road
The English Patient
The Stone Diaries
River Cross My Heart
She's Come Undone
Waiting to Exhale
Hawaii
Reef
How Late it was, How Late
The Moor's Last Sigh
The God of Small Things
Amsterdam
Closer
The Blind Assassin
The Keepers of Truth
True History of the Kelly Gang
Life of Pi
Atonement
The Electric Michelangelo
On Beauty
The Sea
In the Country of Men
The Finkler Question
Olive Kitteridge
The Tinkers
The Kite Runner
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
The Road
The Known World
Middlesex
Empire Falls
The World According to Garp
Interpreter of Maladies
Lonesome Dove
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Executioner's Song

There are tons more, and I'll update more hopefully tonight, possibly tomorrow.