On a lighter side.....

[Bonny Blue Flag]

Flowers for Algernon - by Daniel Keyes
Brother Cadfael - by Ellis Peters
To Kill A Mockingbird - by Harper Lee
Civil War Trilogy - by Shelby Foote
The Miracle Worker - by William Gipson
Antigone - by Sophocles
Old Yeller - by Fred Gipson
The Jungle Book - by Rudyard Kipling

--BBF

 

[Oxkern]

In no particular order, and likely to be different tomorrow:

- 'Sentimental Education' by Gustav Flaubert
- The works of Tom Paine
- 'The Good Soldier Švejk' by Jaroslav Hašek
- 'The Napoleon of Notting Hill' by GK Chesterton
- 'Dubliners' by James Joyce
- 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waugh
- 'The 12 Ceasers' by Suetonius
- 'Confederates in the Attic' by Tony Horowitz
- Ambrose Bierce's short stories (especially 'Parker Addison, Philosopher' and 'The Coup de Grâce')
- The complete Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

[ole]

I tended to read fun books with serious tomes more recent. I'd read a book like I'd read a box of cereal. Serious impact? No. I read because I liked to read -- and read everything I could lay my hands on.

I haven't read a book in years -- this board takes up the time I would otherwise spend in reading books. And it's more fun.

 

[Drew]

I tended to read fun books with serious tomes more recent. I'd read a book like I'd read a box of cereal. Serious impact? No. I read because I liked to read -- and read everything I could lay my hands on.

I haven't read a book in years -- this board takes up the time I would otherwise spend in reading books. And it's more fun.

Oh, come now. You can rattle off a few books that stuck with you. The OP's instructions were not to think about it too much. You've read a few obviously, toss some of them out? Needn't be ten....

 

[randy596]

Landscape Turned Red Sears
Webster's Dictionary
History of Civilization Durant
Abraham Lincoln Sandburg
The Giving Tree Silverstein
GWTW
Journals of Lewis and Clark DeVoto
Trail of Tears Ehle
Manassas to Appomattox Longstreet
Guns of August Tuchman
Swiss Family Robinson

 

[ole]

Oh, come now. You can rattle off a few books that stuck with you. The OP's instructions were not to think about it too much. You've read a few obviously, toss some of them out? Needn't be ten....

Drew. If I remember correctly, the OP asked for the 10 books that most influenced my thinking or something like that.

I have read most all the books others have named and don't recall being particularly impressed with any of them. Bruce Catton whet my whistle, I guess, as did Sandburg, but no more than John LeCarre, John Grisham, Tom Clancy or Joseph Waumbaugh.

Maybe Jack London? Cooper? Hawthorne? Poe? John Michael Priest? John Hennessy? Jack Davis? Krick, Wert, Robertson? Pfanz? Colddington? Detzer? Simpson? Wittenburg? Grimsley? Tuchman?

I am not easily moved to the point of hot dang! That was great.

 

[John Davison]

I'm reading that right now. In one of his books, he was asked by a waitress in Mississippi where he was from. He said he was living in Britain but had been raised in Iowa. She said, "Well, you speak right good English!"

I believe he's living in New Hampshire at present.

 

[Blessmag]

Holy Bible (KJV, NKJV, NASV, NIV, ESV, RSV, TODAY'S ENGLISH, ETC. A translation a year)
Confederates in the Attic
Arthur Haily-Hotel, Runway Zero Eight, etc.
Roots
Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe-C.S. Lewis
Left behind series

As a child/teenager:
H.G. Wells books: War of the Worlds, Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau
Johnny Tremain
Little Men/Little Women
Northwest Passage
Bruce Catton: Trilogy on Civil War
Edgar Allan Poe: Raven

Reading to my children:
Much Bigger than Martin
The Sneeches-Dr. Seuss

 

[John Davison]

Something wrong with James Fenimore Cooper???

ETA: Ah, okay, gotcha.

Wasn't he the guy who hijacked an airplane and bailed out over Washington State with a couple hundred grand in ransom money?

 

[matthew mckeon]

These are books that stuck with me. Not in order.

