On a lighter side.....

[frontrank2]

I'm going to " borrow " a page from Facebook. Today someone tagged me to give a list of ten books, which I am going to ask of my friends on this forum. What I am looking for is ten books that have influenced you. The idea here is to list your ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes and do not think too hard. They do not have to be the "right" books or great work of art/literature. Just ones that have affected you in some way. Here are my ten:

1- Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

2- The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

3- The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

4- The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn ( about Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers )

5- North Dallas Forty by Pete Gent ( football )

6- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

7- The Last of the Mohicans by Nathaniel Hawthorne

8- Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

9- Semi Tough by Dan Jenkins ( more football )

10- The Summer Game by Roger Angell ( more baseball )

How about it everybody, what are yours?

 

[Drew]

In no order other than age:

Childhood -

1. Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
2. The Boy Who Sailed Around the World by Robin Lee Graham
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Young Adulthood -

1. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
2. The Dance of Legislation by Eric Redman
3. A Short History of Financial Euphoria by John Kenneth Galbraith

More recent years -

1. An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal
2. Look Away Dixieland by James Twitchell

I'm short a couple but just following the directions.

 

[Evan]

Hmm... here's my favourite books, in no particular order. I'll probably add to it soon.

The Horse Whisperer
Child of the Holocaust
Escape from Jonestown
Maus
Brothers in Battle - Best of Friends

 

[Littlestown]

Wow, very hard to choose only 10! Here's the first 10 that came to mind:

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
American Grit: A Woman's Letters from the Ohio Frontier by Anna Briggs Bentley
A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton
Wilderness War on the Ohio by Alan Fitzpatrick
The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story by Elliot West
Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
Lincoln's Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation by William C. Davis
Horse Tradin' by Ben K. Green
George Washington: The Indispensable Man by James T. Flexner
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

 

[Old Hickory]

Wow, can't believe I've read four on your list!

1-A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton, the first Civil War book I ever read.

2-With The Old Breed by E.B. Sledge

3-Helmet For My Pillow by R. Lechey (sp?)

4-Alass Babylon by Pat Frank

5-April Morning by Howard Fast

6-Private Yankee-Doodle by Joseph Plumb Martin

7-Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove

8-For Self And Country by Rick Eirlet

9-Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller by Burk Davis

10-To Hell And Back by Audy Murphy

 

[mikekj]

The Last of the Mohicans by Nathaniel Hawthorne

? James Fenimore Cooper ?

 

[frontrank2]

? James Fenimore Cooper ?

My bad!

 

[chellers]

? James Fenimore Cooper ?

Something wrong with James Fenimore Cooper???

ETA: Ah, okay, gotcha.

 

[Drew]

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

Wow - I remember this one - it was hilarious!

This is a great exercise, seeing what comes off the top of others' heads!

 

[brass napoleon]

Shogun (james Clavell)
The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Sybil ( Flora Rheta Schreiber)
Papillon (Henri Charriere)
The Civil War (Shelby Foote)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)

Not quite 10, but a couple of those are multi-volumes, so close enough.

 

[Littlestown]

Wow - I remember this one - it was hilarious!

This is a great exercise, seeing what comes off the top of others' heads!

Bill Bryson's One Summer, America 1927 is another of my favorites!

 

[Old Hickory]

I can't believe I omitted Jean Shepherd's books!

In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash

A Fistful Of Fig Newtons

Wanda Hickey's Night Of Golden Memories And Other Disasters

The Phantom Of The Open Hearth

And of course, A Christmas Story

 

[chellers]

No way can I limit this list to ten!
So, in random order:

Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Big Blue Ox

The Making of the President 1960, by Theodore H. White

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

Lincoln, by David Donald

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

Othello, by Shakespeare

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

Microbiology

Anatomy and Physiology

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

Still Alice, by Lisa Genova

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories, by Flannery O'Connor

Night, by Elie Wiesel

and more.....

 

[Drew]

Papillon (Henri Charriere)

Wow, another one - I read this at age 11 or 12 and remember exactly where I was when I did so. It's a great story of determination. A movie was later made of it - I think Paul Newman was in the lead role? Lord, it's been years.

 

[brass napoleon]

Wow, another one - I read this at age 11 or 12 and remember exactly where I was when I did so. It's a great story of determination. A movie was later made of it - I think Paul Newman was in the lead role? Lord, it's been years.

I probably read the book about 6 times before I saw the movie (actually, it was Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman), but boy was I disappointed. I knew the book pretty much by heart by then, and the movie was nowhere close.

Great story though (the book, that is). Definitely a story of determination. With a knack for putting the reader right in the middle of it.

 

[Drew]

The Making of the President 1960, by Theodore H. White

Great book! White's masterpiece was Thunder Out of China, about their revolution. He was there - highly recommended.

 

[chellers]

Great book! White's masterpiece was Thunder Out of China, about their revolution. He was there - highly recommended.

How did I miss that? Thanks for the tip, Drew.

 

[diane]

Complete Sherlock Holmes - all the novels and short stories - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
Shelby Foote's trilogy
Sometimes A Great Notion - Ken Kesey
Requiem for a People - Stephen Dow Beckham
In the Land of the Grasshopper Song - Mary Ellicot Arnold and Mabel Reed
Louis L'Amour's westerns
Edgar Allan Poe - complete works
Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Brave Cowboy - Edward Abbey

p s
Added authors!

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Here's my list of books that have "stayed with me" over the years. Not necessarily my favorites, and in no particular order:

The Cross of Iron, Willi Heinrich

The Unlikely Spy, Daniel Silva

Up and Down with the Rolling Stones: (My Rollercoaster Ride with Kieth Richards), Tony Sanchez

The Triumph, Ernest K. Gann

Salem's Lot, Stephen King

The Campaign for Vicksburg (3 Volume set), Edwin C. Bearss

Nicholas and Alexandra, Robert K. Massie

Patriot Games, Tom Clancy

ABSALOM, ABSALOM!, William Faulkner

The Year of the Rat, Mladin Zarubica

 

[Lnwlf]

@chellers
Othello? Microbiology?
Way above my pay grade.