Books...AGAIN!

L

lederr

Cathlete
Okay, so we had the "deep book" thread and the "light, fluffy book" thread. How about compiling a list of books that you love? Maybe list five deep books and five light books (or however many you want). I would love to have a thread that I can bookmark and use when I go to the bookstore (I am also going to look into my local library because I spend way too much money on books!!!)

Just thought it would be a good idea, if anyone's interested.

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I happen to think it is a great idea Lorie and I will post something tomorrow after I have had some time think and check my collection at home so I can bore you all with my favorite books ;-)
 
Great idea Lorie! I love to talk about books. Here's my list.

"Deep Books"
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
Stones From The River - Ursula Hegi
I Loved You All - Paula Sharp
After You'd Gone - Maggie O'Farrell
The Folded Leaf - William Maxwell
A Heart of Stone - Renate Dorrestein

"Light Books"
The Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson
In Her Shoes - Jennifer Weiner
Blood Memory - Greg Iles
Anything by Lee Childs
Anything by James Lee Burke
The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich
 
I will also need to go through all my books before I can list anything. I read so much that I often forget the books I have read.
 
Lorie - first thing first - are you coming skating on 9/23??? We haven't heard from you on the ACF board. :)

Now, on to books. Do you know about paperbackswap.com? It is a website where you can trade all your old books in for ones you want. All it costs is postage to mail out your books to other members who request them. Once they receive the book, you get a "credit" which you can spend to have another member send you a book you want. I've been doing it for about a year now and I LOVE it!!
 
This is a tough one.....

Deep Books:
1. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
2. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
3. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
4. All four books in the 'Rabbit Angstrom' series by John Updike
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Light Books:
1. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (not really 'light' but quirky and easy to read)
2. Family Baggage by Monica Mcinerney
3. Flirting with Forty by Jane Porter
4. The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes
5. The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith
 
Oh, great idea. I'll have to take the time later to make my list for you guys! The 'problem', for me anyway, in listing things as either light or heavy/deep is that the way I SEE a book very often depends on what's going on in my life at the time I'm reading that book. Does that make sense???

ANYWAY...I'll add to the list when I get a chance!

Great idea!

Gayle
 
<Now, on to books. Do you know about paperbackswap.com? It is a website where you can trade all your old books in for ones you want. All it costs is postage to mail out your books to other members who request them.>

Even better, you can support your public library, where your tax dollars are already at work. You don't even have to pay postage and you can likely access materials from far and wide (I can get materials from all over the country thanks to interlibrary loan without cost). Not to pooh pooh this paperback exchange, but I am often frustrated to see people going to virtually every other (less than efficient) source for their information/reading needs except the obvious....the LIBRARY!!!
 
Good stuff:

The Bone People by Keri Hulme
Mrs. Dalloway and The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
English Patient and Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
Everything by Kate Atkinson (try "Behind the Scenes at the Museum)
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
100 years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
The short stories of Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)
The short stories of Julio Cortazar (Argentina)
The Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell Series by Laurie R. King (start with "The Beekeeper's Apprentice")

Good but "Lite":

Anything by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (try "Aint she Sweet")
Anything by Jennifer Cruisie (try "Bet Me" and "Welcome to Temptation")
Anything by Barbara Delinsky
Anything by Anne Rivers Siddons (try "Nora, Nora")

I'm sure I could come up with absolutely loads more, and I'll post again when/if I do,

Clare
 
OK...after some thought here are some books

The "deep" stuff in no particular order

1.) A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo
2.) Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
3.) The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West by Niall Ferguson
4.) Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
5.) Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow

The "lighter" reading....

1.) Tramps Like Us: A Suburban Confession by Kristen Buckley
2.) Women of Valor: The Rochambelles on the WWII Front by Ellen Hampton
3.) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
4.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5.) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
 
I've been thinking about this one. I'm not much into deep books. Life is deep enough. So my light list is very long. Here's a few of my favorites:

Deep, or classic or especially meaningful:
1) The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (about heaven and hell. Loved this book.)
2) East of Eden by Steinbeck
3) all things Emily Dickinson
4) No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre (though it's been YEARS since I read it, I still remember liking it very much)
5) The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (yes, it's a children's book, but it really is more than that.)

Lighter books I could read over and over:
1) No Angel by Penny Vincenzi
2) Something Dangerous by Penny Vincenzi
3) Into Temptation by Penny Vincenzi (These first three are a trilogy that follows a family during World Wars I and II and the 1950s. It's written by a British author and all the books are EXCELLENT!)
4) I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson (Highly recommend this one for new working moms -- it brought such levity to my life!0
5) All things by Jennifer Weiner (her books are such a fun escape!)
6) The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
7) All things by Al Franken (I read tidbits of his books from time to time just for a good laugh)
 
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert


Full of great philosophical quotes - I love this book and new it would be a bestseller before it hit the NY Times Bestseller list!
 
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