The Joyous Season by Patrick Dennis. A hilarious novel about divorce among New York aristocrats, told by a cynical 12 year old.
Huckleberry Finn I remember being scared by Huck's nighttime adventure and superstition, and the delight of drifting down the Mississippi.
Heart of Darkness Conrad's work of madness and cruelty. A world ruled by a "pitiless folly." He's got a point.
House of the Baskervilles and any Sherlock Holmes story. "They were the footprints of a gigantic hound."
Macbeth Who had thought the old man had so much blood in him?
Killer Angels Go you Mississippi! Go!
Bruce Catton. I can't tell which one I read first, but they were my introduction to the Civil War.
Farewell to Arms A lot of Hemmingway is ****: but I loved this.
To Kill A Mockingbird "He's a Cunningham."
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Not an Ayn Rand fan, like Heinlein, but I loved this book.
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. I was fascinated by this book since the 6th grade.

 

[John Davison]

It's a hollow soul that cannot appreciate fine art.

 

[John Davison]

I believe he's living in New Hampshire at present.

BTW, Borrowed the audio of Bryson's "A Short History of Just About Everything" for entertainment on our trip to Texas in early August. Couldn't finish it because of frequent interruptions, the Cats, Traffic, idiots behind the wheel. Hard to stay focused on the thread he was weaving.

 

[chellers]

BTW, Borrowed the audio of Bryson's "A Short History of Just About Everything" for entertainment on our trip to Texas in early August. Couldn't finish it because of frequent interruptions, the Cats, Traffic, idiots behind the wheel. Hard to stay focused on the thread he was weaving.

You drove from NY to TX and back with cats aboard???

 

[bsmart]

From when I was youngest to most recent
The Story of Ping
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
Many of the 'Landmark' series I particularly remember Gettysburg by McKinley Kantor.
Les Miserables (8th grade English, I actually enjoyed it)
The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester
Gettysburg Campaign by Coddington - I must have read it right after it was published. It became the standard I began judging Civil War books against.
The Source by James Michener
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner - I had to look this one up for the authors name. I read it the summer before entering college. Somewhat of a downer (especially when combined with Grapes of Wrath which I also read that summer)
The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison Salisbury -Not my first exposure to the Russian Front of WWII but one of my first in depth ones.

I just realized I hit 11 books and I haven't even gotten past 1973! Oh well I'll stick with these 11.

 

[diane]

BTW, Borrowed the audio of Bryson's "A Short History of Just About Everything" for entertainment on our trip to Texas in early August. Couldn't finish it because of frequent interruptions, the Cats, Traffic, idiots behind the wheel. Hard to stay focused on the thread he was weaving.

Cats? First verse!

The Siamese was howling
The tabby was a wreck
The big tomcat sat on my back
With his arms around my neck.

Chorus:
Oh, dogs they love to travel
Their faces to the breeze
A cat just shivers on the floor
And vomits on your knees!

 

[Drew]

Cats? First verse!

The Siamese was howling
The tabby was a wreck
The big tomcat sat on my back
With his arms around my neck.

Chorus:
Oh, dogs they love to travel
Their faces to the breeze
A cat just shivers on the floor
And vomits on your knees!

 

[Nathanb1]

To Kill A Mockingbird "He's a Cunningham."

I'm not sure, but that scene might be why I teach that book over and over and over.

 

[matthew mckeon]

I loved "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel"

Also "Blueberries for Sal" and "Bert Dow, Deep Water Man" which my mother read to me in a real Maine accent.

 

[matthew mckeon]

I read "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" and was fascinated by them as a kid. Rereading them recently, I couldn't get into them at all. Either they, or I, haven't aged well.

 

[LoyaltyOfDogs]

In no particular order:

My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber
Bambi by Felix Salten
Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. by Robert Paul Smith
Les Miserables
Gettysburg: A Journey In Time by William Frassanito
The American Heritage Illustrated History of the Civil War
All the Days and Nights (the collected short stories of William Maxwell)
To Kill A Mockingbird
Compton's Encyclopedia
The Complete Sherlock Holmes